{"id":11065,"date":"2021-06-09T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.valora.com\/?p=11065"},"modified":"2022-02-08T11:13:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T10:13:59","slug":"sammelfieber-von-panini-bis-pokemon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.valora.com\/en\/sammelfieber-von-panini-bis-pokemon\/","title":{"rendered":"Collecting like crazy \u2013 from Panini to Pok\u00e9mon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the most important trends for \u201ccollectibles\u201d like Panini stickers, Pok\u00e9mon cards or Ninjago trading cards. What triggers the craze for them? And why do people splash out tens of thousands of Swiss francs for some cards?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The starting whistle for the UEFA EURO 2020<\/a> will be blown on 11 June, heralding the red-hot phase of Panini sticker sales<\/a>. These footballer stickers have been circulating since March, for example in the Valora formats k kiosk, Press & Books and avec, where children and young people could get two million free packs of two stickers in Switzerland alone. But the past few years have shown that the really serious collecting frenzy usually breaks out shortly before the start of the finals. Or even after. Things can also reach fever pitch very quickly if the national team does well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next collectibles craze? Difficult to predict<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany collecting trends start around the merchandising of films, series or games,\u201d explains Christoph Herrnberger, Team Head Category Management Press at Valora Retail Germany. But it\u2019s still difficult to predict the next collectibles craze. Michel Vaucher says it often comes out of nowhere: \u201cAs we keep a very close eye on the market, we have a good overview and a lot of experience. Social media is also a fascinating indicator of what may be successful or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success or failure of a collectibles campaign depends on various factors, such as the time of year, as Pok\u00e9mon shows. Card sales always jump sharply when school starts or during the shorter school holidays, but drop during the long summer vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Supply and demand for Panini and Pok\u00e9mon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collecting trends are also driven by supply and demand. Is a Lewandowski worth as much as a Shaqiri? Or a Sommer as much as a Neuer? Personal preferences play a role here. As do skills and market values. And the availability of the cards: the scarcer, the more valuable. This is even truer for the Pok\u00e9mon trading cards than for the Panini stickers: Pok\u00e9mon fans are fanatics and will travel dozens of kilometres to buy out-of-print cards. Their holy grail is the Pikachu Illustrator card, of which there is supposed to be only 39 in the world. This is reflected in the price: one went at an auction for almost USD 55,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other collectibles campaigns earn points with a regional flavour, such as \u201cHamburg collects Hamburg\u201d, which had stickers of people and things closely connected to the Hanseatic city. Its surprising success inspired campaigns for other regions. But regionality is no guarantee of success: \u201cFor the Federal Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival in 2019, stickers were sold of the best wrestlers,\u201d remembers Michel Vaucher. \u201cThis campaign didn’t meet our expectations, probably because most event goers didn\u2019t fall into the classic collectibles target group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why are we still collecting Panini stickers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This target group is primarily children and young people, in particular sports-mad boys. Among adults, it\u2019s almost exclusively men who like to hunt for and collect stickers and cards for popular sports such as football, basketball and Formula 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whether we\u2019re young or old, why do we still collect supposedly old-fashioned stickers and cards, and then paste them into albums or display them? Dieter Frey, Professor for Social Psychology at the University of Munich writes in an article in \u2018Zeit\u2019: \u201cBy collecting and displaying the most diverse things, people give themselves a point of reference and live out not only their passions but also their vanity and thirst for power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though collecting can be seen as a lonely hobby, it has an enormous social component. The swapping that takes place on playgrounds shows that those who collect are part of the \u2018in\u2019 crowd. Those who don’t are excluded. Frey: \u201cYour best friends and acquaintances collect, so you also take part and become accepted by the community of collectors.\u201d For example, the annual exchange of Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in Dortmund is attended by some 500,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia and childhood memories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Verena H\u00fcttl-Maack, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Hohenheim gives more reasons for collecting in an article in \u2018Nordwestzeitung\u2019: \u201cNostalgia and memories of one’s own childhood can also play a role. A second factor is the \u201cIkea effect\u201d: people feel a table is more valuable if they put together it themselves rather than get one already assembled. Personal input makes an item more valuable.\u201d She also identifies the play instinct and curiosity as important reasons: \u201cIt has been proven that satisfying your curiosity generates positive emotions, even if the final result is less than great. You experience a kind of rewarding effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n