The Search for Football Champions

Part of the fun is trying to find the cards to complete your collection. Ultimately, this is the utmost goal of any collector. While many collector's are able to find what they want, with Football Champions, it's nearly impossible for the American collector. So where does a person go?

Ebay:

Let me get this out of the way first, American Ebay is useless. Unless you want some T-shirts of Alabama, Florida, or people who love Brett Favre, you aren't finding shit. Although, there was one auction two years ago (2008) in which a guy from Washington (the state) put up a huge lot of Football Champions cards. The bidding ended around $100. Three people outbid each other. At the time of bidding, nobody knew who the others were. An hour later, I found out that the two others were from the same chats I had mentioned prior (sorry Alex and Chris). Just a quick note, if you do try this method, change your search method to "Worldwide".

The United Kingdom's Ebay is somewhat similar. While you will have to sift through plenty of Champions League items and Liverpool 2005 kits, at least your search will provide some return. Starter Sets, Booster Boxes, and Complete Sets all from the 2001-2002 set can be found. Starter Sets are the easiest to be found and usually start around £.99. Booster Boxes which can be found from time to time (read: once every two weeks) and are priced around £4.99. Complete sets are the rarest of them all and have been priced around £24.99. I have never come across the 2002-2003 Subbuteo set. I'm still waiting on that. The rarest of all cards are the English promotional cards from the 2001-2002 set. I've only seen two (Kinsella, Ole Gunnar).

France's Ebay is outright garbage. It's hard to navigate and nothing like the normal Ebay (US, UK, Italy). I haven't seen one auction for Football Champions since early 2009. That lot also went for around $90 to my friend Alex. If you are looking for Football Champions, don't bother with this version of Ebay.

And finally, Ebay Italia. The best place (and most expensive) to find Football Champions...at least for Ebay(s). Starter sets of all years can be found between 3-15 Euros. Boxes range anywhere from 20-45 Euro. Promotional cards (all years) can be found here (8-15 euros). Single packs also are starting to pop up as of this blog entry, but if you don't live in Italy or Europe, you aren't going to be able to buy them. By far the best part about this Ebay is this card:

Favorite player. One of the rarest cards ever made. I would love to aquire this somehow. BUT, I will not pay 109 Euros, sorry La-Fummetteria-It. If you somehow stumble on this blog, I'd gladly trade you some 2001-2002 promos in exchange for the Del Piero.