"Am I too old to collect Panini World Cup stickers?" It's a question that middle-aged men have been asking themselves since news broke this week of the imminent release of the new album later this month.
The correct answer is of course yes. I'm a dad with two children under five, all my money goes on soft play centres and Clarks shoes.
But every four years, my good, parentally responsible intentions crumble when the new Panini albums land in the shops. These days, the albums are given away so it's easier than ever to get addicted.
Before the advent of ubiquitous football coverage, the Panini stickers provided a rare glimpse of players from all corners of the world that you never knew existed. The haircuts - and the kits of course - were endlessly fascinating as you added the stickers diligently to your treasured album. They had a kind of glamour that the standard domestic albums couldn't match.
Most Panini collectors have a 'landmark' album which they'll go misty-eyed talking about. For me, it was Mexico 86, linked forever with England's exit at the hands of a Maradona-inspired Argentina. "Got, not got, not got" would be heard in playgrounds across the land as children traded their swaps. The bigger the bundle, the greater the bargaining power. You'd hear tales of people buying entire boxes from the cash and carry which seemed like the most extravagant thing you could imagine.
In teenage years, the appeal of collecting stickers dropped off the radar with other distractions like computer games, trainers and music. But a few years later, that spark would be reignited by a chance conversation in the office or the discovery of a half-completed album in an attic. You'd buy a few packets "for a laugh" to see which players you get, hoping for a shiny national badge - usually Spain or Argentina which looked particularly good with a foil finish. Then before you know it you're buying 10 packs at a time, joking with the shop assistant that they're "for the kids" which is a line which has never fooled anybody.
Not that sticker albums should even generate such a buzz in these days of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. But today's market is being driven by nostalgia and that's why most of today's collectors of almost everything seem to be middle-aged dads. They collect football stickers, queue overnight for trainers and obsess about vinyl.
My own abstinence from collecting Panini stickers held firm for a long while as real life got in the way but in 2014 I got hooked again. A couple of work-mates were bitten by the bug and I completed my album in record time - thanks largely to swapping with other collectors via Twitter. I vowed it would be the last time I'd get sucked in by the hype but last year something made me doubt the strength of my convictions. My four-year-old son was given a Panini sticker album for the movie Cars 3 and even though he got bored with it after about four packets, I felt it was my duty to complete the album. I watched on in horror as my son - THE AMATEUR - clumsily placed stickers outside the frame or put them in the book at a jaunty angle. It made my teeth itch. I even sent off for the final few elusive stickers.
The thrill of opening the packets and their unique smell, the sight of curled-up sticker backs piled up on the table... It was frankly intoxicating. Memories of running to the newsagents as a kid hoping that a new box had arrived came flooding back. I predict that people will die of nostalgia, such is its all-powerful grip.
So when I read that the 2018 album was coming on March 22, my Spidey senses tingled. I tweeted a few people to see if they'd be collecting this time, "you know, for a laugh." Sadly, the responses were nearly all negative. One-time obsessive collectors, now struggling with the costs of everyday life, were all too aware that the cost of collecting an estimated 690 stickers was now, frankly astonishing. Accepting that they may be right, I convinced myself not to fall under the Panini spell. But when my wife commented: "You'll be collecting them for the boys won't you?" something clicked. "Yes love, for the boys."
