The History Of Match Attax Football Trading Cards
Nearly named ‘Match Attack’ until the last moment these new cards were an instant success with UK collectors. In 2007 Topps wrestled the UK premier league rights for trading cards and stickers from Magic Box international who had been producing ‘Shoot out’ trading cards for the premier league. Topps signed a three year exclusivity deal with the Premier league for an undisclosed amount. A further three year extension deal was agreed in 2010 between topps and the FA.
A growing craze, in the first two seasons the brand scooped sales of an estimated 32.2 Million pounds. In 2009 WH Smith reported that sales had increased by over 70% since the initial launch of the product. Match Attax is now the leading product for ‘Topps’ worldwide and they have been quick to launch similar products in other areas or countries. The German Bundesliga Has it’s own Match Attax series and other sports such as ice hockey and wrestling now have an ‘Attax’ branded trading card.
The 2010 World cup two more massively popular ‘Match Attax’ series were produced, one for the UK market ‘Match Attax England’ and one for the rest of the world called ‘Match Attax World Stars’.
Tesco played a big part in the promotion of the ‘Match Attax England’ series. Tesco even had their own exclusive subset produced ‘Match Attax England Legends’ containing all the England World cup heros from the past.
Five years on and Match Attax Cards are still a school yard craze (although you will find them banned in my school playgrounds). The success of the brand is not just down to the ever popularity of Premier league football. Besides the addictive nature of assembling any collection there is also a really simple yet engaging two player game that can be played in minutes and almost anywhere. Kids can be quietened for hours with just a few 50p packs of the latest cards.
The internet has also played a massive part in the life of ‘Match Attax’. Over time Topps have developed a really engaging website to compliment the brand, recently introducing ‘Match Attax Live’ where fans can play the game online with other collectors.
Other web sites have popped up around the brand two. There are several ever popular forums which bustle with news of the latest rumours and info as well as the now famous footycards.com. Footycards can sell you any card or cards you need to finish off your collection eliminating the biggest problem with any trading card collection, swaps. Due to the fact you open a random selection of cards in any packet then towards the end of assembling any collection finding the exact cards you need can be an expensive and frustrating job. Footycards.com, who have been producing this service from the very start of ‘Match Attax’ has helped thousands of collectors to ‘Finish their book’ simply and easily.