For many, supporting Manchester United stretches far beyond the ninety minutes, or whatever, out on the pitch and attending countless fixtures around the country and overseas. There is no close-season for those individuals, their passion covers fifty-two weeks a year, as they are the collectors, searching enthusiastically for that missing programme or whatever type of memorabilia they care to hoard.
Programmes are generally accepted as the main footballing collectable, but there are countless other items out there that can be added to a collection to create your own personal history of your favourite football club. Match tickets, badges, cigarette cards, trade cards, post cards, menus, photographs, newspapers, books, autographs and countless other items are all keenly collected and filed away. Some might not even care to admit at what they have kept over the years.
I personally will admit to having items covering all of the above, and yes, there are odds and ends I won’t mention, for the time being at least.
Over the years my passion for collecting has made me countless friends, many of whom I see at every home game, whilst also seeing me take over the running of the “Manchester United Review Collectors Club” (as it was originally known when formed in 1982) since 1990.
In regards to the above, I produce six, twenty page, bi-monthly newsletters between February and December every year, for which I charge a small subscription which covers the cost of printing, postage etc.
Each twenty page publication contains articles and news on every type of United memorabilia, as mentioned above, from pre-war to the present day. Members and no-members can also advertise in the newsletter.
As well as running the ‘Collectors Club’, I write for a couple of supporter’s magazines and have written around two dozen United related books, but moving into the world of websites is something new and I would just like to thank Wayne (and Dan) for the opportunity to join their team of contributors, allowing me to bring to ‘RetroUnited.com’ an off-shoot of the Manchester United Collectors Club.
On a regular basis, I will take you away from the daily news surrounding the club with articles relating to its history through the memorabilia that is out there relating to highs and lows, the triumphs and tragedy and the players involved along the way.
Hopefully you will find the articles of interest.
IAIN MCCARTNEY.
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