How much are my old

 Wrexham programmes worth?

By Ieaun the Dragon

My Mum's been going on about me taking my football programmes for ages. I left them up in her attic a few years ago when I moved out, along with my record collection. So here I am surrounded by The Smiths, The Cult and Kim Wilde along with pictures of Les Cartwright, Jim Steel and Dixie McNeil before he grew front teeth and Lee Jones looking even younger than he does now. Among the programmes are copies of The Sheeping Giant fanzine. I found a couple of articles written by myself which inspired me to put pen to paper once again. As if I haven't got enough to do sorting this lot out with the help of two cats who are in their element treading on paper… 

Ten minutes into sorting these things out, I wish I hadn't started. The dates are a pain to sort out because of the seasons being from August to May. Programmes from October 1992 go with the January 1993 ones while the September 1993 ones don't. At least there is some sort of different pattern on the front of them each year but sometimes it's subtle and the away programmes are a nightmare to match in. 

My early thoughts, What would be the total value simply at face value? Are these worth anything now? (I doubt it) Perhaps they are worth something to the away team fans for their collections? Maybe I shouldn't have shoved them rolled up in my back pocket. The 1992-3 pile is getting quite high quickly including a lot of away games.
An hour later, they are in some kind of yearly order. I'm sure you don't need a history of Wrexham FC but this little task has brought back so many memories both happy and sad. There's a few pre-1977 programmes but I can't remember any of those games or much about the 1977-8 season when I had my first season ticket, aged seven. I do, however, recognise the faces and some of the big games and results, my favourite being Wrexham 7 Rotherham 1 when we needed two points to get into the old Division 2 - and did it in style. Graham Whittle scored a hat-trick. Then there is the great Bobby Shinton who was my hero as a kid. What a team! There's the Newcastle programme here after drawing 2-2 away. We beat them 4-1 in the FA Cup 4th round replay before beating Blyth Spartans (I think that's where the oggy oggy oggy chant originally came from, despite it sounding Welsh); then we got knocked out by Arsenal, 3-2 at home. This must have been before the curse of beating the good teams and getting knocked out by the bad ones kicked in.

It's 1978-9 now and promotion seems to have thrown us up against some much bigger names in the equivalent of what is now Division 1. I remember the huge contingents of away fans, especially against Stoke and Sunderland, and remember being scared surrounded by so many of them walking through Wrexham town centre. The attendances are listed in the back of the programmes - as high as 20,211 against Stoke. Spurs knocked us out of the FA Cup after a 3-3 draw away, and we lose 3-2 at home. Rijeka knocked us out of Europe. 

There's so much information here it's hard to take in but if you have a box of programmes and a quiet night in then I recommend creating your own trip down Memory Lane. There are players you had forgotten, teams you had forgotten and both players and teams you'd love to forget, along with results that make you do a double take. There are bad hair styles galore and you don't have to go back as far as the 1970s for that. Remember Mike Lake and Graham 'Get Your Hair Cut' Cooper? 

In my own collection there are seasons where I only have about 10 programmes, like, for example, 1984-5. I think I still went but was too depressed to buy a programme and seasons when I've got 44 (1992-3). The collection dies down after 1997 when I moved away and struggled to get to so many games. A lot of the years are in chronological order but I can't face trying to sort the others out beyond their yearly piles. My brain has been overloaded with information but I have managed to find some answers to my first thoughts. 

For someone who has never paid any attention to collecting programmes, I seem to have a total of over 550 programmes over 25 years. Their face value is roughly £400, but the older ones at 15p x 33 doesn't add up to much. There are a few against European teams (Zurich, Porto, Roma) and big Premiership clubs (like Liverpool or Manchester United), about 12 international games (mainly Wales and a mixture of games that Wrexham didn't play in). 

The oldest ones are enough to make you think you have got something worth a fortune, but sadly that is a far cry from the truth. The two delicate little pink things date back to 1957 and 1959, John Love is the manager and Stanley Matthews is advertising his boots on the back cover. Between writing this article and typing it up I have had a look on the Internet, and to be honest lads, our beloved Wrexham programmes aren't worth a great deal at all. It seems anything after about 1986 is worth about the face value and anything between about 1970 and 1986 is worth about twice the face value. Even those extremely old ones look like they aren't worth much more than about a fiver. I think football programs have to date back pre- war to really be worth much. So it's time to shove them up my own loft till Wrexham become a top Premiership side, and then, out of 50,000 new supporters, there will surely be a few who might like to pay us old programme collectors a fortune for a glimpse into the past.

You never know. I have got a Freight Rover programme (Wrexham v Wigan) when only 766 people were at the game. There can't be many of those knocking about, but the truth of the matter is that if you were banking on your Wrexham programmes to pay off your mortgage where your endowment policy is going to fail, it's best to think again.