Welsh footballing wizards one hundred years apart, but still in demand – on cardboard!
COLLECTING football cards used to be a fairly innocent business. Buy a packet with your pocket money, swap the doubles with friends and hope that somewhere inside was the player you desperately needed to complete your team.
Today, things are rather different.
Football cards are graded, authenticated, numbered, autographed, sealed inside protective cases and traded online around the world. Some are treated almost like investments.
And if you happen to have an old cigarette card of a Welsh footballer tucked away in a forgotten box, it might be worth taking another look.
The inspiration for this particular Ewegottalove journey into the world of collecting came from one of Welsh football’s earliest superstars – Billy Meredith.
HOW MUCH CAN A BILLY MEREDITH FOOTBALL CARD BE WORTH?
Quite a lot, apparently.
An Ogden’s Guinea Gold “Meredith at Work” card featuring the legendary Welsh winger was sold by Griffin’s Auctioneers in April 2023 for a hammer price of an extraordinary £5,600.
The reason?
The card was extremely scarce and described as being in near-mint condition, with no touching-up to its border.
Meredith, born in Chirk in 1874, became one of football’s first genuine stars and famously played for both Manchester City and Manchester United.
More than a century later, apparently he can still command star billing.
WHY ARE SOME OLD FOOTBALL CARDS WORTH SO MUCH?
Age helps – but age alone is certainly not enough.
Collectors look at several factors:
Rarity. How many examples of the card still exist?
Condition. Are the corners sharp? Is the card creased, stained or faded?
Player. A card depicting one of football’s most important players will naturally attract more interest.
Set and manufacturer. Some early cigarette-card and trading-card series are much more desirable than others.
Grading. Professionally graded cards can command considerably higher prices because buyers have an independent assessment of their condition and authenticity.
This explains why two cards featuring exactly the same footballer can be worth completely different amounts.
WHAT DOES PSA 10 MEAN?
Anyone venturing into today’s card market will very quickly encounter terms such as PSA 8, PSA 9 and PSA 10.
PSA – Professional Sports Authenticator – is one of the best-known card-grading companies.
Its scale runs up to 10, with PSA 10 described as “Gem Mint” – essentially a virtually perfect card with extremely sharp corners, strong focus, original gloss and excellent centring.
And seemingly tiny differences can matter.
A card that looks perfect to an untrained eye may receive a lower grade because of a slightly worn corner, minor surface damage or the way the image was originally printed on the card.
Welcome to a world where fractions of a millimetre can potentially mean serious money.
WHAT ABOUT RYAN GIGGS CARDS?
Given his extraordinary Manchester United career, another Welsh wizard, Ryan Giggs, is an obvious name for Welsh collectors.
But being a football legend does not automatically mean every card carrying his picture is worth hundreds or thousands.
A PSA 9 example of a 1992 Geo Bassett Ryan Giggs rookie card sold through Fanatics Collect for $40 (approximately £30) in July 2026.
A 1991 Pro Set Giggs rookie graded PSA 9 did rather better, selling through Fanatics Collect in June 2026 for $79.20 (approx £59) including buyer’s premium.
The lesson is important.
The name on the front matters – but so do the exact card, edition, rarity and condition.
CAN GARETH BALE CARDS BE VALUABLE?
Very much so, particularly when scarcity, autographs and pieces of match-worn memorabilia enter the equation.
A Gareth Bale Topps Dynasty autographed patch card, limited to just five examples, graded PSA 9 and sold in July 2026 for around $828 (approx £612).
Another PSA 10 Bale autographed patch card recorded a sale of $831 (approx £614) in 2024.
Even Bale rookie cards can vary enormously.
A 2007 Merlin Premier League Bale rookie graded PSA 8 sold in 2026 for just under $300 (approx £222), while other Bale cards can change hands for considerably less.
So discovering Gareth Bale in an old collection does not automatically pay for a holiday.
But finding the right Gareth Bale might brighten your afternoon.
WHAT ABOUT IAN RUSH, JOHN CHARLES AND OTHER WELSH GREATS?
The potential Welsh collecting list is enormous.
Ian Rush, John Charles, Neville Southall, Mark Hughes, Craig Bellamy, Gary Speed, Ryan Giggs, Gareth Bale and generations of Wales internationals have appeared on football cards, stickers and other sporting collectibles.
Modern limited-edition cards can create surprising values too.
A rare Topps Ian Rush autographed card numbered to only 10 copies sold on eBay in 2026 for more than £230, while a much more ordinary Rush card from the 1980s might sell for only a few pounds.
That enormous variation is part of what makes the hobby fascinating – and occasionally confusing.
FOUND SOME OLD FOOTBALL CARDS? DON’T CLEAN THEM!
If you discover an old collection in a drawer, loft or box, resist the temptation to make the cards look smarter.
Cleaning, trimming, colouring damaged edges or attempting other restoration can seriously affect collectability and may prevent a card from receiving a recognised grade.
Instead:
Handle them carefully.
Protect promising cards in appropriate sleeves.
Identify the manufacturer, year and card number.
Search for completed or sold prices, rather than simply looking at what optimistic sellers are asking.
And if something appears genuinely scarce, consider obtaining specialist advice before doing anything else.
WHY HAS FOOTBALL CARD COLLECTING CHANGED SO MUCH?
Football cards increasingly belong to the same enormous global collecting culture as Pokémon, basketball, baseball, comics and other pop-culture memorabilia.
Collectors now chase rookie cards, autographs, numbered editions, refractors, patches and one-of-one cards.
YouTube videos and livestream selling have also turned opening packets and boxes into entertainment in its own right.
For some people, collecting is still simply about owning a picture of a favourite player.
For others, it has become a hunt for the next valuable card.
That raises another intriguing question.
When did a hobby designed largely for children become such serious business?
That is a subject Ewegottalove will be returning to very soon as we explore the extraordinary worldwide trading-card boom – from football heroes to Pokémon.
DID EWE KNOW?
That near-mint Billy Meredith card which sold for £5,600 was produced in an age when footballers certainly weren’t earning today’s superstar wages.
More than 100 years later, a small piece of cardboard carrying the Welsh Wizard’s picture can be worth more than many modern autographed football cards.
Perhaps those old cards at the back of the cupboard deserve another look after all.