Team Canada World Cup success helping fuel soccer collectibles boom in Calgary
CBC
Demand for Panini World Cup 2022 stickers in Calgary is soaring ahead of Canada's opening game against Belgium in Qatar on Wednesday.
The packs of collectible paper stickers are a World Cup tradition in many countries around the world and Canada is catching on to the phenomenon.
The stickers feature every player and club in the tournament and have been flying off the shelves of sports and games stores across the city as kids and adults join the quest to complete this year's album.
There are 670 stickers to collect, not counting duplicate stickers, which can cost up to $1200 to achieve, with prices rising every World Cup.
Not many manage to finish an album.
Parents who collected them as kids are now carrying on the tradition in Canada with their own kids, alongside others discovering the stickers for the first time.
Jacky Chan, who lives in southwest Calgary, grew up in Hong Kong and remembers the craze at school.
"I still have fond memories of kids taking a pile of stickers to school wrapped up in elastic bands, trading them before and after school and in the playground," said Chan.
"In the eighties there wasn't a lot of TV coverage and at the time it was a great way for kids to learn about teams and players."
Now, Chan sits with his own kids carefully tearing into new packs of cards and hoping to fill the gaps in the family's increasingly busy Panini sticker album.
"I wanted to introduce it to my kids. I wanted them to feel the enthusiasm and excitement about the World Cup, the build up and for them to be part of it," he said.
Chan says interest in Team Canada's success is driving much of the interest in Panini stickers this time around, along with a growing soccer culture in Canada.
All the new interest has seen many stores sell out of the stickers leaving parents scrambling to find them around the city.
"A lot of stores are out of stickers and I think it's a great sign. It shows soccer is gaining popularity and more people are talking about it. It's a great problem to have," said Chan.
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