Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Wetherill Park, NSW.
When did you start your collection and what did you collect in the beginning?
I started collecting in 1979-1980, around 6-7 years of age, Kindergarten. I used to buy the packets from the local corner shop in Mount Druitt. I Started with Rugby League and my favourite cards were South Sydney. .
What were your most memorable experiences with collecting as a child ?
Bubblegum, that was the reason I started collecting them. We used to play flicks against the wall and Snap. There was also a game called knock downs, you would put the cards up against the wall and whoever could flick their card and knock them all down would get the lot.
How did you store your cards as a kid ?
Used a rubber band and stored them in either my shoe box or lunch box.
When did you start to get into other things ?
I think it was in 1986 when I started collecting the Soccer cards, they were the playing card ones and Maradona was the best card in the set.
What are you focusing on collecting these days ?
Soccer is what I am pushing to complete, basically I have all of them except for the Scanlens 1963 cards. The main sets are from 2006 which were all Select, then there was an exclusive set sold by Wangy and now there is Tap and Play do them.
I don't collect everything in Rugby League, only certain cards that have a bit of value in them and South Sydney.
How do you derive value in cards ?
The rarity, the limited edition stuff, the 50s and 40s cards and some of the 100s cards. Certain cards have an appeal factor to collectors as well
What are your top Five collectable cards / card sets over the years in Rugby League ?
The most sought after cards now would be a toss-up between the Centenary Six (2008 Immortal Signature Set) and the Black League Leaders from Select Dynasty 2012.
The Captains Signature Cards from 2004 are very special and the other ones I like are the Captains Signatures from the 2009 Classic set. The fifth one would be the 2006 Invincibles set which included the Legend Die Cut cards out of 175, Top Prospects and the Redemptions such as Laurie Daley, Tim Smith, Andrew Johns limited to 120 per card.
Over the Years how did your collecting change?
It changed in 2000 because Dynamic finished in 1997 and for two years we had nothing to collect except for club release cards, that is if you collected those. I didn't, but when Select 2000 came out, I remember it clearly. I knew a wholesaler AMW Holliers, back then they were in Smithfield and they were selling boxes to newsagents and because I knew him I was buying boxes and from that year onwards I was addicted to collecting all of the Select cards.
I managed to collect every single card in Selects range from 2000 to 2012. Every single card that they brought out I collected. It is very hard to collect them all, to this day there can only be ten Master Set collects and this is due to the 2001 Challenge set had a one in 10 card which redeemed the entire set. So only ten people can only have master sets from Select. Now the signature cards are 1-110 and when my master set was redeemed with the Master Set cards they were not redeemed all the same number, I don't know why, they just came back like that.
What have you been collecting since 2012?
Just South's cards, ESP every series comes out and I just collect the South's cards. Apart from that I concentrate on my Soccer, I will keep buying this sort of stuff.
