Huge Football Collection Found in Self Storage Unit | MSM

Posted by Admin on Aug 4, 2023, 12:00:00 AM

The self storage unit was packed from floor to ceiling with boxes. What was in those boxes has now been described as “mind-blowing.”

The boxes belonged to lifelong football fan Edward Spink, who had amassed an amazing collection of football memorabilia throughout his lifetime. The boxes contained thousands of football programs, ticket stubs for matches played as long as half a century ago, more than 2,000 pin badges, scarves, shirts and books. Perhaps most importantly, there are over 10,000 player autographs, from Pele to George Best.

football memorabilia
Wood and Duggleby with the football collection.

“Edward Spink was an 11-year-old schoolboy when he went to his first football match at Elland Road in the 1960s,” said Auctioneer Will Duggleby, who is putting the collection under the hammer as part of an online auction which ends on Sunday. “It triggered a passion that lasted his entire life.

“[Spink] never married, spent his entire career with the NatWest (a London banking company), followed Leeds United home and away for decades – but collected the autograph of just about anybody who kicked a football.”

Spink’s relatives moved the boxes from his home in Thorp Arch to the storage facility after his death earlier this year. They said there was barely enough room to move about in the packed cottage.

Lee Wood, a Middlesbrough supporter who has been part of the Duggleby team cataloging the collection, said: “The oldest of the thousands of programs is for a Leeds vs. Wolves reserve team fixture that took place in October 1923. Doesn’t sound very exciting but it could be the only surviving example of the program.

“The autograph collection is simply mind-blowing,” continues Wood. “It includes just about everyone who has worn a Leeds United shirt in the past forty or fifty years – and some who played for the club even before that. It contains no fewer than a dozen John Charles autographs.”

The catalogue is available on auction website Duggleby Stephenson of York. Viewing is at the York Auction Centre, Murton, England, today from 10am to 4:30pm.