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In general you find a few different types of collectors within the football programme world. There is the potential collector who has a passing interest in starting a programme collection, there is the latent collector who collects programmes occasionally, there is the casual collector who may collect old or new football programmes without having a specific theme to their collection, and also there is the confirmed collector who has distinct aims and regularly tries to acquire programmes in order to enhance his or her collection.

There is no maximum or minimum size to a programme collection, with the only limitations to it come in the form of your available finance. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly sort after programmes, just simply something that brings enjoyment or a sense of satisfaction to the collector. Programme collectors come from all walks of life.

In the early stages of a collection, a collector may try to buy everything they can find to their collection as quickly as possible in order to give it some bulk. However, with this comes a loss of focus, and later when restraints may mean a particular theme will have to be chosen and explored in order to enhance a collection.

There truly are an unlimited number of themes and sub-themes of programmes that can be collected. However, there are a number of traditional ways to build a collection. For example, for example all those programmes involving a particular team, all those concerned with a particular competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to experience the joys and pitfalls of buying a sought after football programme, or the frustration of not being able to find a source for one that is vital to your collection.

Those collectors who are more causal in their approach to the collecting of football programmes will usually own a small number of important programmes for major finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally follow, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other big cup ties. These can basically be classified as a Big Match programme.

If you have a strong affiliation to a particular soccer club your mission in programme collecting may be to simply buy all issues for your favourite team. In addition to the regular league matches and cup-ties, you may also be tempted to collect programmes from friendlies, foreign tours, reserve teams, and youth teams.

One way of increasing the depth and scope of your collection is by choosing an earlier date from which to collect. You might, for example, decide to collect back to 1980, 1970, 1960, etc.

A collector who is fairly neutral in their affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will tend to widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you may find football programmes from a number of teams at varying levels (including non-league). For the more adventurous type of collector, football programmes may have been bought from other countries.

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