Argentine plazas buzz with World Cup sticker trading fever
Panini launched its largest World Cup sticker collection ever as families and collectors trade in plazas and online to finish albums.
- On Sunday, thousands gathered in Buenos Aires plazas to trade soccer stickers, turning public spaces into hubs for completing the official FIFA World Cup stickerbook.
- Panini launched its largest sticker collection ever, coinciding with the increase in participating countries from 32 to 48, fueling the trading craze across Argentina and South America.
- Each pack costs around $1.50, while collectors can purchase boxes of up to 104 packs for $180; software developer Inglesi spends about $20 weekly to help 9-year-old Lucas complete his album.
- Juan Valora, collecting with his girlfriend, said face-to-face trading provides "human touch" missing from virtual platforms, while fans hunt for "rare" stickers of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Kylian Mbapp.
- Fanatics will take over as FIFA's exclusive sticker partner after the 2030 tournament, ending Panini's half-century tradition of sticker collecting and marking a significant shift in World Cup merchandise.
11 Articles
11 Articles
There is a queue outside the kiosk. It’s eight o’clock in the morning and there are three guys waiting. They don’t line up to buy a soda or take out a photocopy. They wait for figurines. Every four years the same happens: the world goes crazy with a five-inch cardboard rectangle. And in that collective passion—which has already started with the 2026 World Cup album—there is more economy than it seems. Supply and demand have a face for Messi On t…
Resistencia and Buenos Aires loved the same: groups of adults and children with lists of numbers in hand, moving as stock exchange operators in the middle of a square. They are not looking for currency, they are looking for Messi. A few months from the 2026 World Cup, the market of figurines in Argentina has mutated in a parallel economy where the logic of "price suggested" by Panini is only a distant memory. In the neighborhood kiosks, the post…
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