My Successes - England Rugby

[malskelton]

This is my thread for my England Rugby successes - a collection very much in it's infancy at this stage. The cards are homemade and each request is sent with a Blue Sharpie in the hope that they will use it and I end up with a collection that looks the same - almost like an official set would look .... that said I often get replies where they have ignored the Blue Sharpie and signed it with whatever is close at hand .. grrr

I'll update this with whatever successes I receive, but for now here's the ones I own

Mal Skelton

Rob Andrew ( c/o The RFU )

Neil Back ( c/o Leeds Rugby )

Bill Beamount ( c/o the RFU )

Rory Underwood ( c/o Wingman )

Mark Van Gisbergen ( c/o no idea - can't remember )

As you can see the Van Gisbergen and Back replies are on different paper and that winds me up no end, I didn't realise when I sent them and it's only when I scanned them on return that I noticed .... they will be re-sent at some point in the future 🙂

Posting out more requests this week

Mal Skelton

[westiesx2]

Great replies Mal. The cards look great and I hope we see more of them in the future. Keep up the good work. Great collection, I have a couple of those myself.

[sylouisetruebluechelsea]

Great collection the cards will look really good as a set when finished (well never ends in this game) look forward to seeing more of your results:)

[malskelton]

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@westiesx2 wrote:

Great replies Mal. The cards look great and I hope we see more of them in the future. Keep up the good work. Great collection, I have a couple of those myself.

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Thank you - I saw your request from Gareth Chilcott a couple of pages down and that's what confirmed this was the right board to join.

Do you contact the older players via their previous clubs ?

I want to chase the 2003 RWC winners first off as that for me is the pinnacle of England's recent rugby history

Mal Skelton

[malskelton]

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@sylouisetruebluechelsea wrote:
Great collection the cards will look really good as a set when finished (well never ends in this game) look forward to seeing more of your results:)

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You are very right about the set never ending - the Autumn internationals meant three new caps to make and send ... I have such a sending backlog that I'll never get through it without shares in Royal Mail

I send each with a Large stamp on both the sending and the SSAE + the cost of the pen, costs me a fortune this hobby

Mal Skelton

[sylouisetruebluechelsea]

Mal you are right about the cost I have not sent anything out in ages really since my daughter(the last one no more) was born she will be 4 on the 22nd this month.But still collect when i go to bootsales and if something catches my liking on ebay.
I mainly collect Chelsea Glasgow Rangers Scotland I have around 3000 autographs ,My main collecting area is football programmes which i probably have about the same 3000 i do tend to get certain programmes autographed and have many autographed programmes .
My Chelsea programme collection is near complete 38 seasons home and away from 1954/55 too pre premiership I require 6 aways to complete .Just started collecting every first division game from 1966/67
home and away need a 1000 programmes to complete it got nearly 200 already so doing all right but this hobby is expensive as well just recently paid £80 for 2 programmes .
I am hoping too compile a book on Chelsea 1954 too 1992 with all programmes pictured as a programme guide to other collectors early stages yet.
Anyway may dig out some of my bootsale finds and put them up as i was absent from the forum for about a year so do have some that have not been seen yet.

[ra1anne]

fantastic collection Mal those cards look awesome and i hope we get to see many more

i myself im a manchester united fan and i collect anything united related but my main collection are the united club cards, i currently have ( i think) 285 of these signed cards in my collection

[malskelton]

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@sylouisetruebluechelsea wrote:
Mal you are right about the cost I have not sent anything out in ages really since my daughter(the last one no more) was born she will be 4 on the 22nd this month.But still collect when i go to bootsales and if something catches my liking on ebay.
I mainly collect Chelsea Glasgow Rangers Scotland I have around 3000 autographs ,My main collecting area is football programmes which i probably have about the same 3000 i do tend to get certain programmes autographed and have many autographed programmes .
My Chelsea programme collection is near complete 38 seasons home and away from 1954/55 too pre premiership I require 6 aways to complete .Just started collecting every first division game from 1966/67
home and away need a 1000 programmes to complete it got nearly 200 already so doing all right but this hobby is expensive as well just recently paid £80 for 2 programmes .
I am hoping too compile a book on Chelsea 1954 too 1992 with all programmes pictured as a programme guide to other collectors early stages yet.
Anyway may dig out some of my bootsale finds and put them up as i was absent from the forum for about a year so do have some that have not been seen yet.

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I can justify the cost of each autograph to myself because it's only approx £3.50 for something unique and personal - but what I can't justify is when I want to send 5 or 6 and the cost adds up ( plus I can't guarantee that more than 75% will come back ). I pick and choose those that I think I have a good chance of a return as I can't afford to take a gamble anymore

I pick up programmes from any games I go to, but how do you store and display such a collection ? One of my biggest issues is storing my cards

A lad who used to go to my school and lived in the next street won a Champions League medal with Chelsea - Ross Turnbull - he used to join in our football games on the school field but we never dreamt he would be a multiple medal winner with Chelsea ... last I heard he was playing for Barnsley. I remember always watching their games and seeing him sat next to Torres on the bench thinking how lucky he was 🙂

Mal Skelton

[malskelton]

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@ra1anne wrote:

fantastic collection Mal those cards look awesome and i hope we get to see many more

i myself im a manchester united fan and i collect anything united related but my main collection are the united club cards, i currently have ( i think) 285 of these signed cards in my collection

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When I was chasing England autos from Man Utd I was often sent those signed cards - I remember getting Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Neville etc but strangely I also ended up with a Van Nistelrooy

Unfortunately I gave them all to my nephew who is a Man Utd fan, it was a better fate than me using them on my dartboard 😉

Mal Skelton

[film4watcher]

Your cards look superb, Mal.

I look forward to seeing more of your collections as you seem to take a lot of care and attention in getting things just right.

[malskelton]

Thank you - the problem with care and attention is that I'm never happy with the which is frustrating ... I've got 5 successes here and I want to replace two of them 🙂

These are the second version of my rugby cards - originally it was just the crest and I got loads signed, then just decided I was bored with the design ... Short attention span

Mal Skelton

[westiesx2]

Hi Mal

Yes, contact mainly via there present club or previous if retired. If I come across any addresses I will let you know.

Regards

Stuart

[sylouisetruebluechelsea]

I store my programmes in ring binders just about too change them from just any old folder too blue for home and yellow for away as i have to photograph them all for the book idea i have.
My autographs are stored in a similar fashion in ring binders .

[loobyloo6]

But it's still cheaper than buying them and filling some's pocket on good old E-bay.

Cracking collection Mal.

[serenamorgan]

great looking cards Mal and nice collection

[obree]

Fantastic cards Mal I hope we see many more .

[malskelton]

Been a good TTM post day - as well as the Geoff Hurst success for my England football collection the post lady brought me a new England Rugby success

Collection #6 Thomas Waldrom

[obree]

Well done Mal a cracking addition to your rugby collection .