BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Transactions are made at dozens of established meeting spots here: 122nd Street at 15th; the plaza in Pablo VI; 97th Street at 11th. They are made outside universities, office buildings and supermarkets, by young people, old people, men and women, all in search of stickers. Yes, stickers.
As Colombia heads to the World Cup for the first time in 16 years, World Cup sticker-book fever has hit the country hard, with more than a million albums circulating and many more in demand. The 72-page, 639-sticker album is neither easy nor cheap to fill. But around the country, people are lining up by the hundreds to trade stickers with strangers. Smartphone apps are available to help traders track what they are missing, and even pirated albums have entered the market.
“I’ve seen people of absolutely every age and social class filling the album,” said Mariano López, 62, standing next to his wife, Estella Gómez, 57. The pair had traveled from the opposite side of the city to take part. “We’ve been out here every weekend.”
A trader in Bogotá, Colombia, perused World Cup stickers from the Panini Group, an Italian company whose popular album and stickers first appeared in 1970. Credit Paul Smith for The New York Times
The Panini Group, a family-run operation based in Modena, Italy, that produces collectibles and comics, is well known for its popular World Cup album, sold worldwide, featuring adhesive stickers for participating teams and their players, tournament stadiums and FIFA emblems. The album first hit the market in 1970, for the ninth World Cup, the first to be televised, in Mexico. It officially arrived in Colombia in 1982.
A Panini factory in Brazil handles supply for most of Latin America, printing nine million sticker packs a day.
Carla Ruosi, a Panini Group export manager, said the album had always been well known in the region, “but in certain countries, qualifying can increase the perception and enthusiasm.”
This year, Continente S.A., the company responsible for distribution in Colombia, authorized more than 25,000 sales points, from commercial locations to roving street vendors.
The company estimated that 1.4 million Colombians had albums, each costing $2.
A box of 500 stickers costs $60, and each envelope of five stickers costs 60 cents. On the street, stickers for popular players like Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and Radamel Falcao were going for up to $2.50 a sticker, fueling a myth that some stickers were harder to find than others — a claim Panini denied.
Four stickers were all Juan Novoa needed: the Australian midfielder Mark Bresciano, the Ecuadorean defender Gabriel Achilier, the Bosnian goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and the Argentine team sticker.
“The fewer you need, the harder it gets,” Novoa, a 36-year-old entrepreneur, said recently as he walked briskly toward a parking lot, a popular trading spot. There, next to vendors selling snacks and World Cup paraphernalia, hundreds of people stood shoulder to shoulder, in pairs or in small groups, making trades.
By JESSICA WEISSMAY 17, 2014
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