Panini World Cup Sticker Book

 Back in 2014, while Eric was deployed to San Antonio, he purchased Panini World Cup Sticker books for the boys.  He was proud of himself and told me they were just $1, and then the kids could collect stickers (at 5/$1).  What a great and cheap souvenir for our little soccer fans.  Also educational as they kids would learn about the teams in the international event. 

However, when you actually start to do some calculations...there are 681 openings to be filled.  That alone will set you back $681/5 ($137) iff (translate that as if and only if) you manage to get 5 unique stickers with each pack.  As in no repeats.  Guess what event is nearly impossible?  That's right...5 unique stickers each and every time you shell out $1.  And as you pass the halfway mark...you are lucky to get 2 unique stickers in each pack.  Now, the beautiful thing about these books is that you are suppose to trade your repeats with all of your friends.  Well, guess just how popular a World Cup Sticker Book is in the 1st World Nation of The United States of America (let alone Football (American Football..not Association Football) obsessed northwest Florida).  Let's just say, we never came close to completing the 2014 books...let alone 2 of them.  And Dom got just about every relative to buy him a pack or two.

Fast forward to 2018.  I have declared it the year of NO PANINI WORLD CUP STICKER BOOKS.  We are moving during the World Cup.  We don't really know anyone to trade with (see earlier paragraph).  I do the math many times with Dom.  We are all on board.  Then I send Eric alone to Walmart with Dom and Will.  Guess what they come home with?  I glare at my husband.  I tell him this is his thing.  I again declare I will not buy any stickers.  No way, no how.  His only defense is that Dom found the book all by himself, how was he suppose to deny his eldest sports loving son?

Fine...but, we are going to go about this the smart way.  The smart way (begging the question a bit here...) is to buy a pack from Amazon of 250 stickers at 40 - 45 dollars.  Saving you about 5 - 10 dollars.  I do this thing.  I may even make Dom give me some of the money, my memories are foggy.  We dole out the packs in onesies and twosies for various task completions.  He was doing great at school! (Side note: I hid the box of stickers.  He found it.  He let me know he found it. But, he never once snuck a pack...he is a pretty good kid)

He gets several repeats.  What are we going to do with all of these repeats?  It occurs to me to check the Facebook to see if there is a trading group.  And it turns out there is one!  I go over the pros and cons of using this group to trade.  Mainly, it is a little scary to give out your address to complete strangers...however, I rationalize that we are moving soon so it isn't like they would have our new address. 

 I post our first message.  I plead that my sweet son has a few to trade, but loads he needs...so be generous.

 And people start messaging me.  I learn quickly that you need a solid hour after posting a message to keep up with requests. (ahem...probably shouldn't have posted the morning we left for our Destin beach vacation...) Also, Dom has to be super organize to know what he has to trade and what he needs.

 Initially, we narrow our 'needs' to completing Germany and...someone else.  I can't remember who.  We agree to a trade.  The guy kindly throws in a couple extra.  I send our address, he sends his...we swap confirmation pics of the stickers.  Then we mail off our stickers. 

Amazingly, this system worked!  The people we traded with all were very friendly and most had been trading since they were kids.  Or were helping kids in their lives.  Only one trade got lost in the mail out of at perhaps 20 total trades.  Ironically, that particular trade sent a video of putting our addressed envelope in the mail...go figure.

Once I realized we could trade, I went ahead and purchased a second box of stickers (We are now up to about $100 total investment between stickers and postage).  I didn't dole these out, I told him to get through these as quickly as possible so we could start trading again.  Now we have a system!...then we moved...

 However, despite my initial trepidations about giving out our address, I realized all of these people on the page are just looking to complete there books.  Not hunt us down and kill us in our beds.  Thank goodness.  Bonus to moving, our landlord knew we were collecting and left us another box!  If you are doing the math, we now have more than enough to trade to complete the book!  Now, it is our turn to be generous.

 Also, it becomes a full kid activity.  There is opening, sorting, placing, documenting...it was a lot of work.

We made several more trades and were down to the last 32...at which point you can order them online through the Panini Website at 20 cents apiece.  Unfortunately, we ordered them about a week before the championship and since they came on a slow ship from Italy...we didn't actually complete the book until a week or so after the championship.  But, complete it we did!  It was a team effort for sure.

In the end, I honestly enjoyed helping Dom complete this book.  It did cost quite a bit, but over the course of 4 months...not so bad.  I am sure he will cherish it and the memories we made for a long time.  And it was particularly fun to have him readily identify players on teams that we had never watched before.  So...I guess what I'm saying is: Bring on Panini World Cup Sticker Book 2022!  I just hope Team USA has a page!  (Too soon?)