While idly browsing through the internet yesterday I was accosted by a massive and unexpected wave of nostalgia. PG Tips Collectors Cards for sale on eBay. Before the rise of the aforementioned internet and its browsers acquiring knowledge was not so simple. Certainly in the late 1970s and early 1980s good books, teachers and supportive parents were key.

These cards were most useful as well though, even more so if you had a strong collecting gene that drove you not only to look at the card and read the information on the back but also to start amassing them in the albums that were produced. As it turned out (as is often the case) these thoughts turned out to only be the first phase of the nostalgia wave as other memories from the time made an appearance in my mind.

The cards themselves were free in PG Tips tea. I think there was only one card in the smaller boxes maybe two in the larger ones. Unfortunately my mum didn’t drink PG Tips believing Typhoo Tea to be superior. That meant I was totally dependent on my paternal grandma for my fix. With forty cards (sometimes fifty) in each set it was a slow process and very annoying when a card you already had was in the new box.

The reason I couldn’t ask my maternal grandparents for the cards was they were collecting them themselves. On visits to their house my grandad would remove the cards from a safe storage box and show them most carefully to me to be in ‘mint condition’. This meant no folds, no finger marks and when piled together the edge would be a spotless white. He never glued them to albums as this would reduce their value. He assured me that in years to come they would be worth a lot of money. My best guess is that was around 1978, so edging towards fifty years ago.

Of course I now know from eBay that my grandad’s confident prediction has failed to materialise. My peak collecting years were from 1977 to 1983 and the values of those full sets are as follows:

1977 Police File (£4)

1978 Vanishing Wildlife (£4)

1979 Olympic Greats (£12)

1980 Woodland Wildlife (£8)

1981/82 Small Wonders (£5)

1983 Queen Elizabeth 1 – Elizabeth 2 (£6)

In fairness to him some have appreciated considerably. For example, ‘Out Into Space’ (1956) is available for £400, ‘Wild Flowers’ from 1955 is £100 and ‘Incredible Creatures’ from 1987 is £200.

I know many words have been written on why human kind enjoys collecting so much. One of these is definitely to make a future investment, as my grandad hoped, but there are lots more that I identify with more fully just from the PG Tips cards.

These include sentimental attachments, to connect to their childhoods, to connect with the past and simply for pleasure and enjoyment. There is also the thought that a community is created, certainly in terms of fellow enthusiasts and being able to swap cards in this particular instance. If all else failed I believe you could actually get any missing cards from the company itself when the end of the production of each set came near.

My major reasons for collecting though was to gain more knowledge and learn about something new. As you can see from the titles of the sets above a large array of topics were covered. I’ve enjoyed accumulating general knowledge ever since and judging by the seemingly never ending growth of such shows on television it seems I’m not the only one. I’m sure some of the sets are still at my mum’s house. I will be digging them out on my next visit to see what further reminiscing they generate.