From Discs to Prizm: Uncovering Hidden Gems in the Pre-Modern Soccer Cards Era

July 9, 2025

By ThePreMoPodcast: Matt (@mediocre_cards) & Andres (@champvanderford)  

If you’ve ever stumbled into the Pre-Modern soccer cards rabbit hole — or, like us, sprinted blindly and head-first into it like it was a Champions League final — you already know: this market is… somewhat different. Very different.

It’s weird. It’s wonderful. It’s chaotic. It’s still full of untold secrets. And it’s exactly why we’re thrilled to be sponsoring this year’s SoCo Expo 2025 — where we’ll be celebrating the glorious, confusing, addictive world of Pre-Modern cardboard and stickers.

But what even is Pre-Modern?

We define the era as running from 1977 to 2014, starting with the Argentine disc debut of a young Diego Armando Maradona and ending with the release of what is globally recognized as the first true “modern” set: 2014 Panini Prizm World Cup. 

It’s that beautiful sweet spot between Pele and parallels. We have huge respect for our pre-war and vintage brethren and love the shiny insanity of modern and ultra-modern, but the Pre-Modern terrain is truly a wild era. Here’s why we love it so freaking much: 

Nostalgia Meets Rarity 

If you're a collector of a certain age (read: you're using Tylenol more than TikTok), this is the era you were bred in. We grew up watching R9s combination of raw power and unseen freak athleticism. Baggio’s divine ponytail. Zidane’s class and wizardry. Henry’s speed and elegance. Ronaldinho’s dazzling flair and creativity. And last but not least, Carlos Valderrama’s frizzy hair in all its Pre-Modern glory.

From a hobby perspective, while collectors of U.S.-based sports were drowning in overprinted junk wax, soccer was still a regional, fragmented hobby. Many of the cards and stickers from this era were never mass-produced because there wasn’t a market for them. They were album fillers, magazine inserts, stadium giveaways - often made in smaller countries for less people. Nobody was stashing boxes in closets hoping to flip them in 20 years. That means there’s real scarcity in pre-modern soccer if you know where to look.  

The Era of Firsts

Everything that defines a “hit” in modern collecting - inserts, parallels, numbered cards, autographs, match-worn patches - began in the Pre-Modern era. 

It was the experimental lab of the hobby. Merlin was trying wild things over in Japan with its late 90s Serie A cards (such as those beautiful ruby parallels!!). Panini was figuring out autos and patches in its Spanish Megafichas sets, and Upper Deck’s early 2000s Manchester United offerings are a fever dream of foil, serial numbers, and questionable design choices that now feel… weirdly and beautifully iconic.

And the best part? A lot of these innovations are STILL flying under the radar. Collectors are still discovering short-printed cards, insert sets, or early parallels that never made it into pop culture — or even PSA’s set registry… yet. Information is being spread through Instagram group chats and Discord servers with collectors from across the globe.

Pre-Modern is where you’ll find the first versions of what everyone’s chasing today. 

It’s When the Game Leveled Up 

As two very handsome dudes in their early to mid forties, we are biased. Extremely biased. But isn’t this the era when soccer truly went to the next level? 

The Premier League officially launched in 1992, the Champions League became the Champions League of today, the FIFA video game launched and most importantly - fans could finally watch their heroes. Satellite and Cable TV combined with the explosion of the Internet  ushered in a new era of global distribution which meant more people could watch iconic players from all over the world (shoutout to Dinho’s “Crossbar” Nike ad and those early, grainy R9 compilations set to Linkin Park.)

All of this expanded the global footprint of the sport — and made players like Bergkamp, Totti, and Beckham international stars. This era of collecting coincides with the explosion of the sport’s popularity. 

You Can Still Discover the Unknown

In most corners of the hobby, the “grails” are already slabbed, catalogued, and priced to the moon. But in pre-modern soccer? There are still mysteries to solve.

Collectors are still finding unreleased promo issues, short-print inserts that were never widely distributed, and early player appearances no one has bothered to grade yet. It’s the kind of market where deep research actually pays off. Where you might be the first person to log a card into PSA’s pop report. Where owning a sticker from a Belgian fast food joint in 2002 suddenly feels like having a 1/1.

It’s like the Wild West - but with penny sleeves, the Todocoleccion app and a microfiber cloth.  

It’s Our Era

What this comes down to the most is that these are the players we grew up watching and idolizing. The ones we so passionately debated at school. The ones we controlled on FIFA 98. The ones whose posters were on our bedroom walls — right near Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle” CD and the GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 cartridge. 

That matters. Because collecting isn’t just about ROI. It’s about emotion. It’s about what makes you feel something. It’s about building a collection that reflects who you are and what the game means to you.

And for us — PreMo is the era where that magic happens. 

Come Hang with Us at SoCo

If any of this is striking a chord — if you’ve got a binder of Panini 2006 World Cup or a stash of early Messi Megacracks sitting in a drawer — we’d love to meet you at SoCo.

ThePreMoPodcast is all about celebrating this weird, wonderful world. We talk cards. We talk stickers. We talk players, clubs, and kits. As we dig into the market deeper and deeper, we continuously keep unlocking core memories. And this year’s SoCo Expo is a perfect place to keep the conversation going — in person.

So bring your questions and get ready to answer ours. Bring your albums, binders, unstuck stickers and graded slabs. Bring your hot takes on Scholes vs. Lampard. Let’s celebrate the era that made us fall deeply in love with the game — and the cards/stickers that captured it.

Subscribe to ThePreMoPodcast on YouTube and follow us on Instagram @thepremodpodcast and @champvanderford + @mediocre_cards.