Euro 2024 is less than 100 days away. That means a month-long festival of football as 24 national teams from across the continent battle for the honour of being crowned European champions.

But there is more to it than just watching the action unfold on the pitch, fans have spent generations collecting it too. Hand in hand with every major international tournament comes an official sticker album, with the race on for people of all ages to fill up their book with every player, elusive shinies and other special items. “Got, got…need!”

Whether it’s for the kids to enjoy or the nostalgia factor that hooks you in as an adult with disposable income, it’s fun for the whole family.

It’s big business too. Back in 2018, Panini almost doubled their annual revenue to €1bn thanks to the popularity of that year’s World Cup sticker album. But the renowned Italian sticker giants aren’t doing the Euro 2024 book, having seen collectibles rivals Topps extend their own partnership with UEFA.

Panini retain a longstanding licensing deal with FIFA for men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments, as well as domestic competitions such as the Premier League and WSL, but it was announced in 2022 that Topps would be UEFA’s new exclusive European Championship partner until 2028.

That means Topps will be producing collections for Euro 2024 as well Euro 2028, plus the women’s Euro tournament in 2025 and any Nations League-related sets. Beyond stickers, the deal covers all trading cards and collectibles, with Euro 2024 Match Attax out already.

Panini had previously made every European Championship sticker collection since the tournament in 1980, with Women’s Euro 2022 its last UEFA affiliated sticker book until at least 2029.

Topps have signed Jose Mourinho as an official ambassador for the Euro 2024 collection, with one of his roles as part of that deal to actually select the players that go into the album.

No exact release date has been publicised by Topps at this time, but April is widely expected to be when Euro 2024 stickers hit the shelves, perhaps as early as the first week of the month.

Euro 2024 stickers will be available to widely purchase in physical stores and online.

The official Topps website will be a good place to start, especially for bulk ordering a box of 100 packets to instantly get going, but high street retailers like WHSmith and Smyths Toys Superstores and major supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons are big sellers too.

Independent retailers like local newsagents could carry stock, while eBay is always worth a look for listings of unopened packets, bulk buys and specific stickers. Online toy stores Booghe and Earthlets have come to prominence more recently as a good place to buy football stickers.

As a loose guide, Panini have sold individual packets of five stickers at 90p for the past few tournaments. But some indications suggest Topps will potentially set the price per packet at 99p.

Don’t pay more than you need to.

It’s an easy hit for news outlets to sensationalise the cost of completing one of these sticker books, often roping in mathematicians or statisticians to calculate an overall cost. In 2018, headlines shrieked at an estimated £773 to finish the World Cup album, while in 2022 it was £883 due to the cost of a single packet rising by 10p in the intervening years.

And while still not exactly ‘cheap’, it realistically only costs a fraction of that. Those huge numbers are based on buying packets and packets until every last one is found. That is one way to do it, but the far more cost effective option is to purchase enough volume of stickers that would fill a book and then swap your way to the end.

Swapping is king and should keep costs around the £150 mark if you keep track of it. Even if you don’t know anyone else doing the Euro 2024 book, don’t be put off because Facebook always has swap groups that connect hundreds of like-minded people with the same goal. Look out for swap events in your local area too – for example, the National Football Museum has hosted swap shops in previous summers, while Jill Scott’s Boxx 2 Boxx has held events for WSL collectors.

Buying individual stickers from eBay, where sellers might charge around £1 per sticker but will typically offer deals like ‘Buy 2, Get 8 Free’, is also a way to fill in your needs once buying packets alone is no longer fruitful and yielding too many duplicates.