SINGAPORE — Excited chatter filled the air at the Genting Warehouse Complex last Saturday, as some 150 people gathered around makeshift tables in a small shop, some armed with laptops and colour-coded spreadsheets.

Consisting of children as young as seven to a senior in her 60s, the group certainly made for a curious sight for passers-by.

And the three-hour event was definitely serious business for these Panini fans, who had turned up for the sticker swapping session organised by local distributor Walter Agency and collector Navin Nambiar.

PANINI STICKERS HOT HERE

While the craze over Panini stickers here does not hit the heights of overseas communities in England and Germany, Walter Agency told TODAY that it has seen a steady rise in demand for the stickers, particularly during major football tournaments such as the World Cup and the ongoing 2016 Uefa European Championships.

Ahead of the Euro 2016 kickoff in France, Walter Agency had shipped in 4,000 Euro 2016 Panini sticker books and 100,000 sticker packs from the Panini’s headquarters in Italy, priced at S$2 and S$1, respectively. The book and sticker packs — comprising five stickers per pack — are sold at 7-11 stores islandwide, bus newsstands, neighbourhood marts and gaming shops.

With all their warehouse stock of stickers currently sold out, Walter Agency plans to ship in an additional 20,000 packets to cope with the demand.

“It is a highly profitable business here, and for this tournament, we can earn between S$50,000 and S$100,000 in profit,” said Allen Hiew, Walter Agency’s business planning and management senior executive.

“Before every major football tournament like the World Cup and the Euros, we do some market research first. We check selected online forums, and also our buyers, and do a projection from past sales.

“Over the years, there is a steady rise in the demand for Panini stickers. There are a number of first-time collectors here at the swapping events too, and female collectors also pick up the hobby due to influence from their male friends.”

WHO ARE THE PANINI FANS?

Many of the Panini sticker enthusiasts are football fans, and collecting stickers of their favourite players and teams has become an addiction for a number of them. Most of them are grown men aged 30 and above, but there are fans from other age groups as well.

For veteran collector Navin, his love affair with Panini began with the 1986 World Cup, and the 35-year-old has collected every edition of the World Cup and European Championships album since then.

“It is the whole exhilaration of opening up a packet and finding your favourite footballers, and the ones you need to complete your album,” he told TODAY.

“It brings you back to the good old days when kids go to the playgrounds and play, and collect things such as stickers and erasers. The core group of collectors now are people my age, because we grew up with this whole sticker-collecting culture.

“It is nice that in this day and age when people play with their iPhones and iPads a lot, there is still a community that engages in the simple joys of collecting stickers.”

The current craze here is focused on the 94-page Panini Euro 2016 sticker book, which has 680 sticker slots to fill for players from the 24 teams in the tournament. There is also a category of “shiny stickers”, which are team photos and badges of the football federations of each country’s football team. These stickers are rarer, making them more highly prized than the regular ones.

“Swapsies” sessions are organised to allow fans to exchange stickers, with Saturday’s event seeing one-to-one trading of stickers. Some collectors also paid for the stickers they wanted, with each sticker sold for 20 cents to as much as S$5 to S$10.

Aside from the “shiny stickers”, stickers of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal and Real Madrid superstar, and Gareth Bale — who faced off this morning in the Euro 2016 semi-final clash between Portugal and Wales — are proving to be popular with collectors.

Added Navin: “My favourite stickers so far are the ones of (retired footballers) Diego Maradona and Michel Platini, to name a few, from my previous albums. For this Euro 2016, I like the one of Cristiano Ronaldo. Everyone wants his sticker because he is arguably the hottest footballer now. I think even if people have extras of the Ronaldo sticker, they will probably keep it and not swap or sell them.”

National serviceman Sahaa Dhevan, who has his eye on Bale, said: “I like the sticker of Gareth Bale (Wales). You can see he is totally different from previous albums — hairstyles and all. Now he is trying to look like a ridiculous version of David Beckham. It is just something funny to look back on.”

MONEY WELL SPENT?

While collectors can spend between S$150 and S$300 on their hobby, many believe that it is money well spent for the joy of collecting and completing an album, and indulging in their passion for football.

For 39-year-old teacher Vanan Murthy, his hobby also helps keep him interested in the Euro 2016 tournament.

“Major football tournaments like the World Cup and the Euros come by every four years, so you may not be totally familiar with all the players at once,” said Murthy.

“I get to know these players through the stickers as well. Flipping through past albums will bring back memories of the particular tournament.”

Nine-year-old Oliver Sheo was at the swapping session with his younger sister, Alison, in a bid to fill his first Panini sticker album.

“I am into this because I love football,” he said. “I play football as well — my sister and I are learning football at an academy here.

“I support England, but I don’t know much about the other players.”

Others like Sahaa Dhevan, 21, and his 62-year-old mother, Agai Balan, have bonded over the stickers.

“My son and I share an album and we both try to complete it,” said Balan, who is a retired staff nurse. “It is quite fun, doing this together. With our age gap, it is hard to find something we both enjoy doing together too.

“I am the one who organises everything — the stickers we don’t have, the ones we have, and the extras. My cousins are all football fans, and their wives are involved too. It is like a family thing.”

PANINI — NERDY OR COOL?

While the idea of grown men collecting, and exchanging stickers may raise a few curious eyebrows, Navin the veteran collector summed up his hobby best. He said: “Yes (it is nerdy). But when I show people my 1986 World Cup album, the reaction is usually one of amazement.

“My albums have become my prized possessions. So it is pretty cool, especially when you have a wide collection dating from a long time back.”