Collecting the 2010 World Cup today: albums, cards and finishing an old set

Updated 27 September 2026 · by the Swappies team

More than fifteen years on, the 2010 World Cup still has a special place for South African collectors. The sticker albums and card binders from that year were filled during a tournament played in our own cities, and a lot of them were never quite finished. This guide covers what was made, why it still matters here, and how to complete a 2010 collection now that the packets are gone.

Why 2010 is different for South African collectors

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was played in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010, the first World Cup ever held in Africa. Spain won it, beating the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time in the final.

For collectors elsewhere, a 2010 album is one World Cup among many. Here it is the one where the stadium pages showed our own grounds and the tournament was on our own doorstep. That is why collectors who have not bought a sticker in years still tend to go looking for the last few spaces in their 2010 book - and why plenty of people who collected as children now have children of their own asking about it.

The main 2010 collections

Finishing an out-of-print set

When a set is in the shops, you finish it by opening packets and swapping. Once it is out of print, that stops working. Even if you find a sealed packet from 2010, the maths is against you: if all 640 stickers in the album were equally likely, you would expect to open about 4,500 stickers to see every one - and most of that effort goes on the last 128, which would take around 3,480 on their own. The final few numbers are always the expensive ones.

So for an old set, the practical route is:

  • Make an exact list. Go through the album or binder and write down every missing number. With the Adrenalyn cards, note the edition too.
  • Swap first. Friends, family and colleagues who collected in 2010 often still have a stack of doubles. Asking costs nothing.
  • Buy the rest as singles. Buying exactly the numbers you need is far cheaper than chasing the tail with packets. We sell singles from all of the 2010 sets above and deliver to PUDO lockers across South Africa.
  • Sell your doubles. We buy 2010 stickers and cards too. You pay the postage to send them to us (about R49), so we take sell offers from R100 - gather your spares and send one parcel rather than a few at a time.

What condition matters

Condition means different things for stickers and cards:

  • Stickers: an unused sticker still on its backing is what collectors want. Check for bent corners and creases, and on foils look for scratches or cloudy patches. A sticker that has been peeled off a page and restuck is less appealing to most collectors and rarely sits flat again.
  • Cards: Adrenalyn XL and Match Attax were card games, so many 2010 cards were played with. Look at the corners (sharp or soft), the edges (clean or chipped), the surface (scratches, marks) and above all for creases, which cannot be undone.
  • Albums: an old album tends to show its age in the spine and cover before the stickers fade. Check for loose pages, water marks and stickers stuck in the wrong space.

To keep what you have in good shape, store albums flat and dry, keep cards in pocket pages or sleeves, and keep all of it out of direct sunlight.

Worth finishing

A completed 2010 album or binder is a piece of South African football history that you put together yourself. The packets may be gone, but with a clear list, a few swaps and the right singles, finishing one is well within reach.

Missing a few?

Browse every checklist we carry and buy exactly the singles you need - delivered anywhere in South Africa.

Browse collections Sell us your doubles

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