But when we're talking football, the heart almost always rules the head. How else can one explain people's passionate, lifelong attachment to one team and their misery when the side loses?

So it's not too surprising when Max Williamson, the head of the sports department at Charles Leski Auctions in Melbourne, says there is one big difference between collectors of football memorabilia and other sports collectors: that "most [football fanatics] only collect things associated with their own club". "In cricket people collect cricket items generally," he says, "but in football, in all the codes we can think of, most people only collect their own club.

"I suppose the exceptions are with rugby union - people collect Wallabies items because people are representing their country, or All Black items, things like that. But in rugby league and Australian rules, most people only want things to do with the club they support."

This makes football collecting - in league, union, Aussie rules and

soccer - a much narrower market, but that's good news for collectors: it means the demand for a famous or historical item from a certain football club is never going to be as great as it might be for other sports.

The number of potential buyers is smaller, so what's on offer will be relatively cheap - hundreds of dollars, or perhaps a few thousand, rather than the stratospheric amounts in other disciplines.

There are exceptions, of course. Williamson says only a handful of the most prestigious award for Australian rules players, the Brownlow Medal, have been put up for sale. The first was sold in 2000, and fetched more than $70,000. Others sold

for less, but it's still a huge lure to any buyer who loves his footy club.

Prices for British and European football items can also be tremendously high, thanks to the larger number of fans worldwide. Earlier this year the oldest surviving FA Cup, presented to winning teams between 1896 and 1910, was sold by Christie's in London for £420,000 ($973,000) - a world record for a sporting item.

Thankfully, potential collectors in Australia are looking at much more realistic prices. Rare football cards from cigarette or chewing gum packets can sell for $250 to $300 each, Williamson says, but "most of the football cards are between $1 and $5 each, so you can get a pretty good collection together without spending a tremendous amount of money".

Old programs for matches or tours, while increasingly sought after, are not out of reach. Programs from the Wallabies' 1908 tour to England, during which the team won the gold medal at the London Olympics, can fetch up to $1000.

Williamson advises new collectors to contact their club first and look at the modern

range of memorabilia such as framed jerseys, signed posters and photographs.

"People start with things they can put on the wall, but what usually happens is the wall fills up fairly quickly and they start to collect things they can [put] in albums,"

he says. "That's one of the reasons that things like the old football cards and programs are very popular now, because you can put together a fabulous collection without taking up too much space."

Starter guide

$175

Limited edition football made to celebrate the Sydney Swans 2005 grand final win. Made of leather by Sherrin. From Sydney Swans website: http://www.afl.com.au/swans

$1000

Original newspaper poster from 1967, celebrating Richmond's AFL premiership win. Signed "WEG" by cartoonist Bill Green. Sold last month through Charles Leski Auctions, Melbourne.

$1850

Signed and mounted jerseys from the 2003 soccer match between England and Australia in London, which Australia won 3-1. Signatures include David Beckham and Harry Kewell. Sold last month through Charles Leski Auctions, Melbourne.

$2695

One of a limited edition of 31 rugby league NSW State of Origin guernseys signed by Brad Fittler, celebrating 25 years of the State of Origin series. Sold through http://www.lgm.com.au

$973,000

Oldest existing FA Cup, presented to winning teams from 1896 to 1910. The first to come up for sale, it achieved a world record price when sold in May by Christie's in London.

My collection

Russell Fogarty

There's no need to ask Russell Fogarty why he's such an enthusiastic collector of memorabilia from the South Melbourne and Sydney Swans: his family's support for the team goes back three generations.

The collection started with Fogarty's father, who at the age of 12 managed to get the autograph of every Swans player involved in the 1945 grand final. Fogarty still has this memento, but it's not the oldest item in his collection by a long way. "We won our first premiership in 1909 and all the players were presented with a gold premiership medallion," he says. "I've got one of those medallions, so that's nearly 97 years old ... it's a great piece and I'm rapt I got it. I've also got four best and fairest [awards] for the South Melbourne Football Club, they're from the 1930s, and I've got a 1933 premiership medallion."

That might sound like a lot in itself, but this is just scratching the surface of Fogarty's collection. He has historic and recent photographs, vintage footy cards and countless guernseys worn by famous Swans players, including the 200th game guernsey of former captain Paul Kelly, one worn by Adam Goodes the year he won the Brownlow Medal, and a limited edition framed guernsey celebrating this year's grand final win.

The most impressive items in the collection, however, are the Brownlow Medals won by Fred Goldsmith in 1955 and "Herbie" Matthews in 1940. Only a few Brownlows have ever come up for sale, Fogarty says, and he remembers his purchase in 2000 of Goldsmith's medal from Christie's, for $43,700, as "the first really expensive thing I had bought".