Finance expert works out how much 2026 World Cup sticker album will cost to complete

A finance expert has estimated how much the 2026 World Cup sticker album will cost to complete if a packet of seven stickers ends up costing £2.

Earlier this week, Panini announced it will be releasing the biggest FIFA World Cup sticker album in history ahead of this summer's 48-team tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

This year, the album will include a record-breaking 980 stickers across 112 pages, with each pack containing seven stickers instead of the traditional five to reflect the increase in teams involved.

All 48 teams are set to have their own page, which will feature a total of 20 stickers, including 18 players, one team photo and one FA badge.

As mentioned in our previous piece on the news, you can pre-order a starter pack that contains four packs and the sticker album for £4.99, while a box of 100 stickers will set you back £125.00.

A multipack that includes six packets and no album, meanwhile, is priced at £7.50 on the Panini website, meaning each individual pack works out at £1.25.

Panini have dropped new information on their 2026 World Cup stickers. Image credit: Panini

An official price per pack has yet to be disclosed, but after Panini released a promotional video on Wednesday, finance expert Kieran Maguire crunched the numbers to see how it would cost to complete an album.

At an estimated price of £2 for seven stickers (28.6p per sticker), you would need to spend approximately £2,030 to fill the 980 sticker album, although swapping with other collectors would significantly help reduce those costs.

If a pack of World Cup stickers is priced at £1.70, meanwhile, fans would need to fork out £1,777.

"If you do swap then the price range is ‘just’ £238-280 (plus the price of the album)," added Maguire,

Fans react to estimated price of completing 2026 World Cup sticker album

One fan commented on Maguire's post, saying: "Ridiculous isn’t it. Another thing that’s pricing kids out of doing. This used to be a pocket money spend each week for me growing up but at £2 a go no chance now."

stickers

A second said: "A shame it has gone that way. In the 80s a huge amount of kids collected these. Very few can afford to now. In fact, is it just us 40-60 year olds?"

A third wrote: "Another example of when we were small, it was a way to get kids into and excited ect like I want to do with my 4 year old, but not at those prices. For £2k I could take him there."

A fourth added: "Argentina 78 stickers were 5p a pack. I remember Dad slipping me an extra 50p for polishing his shoes and going to the newsagents to get my fix. Filled the book, sent off for the last 25 I was missing and Mrs Jones, my primary school teacher, confiscated it, then ‘lost’ it!"