Every collector knows the ritual. You tear open a packet, thumb through it, and mutter the same three words over and over. Got. Got. Need.
The "need" pile is the fun bit. The "got" pile is the problem.
Because sooner or later, every album stalls. You're forty stickers short, you've got two hundred doubles sat in a shoebox, and the only way forward seems to be buying more packets and hoping. That's where Tom's Swap Shop comes in.
The idea in one sentence
You tell us what you've got and what you're missing. We find the people who have what you need and need what you've got.
That's it. No trawling through comment threads. No posting a photo of 180 stickers and hoping someone squints at it. The matching happens automatically, the moment your list goes in.
Setting up your album
Pick your collection. Panini's World Cup 2026 album, the 2022 edition, Topps Premier League, Panini EFL — choose the one you're working on. You can run more than one album at a time if you're collecting a few.
Mark off what you've got. Work through the numbers and tick them off. or enter them in bulk by pasting the code list. It's the same process as checking your album, just on screen instead of on a scrap of paper. Most people do it with the album open on their lap.
Add your duplicates. This is the bit people skip, and it's the bit that makes everything work. A sticker you've got twice isn't clutter — it's currency. Mark how many spares you have of each number.
That's the setup done. From here on you're just topping up as new packets come in.
What happens next
Once your list is in, we compare it against every other collector on the site. We're looking for the same thing you'd be looking for if you could see inside everyone else's shoebox: someone whose spares cover your gaps, and whose gaps your spares can cover.
When we find a match, you'll see it. You'll know exactly which of your doubles they need and which of their doubles you need, before you commit to anything.
Some matches are neat and even — you need six of theirs, they need six of yours. Others are lopsided, and that's fine too; most collectors are happy to send a few extra rather than let a swap fall through over a couple of numbers.
Agreeing the swap
You confirm the swap on the site, sort out the details between you, and put them in the post. Stickers weigh almost nothing — a swap of twenty or thirty goes in a standard envelope for the price of a stamp.
A few things that make swaps go smoothly:
- Reply promptly. Nothing kills a swap like a week of silence.
- Send when you say you'll send. Most swaps run on both sides posting at roughly the same time.
- Pack them properly. A folded piece of card inside the envelope stops everything arriving with a crease down the middle.
- Say when they arrive. It takes seconds and it's how trust gets built.
Why this beats buying more packets
The maths on a big album is brutal. The World Cup 2026 collection runs to 980 stickers. To fill that from packets alone, without swapping a single one, you're looking at well over a thousand packets — and the last fifty stickers will cost you more than the first five hundred, because every packet you open is mostly stuff you already have.
Swapping flips it. Your doubles stop being dead weight and start being the thing that finishes your album. The stickers you've already paid for do the work.
Small collections, big collections, old collections
You don't need to be halfway through a 980-sticker album for this to be worth doing. If you're eight stickers off finishing, those eight are exactly the ones that never turn up in packets — and someone out there has them spare.
And it's not just current albums. If you've got a World Cup 2022 album sat unfinished in a drawer, the collectors who can complete it are still out there. Packets have long gone from the shops. Swaps haven't.
Ready to start?
Head to tomsswapshop.com, pick your album, and get your list in. The more of your collection you enter — especially the doubles — the more matches we can find you.
Got, got, need. Let's do something about the "need".