Album Oficial Acereros de Monclova 1974-2011

     In 2011, marking the 37th anniversary of the team, the Acereros de Monclova, a team in the northern division of the Mexican League, produced a 26 page album and 196 sticker set spanning their entire history.  The Album Oficial Acereros de Monclova 1974-2011 was arranged by decade, and featured team photo puzzles and stickers for several prominent players for each era of the team.


     The album itself sold for $15 MXN (surprisingly low priced at under $2 USD) and packs of 5 stickers for $5 MXN (about $0.40 USD).  Very similar to how Panini/Topps operated in the 1980s and 1990s, individual stickers could be purchased directly for $1.50 MXN.   When ordering complete sets, the stickers included would be written on the pack, I wasn't able to get a clean shot of a pack, but you get the idea.  They have since run out of the colored envelopes and stickers now come in plain white envelopes.

    There are team photo puzzles for the 1974 Mineros team (as they would be known until 1980), along with the championship team from 1998, first place finishing team from 2008 and the 2010 team.  All album page photos courtesy of Mexican Super Collector Arturo.  You can see his completed album here.

 

    The players from 1974-2010 had a single sticker, to be placed next to their biographical sketch.

  

  

 

     For the 2011 roster, each player had both a photo sticker, and well as a biography sticker.  In a lot of cases, the stickers in this set may well be the only card or sticker some of these players have.

     To help market the set, and make it a more interactive experience, it was launched with a Facebook page.  Every week, players would be featured on Facebook along with the biography from the album.  In the case of the current roster, there might be season highlights or short interviews along with fresh pictures for the players.  The Facebook page was continually updated into at least August of 2014, and as of this posting, albums and stickers are still available directly from the producers, but all of the contests and raffles are finished.  The sets still run $250-300 MXN, which works out to between $18-22 USD as of this posting.  I would suggest contacting them through Facebook to if looking to order.  I'm not sure if they will ship directly to the US or not.

     At the time the set was released, there was a promotion where fans who completed their albums by 30 September 2011 could submit their name, email and photos of their completed albums to be entered in to a raffle for team merchandise.  It was a pretty good way to sell stickers and albums, as fans could purchase a complete set of stickers and album for $300 MXN, or roughly $25 USD at the time, have a complete album and have the chance to win stuff.  One young fan won a jersey signed by the whole team.  The team hosted similar promotions throughout the 2012 season as well.

The complete 196 sticker checklist has been posted to the SportsCardForum.com Inventory Manager and TradingCardDb.com.