Historic Wolves FA cup final programme in £11,000 loss
One of Wolves's oldest and rarest football programmes sold for £8,000 at an auction, which was a staggering £11,000 less than it was bought for ten years ago.
For when the same programme came up for sale at Graham Budd Auctions, in London, on May 10, 2006, it fetched £19,000, making it one of the most valuable programmes ever sold.
Before Tuesday's auction, also at Graham Budd Auctions in London, the programme was expected to sell for between £15,000 and £20,000, but in the end, it went for only £8,000.
The rare single-sheet programme was produced for the 1889 Wolves versus Preston North End FA Cup final at the Kennington Oval on March 30, 1889, which was the first of Wolves' eight FA Cup final appearances.
It was an historic FA Cup final because in 1888-1889 Preston North End never lost a Football League or FA Cup match and became the first club to clinch the Double by winning the very first Football League title and the FA Cup, by beating Wolves 3-0 in the final.
That all-conquering Preston team has been known ever since as The Invincibles.
When the programme last came up for sale – also at Graham Budd Auctions in London on May 10,2006, it was expected to fetch between £7,000 and £10,000,but in the end, it went for £19,000.
That remains one of the biggest sums ever paid for a single football programme.
On the way to their first FA Cup final appearance, high-scoring Wolves beat Old Carthusians, Walsall Town Swifts,The Wednesday, now known as Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn, only to lose against Preston.
That year was a particularly special year for Wolves.
They also moved into their gleaming new stadium, Molineux, after leaving Dudley Road.
