While fans around the world are watching the first games World Cup, many are fighting a completely different battle – searching for Panini icons. Album pouches World Cup they disappear from the newsstands as soon as they arrive, and collectors tip each other off where they can be found.
When you go from newsstand to newsstand looking for thumbnails, the most common answer you'll get is yes - there aren't any thumbnails. Out of the 12 newsagents visited by the "Vremena" reporter, only one had thumbnails for sale.
At some newsagents, the practice of ordering thumbnails has been established, so the worker at the Voždovac kiosk told us that thumbnails arrive irregularly, and when they arrive, several boxes are always reserved in advance.
At the only store where we found the thumbnails, the saleswoman told us that we were lucky because the bags arrived that morning.
Dragan was also standing in line, who received a message that the thumbnails had arrived. He came for 20 reserved bags. He says that if they are not taken now, there will be none later.
At the favorite shop of thumbnail collectors across the street from the Moskva Hotel, there is a sign saying "no thumbnails". This practice has been adopted by numerous newsagents because, as they say, it is the most common question they receive.
Photo: Aleksa PetrovskiThe 2026 World Cup No Panini Sticker Merchandise.
A coin exchange near Moscow
However, even the lack of pictures does not prevent diligent collectors from gathering every day at the famous exchange in front of Hotel Moskva. They say that although there are no bags, there are still a lot of duplicates that need to be exchanged.
They gather every day, they are there from morning till night, except when it rains. They say that there is always someone near the Terazije fountain, and they hide in the shade near Moscow from the heat.
Collector Vuk told us that last week he asked for thumbnails on Thursday, and that the saleswoman smilingly told him "you're looking for thumbnails on Thursday", alluding to the fact that they usually arrive on Mondays and are sold out on the same day.
The wolf learned his lesson this week, so on Monday he was already in front of the tobacconist at nine in order to take the bags. He wasn't the only one.
Experienced thumbnail collectors, who have been exchanging duplicates near Moscow for decades, have theories as to why there are no thumbnails. They claim that Panini deliberately does not print enough images to create euphoria, that there are almost 1.000 of them in the album and that they started late because the album was only released in May.
They say that due to the specifics of the situation, a network was established to let each other know where there are thumbnails. They add that it turns out that now it is more valuable to have information about where you can buy thumbnails than to have a duplicate that someone is missing.
Panini fever has started in Serbia too: The album for the 2026 World Cup is the biggest challenge so far
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the situation is even worse
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, our collectors say, the situation is even worse. There is additional euphoria there since Bosnia qualified for the World Cup.
There are also ads for Panini bags on the KupujemProdajem site, but the advertisers do not currently have large amounts of thumbnails either. On the official website of Polydora, which is the distributor of Panini stickers for Serbia, it is currently possible to order stickers, but collectors say that the question is how long it will take.
The album is bigger than ever with as many as 980 thumbnails. With a price of 150 dinars, the bags are never more expensive, but they contain seven pictures instead of the traditional five. Thus, the entire album will require a minimum of 21.000 dinars.
Collectors complain about the lack of traditional things like stadiums in the album because they claim that those twenty or so thumbnails wouldn't make a difference to the current 980.
You can read all "Vremena" articles about the World Cup at HERE.
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