It's in the blood

I don't buy all these insert badges due to the low quality but I do have a few in my collection.  These four claim the Crewe Alexandra is in our blood!

Eat..Sleep..Crewe Alexandra

 

Trio of insert badges suggesting that there are only 3 key things you should be doing to live your life...

Crewe v Sheffield United 2014/15 FA Cup 1st Round Badges

Thin, pressed metal badge for the FA Cup first round game against the Blades.  Very nice design produced in multiple colourways.  Like all these recent cup badges, its from abroad - Germany I think for this one.

 

And this one is from the Ukraine in similar design to previous cup badges

1877 insert badges

Set of four on ebay featuring either "Crewe Alexandra" or "The Railwaymen" with the phrase "Pride of Cheshire since 1877".

CAFC button pin

Fun little CAFC button badge from the seller 'MadAboutFlags'

Crewe v Bolton 2014/15 Capital One League Cup Rd 2 match badge

Nice large (about 2'' across) resin style badge from an ebay seller 'daveinbrum'.  Interestingly the fastening on the back is a very long broach type rather than the butterfly pin type on most badges nowadays.

Gresty Road End insert badges

 

 

Two of the insert type badges found on ebay that reference the Gresty Road end.

 

Crewe v Bradford Match Badges 2014/15

One of the 12 colourways produced for the Crewe v Bradford games in 2014/15 and the first Crewe set of the three produced for 14/15 that I have already featured on the blog.  The photo below is the one the seller ("Danny from St Neots") sent me to show me the full set of 12.

Triple logo badge

Another new official badge, this one seems to be of lower quality than those usually produced by the club. Fairly small in size, it features a bigger (approx. 1cm) logo flanked by two smaller ones.

Crewe v Oldham match badges 2014/15

The second of the three Crewe match badge sets produced by the same seller during the 2014/15 was the set of 12 colourways for the games against Oldham.  Once again I only collected four of the varieties due to the excessive cost.

Crewe v Sheffield United Button Badge - FA Cup 1st Round 2014/15

Small size button badge from the FA Cup 1st round game against Sheffield United.

Raised logo badge

Nice new official release from the club - slightly larger than normal size for these logo badges and also features very nice raised lettering.

2014/15 Resin Kit Badges

Picked up off ebay, these kit badges in both home and away colours are the sticky resin type and clearly feature the Mornflake detail but do not show the club logo detail at all.  Still nice to fill the kit badge gap when no official ones are produced by the club.

Doncaster v Crewe 2007/08 insert badge

I thought I had captured most of these in previous posts but here is another one I picked up a few weeks ago.  Its from the 2007-08 season for the game at Doncaster Rovers.

Crewe v Preston Match Badges 2014/15

So these are four varieties (of the Twelve available) of the Crewe v Preston 2014/15 match badges that came from a seller named "Danny in St Neots".  This was the third Crewe game in the 2014/15 season that this style of badge was made for (Oldham & Bradford being the others).  Quite frankly these were the straw that broke the camels back regarding collecting every colourway as a)12 varieties is ridiculous and b) at £5 a pop, it is ridiculously expensive for one badge release.  Four or even six varieties would have been OK...  I collected the four in this set that most resemble Crewe colours, 

The other bizarre thing about this seller and these badges was that he claimed they were being made for foreign collectors and that I would have to buy quick to guarantee getting them...  amazingly they are still available on ebay :)  Not sure who or why there would be 'foreign collectors' of these either.

Regarding the badges themselves, they are actually really nice (if a little unoriginal) with good quality manufacture and design. The badges include the dates of the two games, both club logos and the league one trophy.

'Sky Bet' League One 2014/15 badge

Coming from a seller in Germany, these large (and pricey at £15) map badges appeared on ebay mid way through the 14/15 season and were available in 6 colours.  These badges feature the logos of all the teams in league one and supercede an earlier version of this badge that had the wrong league sponsor! The price tag (especially if you wanted all colours) started some serious debate on a badge forum I am on about no longer being able to collect all badges because of the high prices and multiple colourways.

JPT picture badge

Another badge emerging from our friends in the Ukraine...  from its ebay picture it looks like its one of the thin pressed badges with some kind of insert of a low quality photo of the 2013 JPT winning team.  Not sure of the size but it looks like it may be a little larger that the match badges coming from the same seller.

NI v QATAR friendly badge from Gresty Road

There was a nice set of two badges produced for the Northern Ireland v Qatar friendly held at Gresty Road in May 2015.  The one shown here is the green version and there was a red version too.  A sell out on the day!

Barnsley v Crewe match badge (league cup 12th Aug 2014)

One of the pressed type metal badges being produced in the Ukraine of all places.   The metal is very thin with a butterfly clasp.  These seem to be produced exclusively for cup games as I have a few more examples of similar cup badges which I will post also.  This one is for our 2-0 win at Barnsley on the 12th August in the league cup 1st round.  I bought the red version but the picture below (taken from ebay so apologies for the poor quality) shows the alternate blue version.

Blog Update

Apologies for the lack of updates lately - 2 young kids and a crazy work schedule has kinda got in the way of keeping up to date with the website!  Rest assured I am still actively collecting and have a big pile of new badges and discoveries that I will be posting about as soon as I have time!

A quick one for today is in my Ex-Players category - this one is for one of my all time favorite Crewe players Danny Murphy from his time at Liverpool.

2014 Scarf & Shirt resin badges

Three badges that appeared on ebay in 2014... two varieties of scarf badge and one red shirt badge - metal backing with the resin type filling for the design.

2014/15 Pre-Season - Nantwich Town v Crewe badge

The first badges of the new 2014/15 season are this very nice set for the 13th July 2014 friendly against neighbours Nantwich Town.  This was a sell out on the match day with a total of 50 badges produced (25 in red and 25 in green).  The badge features the club logos and the match details and also the nice touch of commemorating Nantwich's 130th anniversary season.

Newly discovered Cheltenham 2012 playoff final badge

Thanks to Dave Slack for sending over this picture of a newly discovered badge from the 2012 playoff final v Cheltenham.  Its a plastic insert on a metal badge with a pin clasp.  Dave recently picked it up as part of a larger badge collection and the guy he bought it off said he bought it outside Wembley tube station.

2013 Pre-Season Badge

This nice set of enamel Crewe pre-season 2013 badges was done in a production run of 70 across three colour varieties to match the colours of the three opponents featured (Villa, Man Utd and Blackburn).  To my knowledge, there were no other badges made for any of these games.

1950s Third Division North Badges

Interesting finds this week from Keith Wilkinson who runs the AFBC (association of football badge collectors)...

 

THE SET OF 24 BADGES MADE BY VAUGHTONS OF BIRMINGHAM, HAVE A BUTTONHOLE FITTING. THEY ARE ALL A DARK BLUE COLOUR WITH A BRASS CENTRAL BAND CONTAINING THE CLUBS NAME IN WHITE ENAMEL LETTERS.
THEY ARE REPUTED TO HAVE BEEN HANDED OUT TO CLUB REPRESENTATIVES WHO ATTENDED THE AGM OF THE THIRD DIVISION NORTH AT THE BEGINNING OF EITHER THE 1953/1954 OR 1954/1955 SEASON. WE WILL KNOW FOR SURE THE YEAR WHEN EITHER A PORT VALE OR AN OLDHAM ATHLETIC BADGE IS DISCOVERED.
I HAVE HEARED VARIOUS STORIES OF THE NUMBER OF EACH PRODUCED WHICH VARY FROM THREE TO TEN FOR EACH CLUB. IT CAN’T BE THE FORMER AS I KNOW PERSONALLY OF AT LEAST FOUR FROM ONE CLUB, BUT IT MAY BE AS FEW AS FIVE OR SIX FOR EACH CLUB.

As Crewe were in Div III North in both those seasons, I asked Keith if there was a Crewe one in this series and in his words  "HI YES THERE WILL BE ONE BUT WE HAVE NEVER COME ACROSS ONE." So, a really interesting find and something to hope emerges someday.

JPT Final Result badge

In the same style as one done for the semi-final v Coventry, this lovely pair of badges are a great way to remember a great day and add nicely to the JPT 'set'.

Life without Crewe button badge

Button badge seen on ebay in late 2013.....   although I think we all know that there is far more to life than Crewe!!

Poppy badges 2013

Following the popularity of the 2012 poppy badge, more were made for 2013 in five varieties.  They are beautiful badges with the subtle feature this year that the leaf points to 11 o' clock in line with the time of remembrance.

BlogBook of this blog

Every now and again I like to produce a 'hard copy' of this blog so I can have it as my 'on the shelf' reference.  I just got one done and I love the way it comes out!  If any of my blog readers ever want one please let me know!

JPT & Playoff Victory Badge

Lovely pair of badges produced to celebrate the two wembley victories in 2012 & 2013.  Made in two different colours (slightly more red badges were done) with a picture of each trophy and the club logo.