Peter Johnson, a sports memorabilia collector, has turned his passion into a successful business empire. Johnson, who was £10,000 in debt when he founded his business, Firma Stella, is now a millionaire after finding great success selling signed gear, pictures, and other items. Johnson developed an interest in collecting sports memorabilia after getting former Australia cricket captain Steve Waugh’s signature as a nine-year-old. Instead of a paper round as a teenager, he would chase autographs and collect items to sell. He loved the buzz of selling them for a lot of money and started traveling around the world to chase stuff.
Johnson went to the F1 in Asia, the Rugby World Cup in Japan, Manchester City pre-season tours, and then decided to make it an empire. He was in £10,000 debt, but with four and a half years’ work, he became a millionaire. Firma Stella, based in Worcestershire where Johnson grew up, is going well, and he has 12 full-time employees working for him. The business sells a wide variety of items from £10 photos to £5,000 signed shirts.
The shop has pictures of Springboks captain Siya Kolisi and Mo Salah signing items to be sold, but Johnson is confident that meeting Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is the highlight. Real Madrid were playing Manchester United when Johnson found out about Ronaldo’s flight. He followed their bus from the airport to a hotel and quickly booked a room. He knew they were staying on the top floor, and their team room was on the second floor. He saw the lift was on the top floor so he waited for it to come down. No joke, the first lift that opened… imagine it, Ronaldo is just standing there! So Johnson jumped in, and he signed some stuff.
The shop currently has four Man United shirts with the number seven on the back signed by Ronaldo. However, none are for sale for less than £1,400. After Argentina’s success at the World Cup in Qatar, there are no Messi shirts for sale, despite Johnson meeting the PSG star. With Messi, Johnson had to take a big risk – this whole game is about risks. He found out Barcelona flew out of a public airport, so he flew over there from Birmingham. Then he booked a “fake flight” from Barcelona just to get into the terminal. All of a sudden, the team just walked through security – Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez… they signed all their stuff.
Johnson revealed that the biggest sale he has made is an England 1966 signed shirt which fetched a fee of £10,000. He believes that it all comes down to research, knowing where the players and the team will be, then hedge your bets slightly, and it usually pays off. Johnson’s passion for collecting sports memorabilia has turned into a successful business empire that has made him a millionaire.