Plainclothes police were deployed around Barcelona's Mercat de Sant Antoni on Sunday, 12 July, as hundreds of people gathered from early morning to swap World Cup stickers and other collectible cards. According to reporting by El Periódico, the officers were there to monitor illegal buying and selling that has grown alongside the latest collecting craze.

For local residents, traders and Sunday visitors, the immediate effect is extra police surveillance around the market while the usual exchange sessions continue. The activity under scrutiny is not the exchange of duplicate stickers itself, but unlicensed street trading and the purchase and sale of collectible cards in the public space outside the rules set for the area.

What police were monitoring at the market

The article by Clàudia Mas says plainclothes officers were controlling the area to regulate illegal card trading at the market. The report does not specify which police body the officers belonged to, and no official count of officers deployed is given.

It does, however, set out the focus of the operation clearly: police were watching for commercial activity beyond simple swapping between collectors. That includes illegal street sales and purchases of stickers and cards around the market, where the weekly gathering has become especially busy in recent weeks.

The boom in collecting has also led to an increase in illegal buying and selling, beyond just exchanges.

Large Sunday crowds return to Sant Antoni

Sunday's gathering again filled the area around the market from early in the morning, according to El Periódico's report. Sant Antoni has long been a reference point in Barcelona for collectors, and the current World Cup sticker rush has sharply increased attendance.

The source material confirms two concrete points: the gathering took place on Sunday, 12 July, and it drew hundreds of collectors. People came to exchange the stickers they were missing, but the same concentration of buyers and sellers has also prompted closer monitoring of what police regard as illegal trading.

  • Where: Mercat de Sant Antoni, Barcelona
  • When: Sunday, 12 July
  • What drew the crowds: World Cup sticker exchanges
  • What police were watching for: illegal buying and selling of collectible cards and stickers

Residents and visitors planning to go to the market on exchange mornings should expect a heavy collector turnout and a visible police presence in and around the area while the current sticker surge continues.

Reported by Source Text Link, Clàudia Mas, ground.news, Màrius Lamor, CatalunyaPress.es, Cesc Maideu, Luis Benvenuty, Pere Roca Soler, Marc Mosull, The Christian Science Monitor, onefootball.com, Patricia Castán, El Periódico Barcelona.