Tactic of weighing packages to find rare stickers works Anyone who has a World Cup album knows that the items most sought after by collectors are the "legend" stickers, the rarest, with players who are the highlights of each team. 📲 Access the g1 RS channel on WhatsApp At sticker exchange locations, it is not uncommon to see collectors using strategies to try to find packages with the rarest items. There are even those who take a precision scale to the meeting place and evaluate, gram by gram, which package is most likely to contain a "legend". ⚽🏃 The name "Legend", in fact, is not official. The correct one, according to Panini, the company responsible for manufacturing and selling World Cup albums, is "Extra Sticker" or "Extra Sticker". See below which players have their "extra" version on the album. g1 explains: What is a rare sticker, and what is the chance of finding it? Businessman Ramir Severiano, responsible for one of the three largest distributors of World Cup stickers in Brazil, based in Frederico Westphalen, in Rio Grande do Sul, confirms: "Rare figurines, as they are better crafted, are heavier. It doesn't make a significant difference, but they [collectors] can observe it", he says. Like other experts, he attests that the main strategy to "guarantee" that a package has a sticker works: the "extra stickers" would actually be heavier, and the tactic of weighing packages to get them works. On average, a pack of "normal" stickers weighs 4 grams, while a pack with at least one special item weighs 5g. Therefore, it is necessary to have a calibrated precision scale to be able to notice the difference. g1 contacted Panini and the company stated that it "will not comment on this". g1 tested and proved: rare stickers are heavier Reproduction/RBS TV The list of players with “Extra Sticker”, according to Panini, is as follows: Lionel Messi Jérémy Doku Vinícius Junior Alphonso Davies Luis Diaz Florian Wirtz Heung-min Son Raúl Jiménez Achraf Hakimi Cody Gakpo Luka Modrić Moses Caicedo Mohamed Salah Jude Bellingham Kylian Mbappé Erling Haaland Cristiano Ronaldo Lamine Yamal Federico Valverde Christian Pulisic Sales success According to Severiano, around 65% of the products requested by distributors were sold before the start of the World Cup. The initial order was for 50 million envelopes and 1.6 million albums, in different versions. Around 30 million envelopes and more than a million albums have already been sold, he says. The stickers are produced in Brazil and Italy and, since the last World Cup, Argentina has also started to produce stickers in Latin America. Brazil is the country that consumes the most this product, with 65% of sales. Distribution occurs with enhanced security and without handling the content by the distributor. "They come boxed, in the dispenser, with a thousand envelopes. When they arrive to us, we don't even have time to see them: they leave the truck — which is special, armored — very securely, including with a beater, and we take great care when distributing them", he says. This edition's album has almost a thousand stickers and brings together 48 selections. Demand grows with the start of the competition and the promotion of players. "At the launch there is always an expectation, but now, from the moment the call-ups come out and the media starts to show players, this increases. We are living perhaps the hottest moment in the commercialization of World Cup products", he states. Special sticker of Argentine player Lionel Messi glued to the 2026 World Cup album Henrique Martin/g1 VIDEOS: Everything about RS