The 35-year-old Chipping Norton resident, together with his wife Nan, run Dan's NRL Collectables.

Mr Pain is an avid collector of footy cards and sports memorabilia.

``When I look through my football-card collection, my childhood memories come flooding back to me,'' Mr Pain said.

``I remember when I was in the schoolyard and we used to trade cards, and times we played flicking cards against a common wall.

``Where whoever flicked closest to the wall was the winner and then collected the pot of footy cards.

``At my school whoever had the most football cards became king of the hill, so to speak.

``As a competitive kid, I wanted to collect them all. And when a fellow student brought in older cards from his father's collection my eyes opened up.

``I went on to give this kid my lunch money daily for the next few months in return for a daily pile of cards.

``I went hungry those days, so much was my passion, but it was well worth it.

``I have often wondered what happened to that boy when his father finally realised his son was selling his footy-card collection.''

Mr Pain said nowadays he still collects the cards and while the designs and names have changed they are still as enjoyable as ever.

``It is something I have never grown out of. I don't care what my personal collection is worth, I would never sell them.''

``Kids love their team and want to show their team colours by supporting them ...

``In reality kids are the heart and soul of card collecting and all collectors in some form began their interest during childhood.''

Details: dansnrlcollectables.com.