HAPPY WORLD CUP DAY

All righty, the World Cup is afoot! You know what that means! PANINI STICKERS!!! Let me show you all the Panini stickers I've found around town to open today!!!

Yep, just look at all of 'em. Isn't it great to live in the USA?

But fear not my friends! Go to FIFA.com and you can sign up for your very own Virtual Panini Sticker Album!

Yes, you have to register but it's reasonably painless. When you register you get a virtual album and three packets. There aren't as many stickers in the virtual album as in the real one, but it's still fun anyway. To open a packet you just click on it and drag across the top to 'rip' it.

Now you have five stickers to put in your New pile or your Swap pile. Stickers you don't have have a star on them wen you hover over them. Sort and open the next packet.

Rinse and repeat. Five more stickers!

Now you have 15 brand spanking new stickers. No shinies or specials though, those are hidden on the FIFA website or given as bonuses when you complete a team page. Note that the one with the star here is a dupe of the very first sticker I pulled. Since I haven't stuck anything into the album yet, it sees everything as new. Time to stick these puppies!

Click on My Album and then drag and drop stickers out of the pile onto your page. If you try to drop it onto the wrong slot the sticker will float back to your pile. When you hover over a sticker on the pile it will show the name and the flag of the country that player represents. You will learn all 32 flags for all the nations in this year's tournament really, really quick. This, I promise you.

One benefit the virtual album has over the real one is that you can click on the stickers you have to get stats.

Oh Noes! Out of packets! Don't worry, you get two or three a day automatically. You can also get bonus packets through a trivia game and by entering seekrit codes. These codes are not that secret at all and you can probably rip about thirty packs on your first day if you wish.

But what about that double I got? Panini packets are notorious for doubles everywhere. No sweat, just click on Swap Area and offer up a trade for that double.I'm asking for any player from ITALIA!!! for Mr. Gomez.

Unlike the Topps Million site PEOPLE ACTUALLY RESPOND TO TRADES! You'll get a notice when a trade goes through.

Open 'er up and get your sticker. Touch black, no trade back though. Once a trade goes through you're stuck with it. Heh. Stuck.

Put your new sticker in the album and create a new trade. You can have three trades pending at a time so it you have a pile of doubles you'll need to keep on top of that. After you get your album about 50% full, the swap game becomes very important.

If you want to trade with people you know or just BS about collecting digital stickers you can join a group. Todd AKA darkship created one that he I and Chris Harris are currently using. If you want in (and Chris and Todd have a nose for finding codes) just join our group with this password:

Group ID: 276609
Password: Todd

You can also win a prize if you complete your album by a certain date. You have about as good odds as pulling a Strasburg Superfractor from a retail pack of Bowman, but the contest is there regardless.

Besides, collecting is its own reward... even if it is just online.