I never did the football sticker thing but I can remember my mates buying the cards at school and those being really popular for swops at breaktime,they didn't have peel off sticky backs but more of a sturdier card type,I'm not even sure that there was a book to put them in but I could be wrong
When I was at junior school i can remember collecting the small cards that you got free in packets of fags and buying the book to put them in for about 50p,although the cards was always associated with cigarettes I think of them coming in packets of PG Tips for some reason