Checkers, Spar and Pick n Pay have been competing with promotional collectable items ever since the launch of the infamous Pick n Pay Stickeez.

Claire Cobbledick, head of marketing of Gumtree SA, says that being a mother herself she experienced the Stickeez craze first-hand.

“I knew that my kids would hear about Stickeez at school, so I checked them out online,” she says.

And to her surprise, after trawling the Gumtree site, she saw a large number of adverts featuring the Pick n Pay Stickeez.

“It seemed that people were opting to pay R10 on Gumtree per Stickee rather than R150 in store,” she continues.

The latest collectable craze is the Checkers Little Shop Minis.

“Overnight, Minis adverts popped up on the site, and when going through them, we even discovered vintage Minis in Port Elizabeth.”

A set of 25 Minis in a collectible case fetched R1500 on social media, which many selling for the original price of the grocery purchase – R150 per Mini. The peak of the campaign, a designated National Swap Day where various stores hosted hundreds of people swapping their duplicate Minis with each other, exploded on social media and displayed a larger share of voice when comparing it to Stickeez.

And when Gumtree recently conducted a survey asking users which campaign they preferred, 39% opted for the PnP Super Animals, 39% for Minis, 12% for the Spar’s Angry Birds and only 10% for Stickeez.

“It is safe to say that Stickeez has clearly been forgotten, with bigger and better campaigns taking over,” says Cobbledick.

Stickeez and Little Shop Minis can be still be found on www.gumtree.co.za.