It was common for a lot of young children to work, and so have a small disposable income. What would a 12 year old boy collect in Edwardian Britain with his small disposable income?
Ogden's 'football club colours' cigarette cards might have been collected by children in 1906 England. This particular set came out first in 1906 and one card would come per pack and there were a total of 51 different cards.
The company also produced two other sets around that time one titled 'Boy Scout' series cigarette cards which was targeted to be collected by young kids. Another series titled 'How to hold pets' was produced.
Some children would hang out outside of smoke shops and ask(or pay) patrons for the card that came in their pack.
Some short histories of cigarette cards:
Penny Dreadfuls are one possibility. Another common toy would be marbles. Tin soldiers were still somewhat popular by this time I recall Winston Churchill bragging that he at one time had something like 1500.
A perusal of the titles of articles within contemporary issues of The Boy's Own Paper may yield some improving and educational hobbies suitable for a boy, such as "How to Start a Collection of Butterflies and Moths", "Pleasant Hobbies for Boys: Collecting Land Shells" or indeed "How to Make a Collection of Mosses". The most popular subject for collection would seem to be postage stamps, subject of several columns from Frederick J. Melville amongst others.
The Papers.
Kind of like comic books, but more story based. At that time the stuff that would be popular was mostly based on public (read private) school stereotypes.
Conkers (horse chestnuts) would also be popular around autumn by that time, although they would be free boot laces would still need to be bought!
