Collecting Banana Stickers
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Does collecting banana stickers seem odd to you? Why not? Bananas are universally appreciated for their great taste, nutrients and are even considered to be able to fight bad mood and depression as the substances they contain arouse the feeling of happiness.
Many labels serve not just as codes; they are colorful pieces of advertising art. Like postage stamps, they are easy to ship and do not need much storage space. And, what is more important, though they are greatly varied and constantly changing, the supply of each design vanishes in no time as almost all are buried in the trash or compost pile along with the peels.
A Little History of Stickers
There are a lot of stickers produced around the globe, it is hard to name the exact number, but no doubt you will discover many thousands of different stickers. The first sticker, the 'Afrikanische Frucht Compagnie', appeared in 1912.
As you probably guess Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte are among the most common brands, but some of you might have never heard of Ghersa, Paco or Tipito.
The appearance of contemporary banana labels in the United States dates back to the early 1960's when the United Fruit Company started sticking its well-known blue Chiquita labels on fruit. The marketing idea, however, originated from the Company's experiment with a brand named "Meloripe" as early as in the 1930's.
The concept itself is even older. Bananas from German Cameroon might have been labeled before World War I, but that information is not absolutely reliable. The longest enduring use of labels started in 1929 when Elders & Fyffes, a firm from Britain, at the time part of the United Fruit Empire, came up with its "Fyffes Blue Label" stickers. Today's Fyffes, one of the most popular brands in Britain, Ireland, and Europe, represents an independent firm and Chiquita's rival.
Major brands, like Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte, and Turbana deal with selling bananas under several different brand names. Chiquita, for example, uses its own name, as well as "Amigo" and "Consul" and others. The name may depend not only on quality, but on the size of otherwise similar Cavendish fruit.
Nowadays, you will be surprised to find out that there are a lot of enthusiasts engaged in collecting the little stickers. The same way as philatelists, the stickers collectors often specialize, and banana labels enjoy extreme popularity with collectors all over the world, who create their own Web sites to demonstrate their collections. Upsides with running in and out of grocery stores in search for new stickers, this is also the best way to enlarge the collection by trading, exchanging, sharing the information, communicating as well as a wonderful chance to find new friends.
Meet the Most Enthusiastic Banana Stickers Collectors
Banana stickers' collectors are people of different ages and occupations and have been inspired to start their hobby in absolutely different ways.
John Kirchner is a college professor who has been continuously interested in tropical agriculture and transportation. His banana labels collection was born in 1970 during the studies in Guatemala and Costa Rica, but John was happy to learn about the existence of other fellow collectors in 1995 after being connected to Internet. Since then he has kept in touch with the collectors from around the world and have been lucky enough to meet many of them in person. 24 different banana labels served as the beginning for John's collection in 1970 that today comprises over 7,000 different stickers.
Osmo Asikainen, a guy from Finland, calls himself a “sticker freak!” His collecting of fruit stickers was started in 1994, and today he may be proud of over 14.000 different stickers, including many banana stickers. This amazing number has been achieved in quite a short time thanks to Osmo's active communication with about 25 traders and friends from various countries, such as the USA, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden. In Finland you will not find many fruit sticker collectors and this is a very rare hobby. Osmo himself knows just 5 relatively active collectors.
His collection features all kinds of fruit stickers, but Osmo finds banana stickers to be the most exciting. There are over 1400 different banana stickers including a lot of Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole variations. Osmo thinks that in the North collecting banana stickers is quite of a challenge as it is really complicated to discover some brand besides the above mentioned "mainstream" labels imported there.
Becky Martz, a mother of five children, is another example of outstanding personality who has “gone bananas.” For Becky everything started in 1991. Banana labels first caught her attention when she put two bunches of bananas in the fruit bowl together. She noticed that two Dole labels were not the same, one said Guatemala and the other Honduras. The same year at Christmas she set her eyes on a festive label that said” Chiquita: The Perfect Stocking Stuffer.” It was the first label to become a piece of Becky's collection. First, the beginning collector used to stick the labels onto a sheet of orange contact paper. Then the labels were placed into a small photo album. With time the collection became quite large and Becky put the stickers on graph paper and in a notebook. Nowadays there are more than 4000 banana stickers at Becky's disposal.
Becky had never imagined that she could find in the world other collectors captured by the same hobby until she got a call from her elder son that gave her the idea about other banana label collectors on the net. In a few months her collection of 53 stickers grew into 150.Becky started trading and registered with the banana Intranet. Her son helped her with creating her own web site.
Banana labels collection is not the only one of Becky's. She is also keen on collecting such wide range of things as broccoli and asparagus bands, British Royal Family memorabilia, Japanese Kokeshi dolls, and cheap and tacky nativity sets.
If you don't collect banana stickers, you may start it any time. You will be surprised how many nice friends you' will find among other passionate collectors. Remember there are many other alternative….If one day you make up your mind to collect a supreme quality replica watches, you are sure to discover faithful and reliable companions. The owners of fine replica watches will enter an exciting and ever-changing world of precise timekeeping.
