Becky's Gone Bananas
Beckymartz.com features images of my collection of more than 11,300 banana labels.
Beckymartz.com is where I display my collection of more than 11,000 unique banana labels. I have been collecting for more than 20 years.
I first became interested in banana labels when I bought some bananas and noticed that the label on the ones already in my fruit bowl had a different country on them. One said Honduras and one said Guatemala. Then I wondered how many other country names appeared on banana labels, so I started looking at them very carefully. That year (1991) Chiquita used a sticker that said "The Perfect Stocking Stuffer." I thought that was very funny. That was the first label that I kept with the idea of keeping more. For the first few years I just had labels that I found myself. Then in 1996, one of my kids searched on the Internet and found that other people collected them, too. I was shocked---I thought I was the only person in the world who collected them. I made a few contacts online with other collectors. Then a guy in Switzerland sent me some labels and asked to trade with me. My trading expanded.......my collection grew......and one day I had 11,300 labels.
I guess all collectors see beauty in the items that they collect. I certainly see beauty in mine. I love it that some are artistic. I love it that some of them are little advertising billboards. Sometimes they even make a political statement. I think that what I love most of all about banana labels is that they are ephemeral. They are meant to be thrown away. For some reason, that makes them even more precious to me.