Medford resident Bob Valentyn is a collector, but it's not the usual stamps or coins he's after. Valentyn collects something far more unique - banana stickers. It's an item few others appreciate, but Valentyn recognizes the distinct characteristics that make a banana sticker worth saving.

 

"It began in 1980, while having my lunch on the jobsite, that I noticed there was a banana sticker on the peel of my banana that looked different from those I had seen before," Valentyn said. "Out of curiosity, I began saving the stickers every time I found one."

 

When it comes to banana stickers, Valentyn is an expert. Chiquita offers the most variety, he says, but Dole comes in a close second with stickers featuring Looney Tunes characters like Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird and Porky Pig.

 

Through his collecting, Valentyn quickly learned there are many other companies in the banana world, such as Turbana, Delmonte, Sunkist, Delsol and Laguna to name a few. The bananas come from all different places, too, including Columbia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Hawaii and Texas. The lifelong Medford resident has amassed 479 different banana stickers in his collection, and it's still growing.

 

Valentyn's friends and family now save stickers for him. Valentyn's daughter mails him banana stickers from California, which he sifts through once a month when he decides which stickers he will keep and which he will thrown away. Valentyn's wife of 61 years, Janet, said her husband will sometimes wander through the market with stickers on his hands and arms. While such behavior is bound to provoke puzzled looks from bystanders, Valentyn explained that skin is one of the few things you can put a sticker on and still take it off without damaging it.

 

The 83-year-old said he once stuck three stickers on his driver's license and forgot about them for months until a police officer questioned him about "defacing his license" at a routine traffic stop.

Valentyn's smile grows wide as he takes out his booklet of banana stickers. Flipping through the pages, seven rows of five stickers on each page show how the banana stickers evolved over the last three decades.

 

In 1992, Chiquita issued stickers with the flags of 24 countries participating in the World Olympics. Valentyn collected all 24. He also boasts about his Desert Storm banana sticker, also issued by Chiquita in 1992, which features a yellow ribbon in the middle of a green, egg-shaped background to commemorate the U.S. military operation in the Persian Gulf.

 

In 1994, for Chiquita's 50th anniversary, the company held a contest for people to design their own banana stickers. Valentyn regrets not participating in the competition, but he still owns the winning stickers. Drawing and painting are two other hobbies of Valentyn's.