We trade a lot. I love the hobby to collect and trade banana labels with someone, somewhere in the world. My new stars at the sky are Эля and Татьяна from Russia. Having a letter from a country far away in my mailbox is real big fun. I'm very happy to be in contact with so many wonderful collectors. Everything started for me in 1998 with the internet. In the mean time, I met many of my tradepartners in person.

With all the trades I've done in this long time, I can consider myself very lucky. So when I like to talk about balanced trades, please don't misunderstand me. I guess I owe more labels to someone than the other way round. However, I like to spend some thoughts what is a good trade and what we like to avoide. You will agree, that we should talk about some 'rules' how we trade banana labels in general.

1. Old and rare labels are special and makes a collection unique. If I have got an old and rare label in my duplicates, I usuallly like to trade it only in compensation with a similar old and rare label. So please ask for a label that is 20 years old only if I do know you since 30 years in person or if you have something very good to offer.
2. Labels that are 10 years old have got usually a higher value for me than a label you found yesterday in your local store. So I can say, a good trade is to trade labels of the same age. We have published the year of issue at each label, so please check it.
3. When I get one or two extra labels from a friend who was on holiday in South Korea than this banana label has got a personal story and a special trade value. Sometimes I invite my friends for lunch to say thank you to collect banana labels for me in his holidays. But this you do not know, when I offer the label in my duplicates. So please be aware, that I will mention the story of the label and that I do not like to give it away for a standard Chiquita-Minion or Dole-Visit-My-Farm label, even if they have got the same age.
4. So far, there are many collectors in Central America but few in Asia. That means we do have less labels to trade from the Philippines than from Ecuador or Costa Rica. A 1:1 trade of a Philippine label in exchange for a label from Ecuador is in general problematic.
5. In Europe or the States we usually 'steal' few banana labels in the supermarked, but this you can't do in Asia. In Asia you have to buy the bananas and there is nearly no chance to get some extras to trade with. It is much more difficult and expensive to get a label in Japan then in other countries. Please consider this in your trades.
6. Our friends in EC or CR collect different, because the banana labels are produced there. I have to go to the supermarked to find new labels. Because I usually do only take '5 a day' it needs several days to have - for example - a complete set of Chiquita-Challange-Panama to trade. In the same time I have my 5 labels the collectors in EC go to the neighbour and get 50 to 500 labels from a role. Which is a big advantage for huge sets. So for me the 5 labels out of the supermarket have got a bigger value then 5 labels from a role.
7. I started to collect banana labels now 40 years ago and I build up my relationships in the banana biz since 30 years. I was on holiday in Panama, Costa Rica or Ecuador and know some collectors in person that you probably do not know. So I have got many, many labels to trade and sometimes I get in addition few labels to trade that no one else can offer (since the catalog is published this is not so often any more). Please don't give me the feeling, that you can just picking and choosing from what I've build up in the last 40 years.

So this are my thoughts about trading banana labels. To sum it up: To trade banana labels is not so easy than it seems. When we build up the Want-List and the Request-List than we should chat / e-mail a lot. For me it is more important to know about the history of some special labels than to do a quick trade. And please don't mind me, if I say 'no' and do not like to send you a SPECIAL TRADE label. Just accept it. Lets take time to negotiate a good trade.

Any feedback from you is welcome. I know you also like to discuss and give many, many comments at each article that is published. So please continue and give me your opinion.