The Banana Label Catalog is the largest and most complete database of banana labels in the world. It contains everything that is known about banana labels in one place. It is a unique treasure for our hobby. It brings together collectors, labels, duplicates, variants and background information from all over the world, so every collector can use this information for their own collection and research. 

I’m always happy to see collectors keeping track of what they have, offering their duplicates for trade and uploading their latest finds here. But adding a label is only a small part of what makes the catalog work. Someone has to organize and maintain the catalog content, while the technical side of the platform also needs continuous administration. There is a lot of ongoing work behind it that takes considerable time and money. This is already explained in detail elsewhere, so I won’t repeat it here.

What should actually be obvious to everyone is that I have much less time than most other collectors to spend on collecting and trading. Most of my hobby time goes into maintaining and developing the catalog. I simply cannot do all of this while also spending additional time sorting duplicates and arranging trades. I no longer have the time to actively organize trades myself, so I depend on the collecting community for new labels. If my work is helping you in your hobby, the exchange has to work both ways.

There is also a second reason why I need the community’s help. I think it is unrealistic to expect me to invest so much of my hobby time and money into this project without receiving at least some personal benefit in return. The catalog may be a community project, but the time, effort and costs behind it should not be carried by me alone. For me, that personal benefit is receiving labels that are still missing from my collection.

There is no membership or usage fee for the catalog, but that does not mean that using it comes at no cost. If you find the catalog useful and spend time here, I think it is only fair to contribute something in return. You can easily see which labels I am still missing, so I shouldn’t have to ask individually for them. If you have a duplicate that is new to me, please put it aside and send it to me from time to time. They don’t have to be rare labels or large quantities - just a fair contribution to keep the exchange going.

And yes, the gold medal next to your username should be a natural sign that you support the catalog and the administrative work behind it. If you don’t have a gold medal and use the catalog regularly, please think about why you are happy to use something that requires a lot of time and money to keep running, but are not willing to contribute to it yourself. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

And if you live in a country where only a few new labels appear or postage is extremely expensive, please don’t worry about that. Just talk to me. What makes things difficult is when I get the impression that someone expects to use the catalog and all the information it provides without contributing anything to the work and money behind it.

Michael