The Banana Label Catalog is the largest and most complete database of banana labels in the world. It brings together collectors, labels, duplicates, variants and background information from all over the world. Collectors can document their collections, find information, discuss labels, meet other collectors and trade with each other.
I’m always happy to see collectors using these possibilities, adding new finds and offering their duplicates for trade. This shows that the catalog is working as it should. But all of this also requires a lot of work behind the scenes. The content has to be checked, organized and maintained, and the technical platform needs continuous administration. Over the years, this has meant around €12,000 in costs and an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 hours of work.
Most of my hobby time now goes into maintaining and developing the catalog. As a result, I have much less time than other collectors to search for labels or organize trades. I cannot maintain the catalog at this level and at the same time be a normal trading partner. Therefore, I depend on the collecting community to help me continue building my own collection as well.
There is no membership or usage fee. But using the catalog should not be a one-way exchange either. If you regularly use the catalog for your collection, benefit from the information, upload your labels, find trading partners or follow the discussions, I ask you to also think of the person who provides and maintains all of this.
The easiest way to help is very simple: the catalog shows you when one of your duplicates is still missing from my collection. Please put such labels aside for me and send them to me from time to time. I should not have to contact regular users individually and repeatedly ask for their support. If you benefit regularly from the catalog, I hope it becomes natural to also look occasionally at what you can contribute.
This is not about demanding a certain number of labels from every collector. Collecting conditions are very different from country to country, and I know that some collectors have much better access to new labels than others. What matters to me is a fair attitude: contribute according to your possibilities and remember that the catalog can only work in the long term if the exchange goes both ways.
Collectors who actively support me and the catalog receive Premium status as a small recognition of their contribution. Premium is not a membership fee and it is not necessary to use the catalog. It is simply my way of saying thank you to those who help carry some of the effort behind this project.
We are a small collecting community, and I am very happy that the catalog brings us together. I want it to remain open, active and enjoyable for everyone. But I also hope that those who regularly benefit from it will help make sure that the work and benefits are not all on one side.
Michael