Purely political reasons.  Collecting labels keeps my mind off politics.    It is a relatively harmless hobby, can keep the mind busy for hours researching, and has no harmful side effects.

In his youth, my father and his brothers operated a truck farm in Colorado.  He told me a story about a trip he made to Kansas City to deliver a truck load of tomatoes.  On the way back to Colorado  he sold the bushel baskets for twenty five cents each for a little spending money to entertain a gal he met.  His father was angry when he found out about it.  Seems the bushel baskets were worth more than the tomatoes in them.  It is ironic, that the labels that were on the baskets, are in many cases worth more today than both the fruit and the baskets were back then.

Labels are a lot like money, in fact the worse labels get, the better the old ones look.  I must admit, I am an old school guy.  I like old stuff, I like the way things were done in the old days.

I liked the fact that when I was twelve years old I could set pins in a bowling alley for fifteen cents a line and not have to worry that it might be considered a violation of some child labor law.  I liked the fact that after having set pins for 30 games of bowling I would get paid $4.50 for 3 hours of work and it was generally in silver change.

I saved all the walking liberty halves I could get.  I thought the Franklin halves were kind of ugly at the time.  I also preferred the mercury dime over the Roosevelt dimes, for the same reason.  It’s odd that when the Kennedy halves came out, the Franklin halves started looking better.

My first serious interest in politics started about 1965 when the Kennedy half went to a clad coin and Silver Certificates were no longer redeemable in lawful currency.   Although I was only 22 at the time, I sensed that time had moved on without me.  The country I had known in my youth was becoming a different breed of animal.

Which gets me around to why I collect labels, and why it is important that it keep my mind off politics.  Labels to me represent much that was good about this country.  Labels identified the products of growers and manufacturers.  They took pride in their product, and their labels illustrated that pride.  The designs and illustrations produced by lithographers were appealing to the eye, and designed to attraction attention to the product.

It is very difficult for me to pass up a bundle of labels, if I haven’t had one of them or seen them before.   Doesn’t really matter if they are apple, pear, grape, yam, pharmaceutical, wine, whiskey, beer, perfume, soap, candy, hat box, thread, California citrus, Florida citrus, airline, hotel, railroad, bus, automotive, foreign or domestic, round or square, large or small.

Labels can kind of fool you though.  I picked up 14 bundles (14,000) of Lake Wenatchee pear labels when I first started, twenty or so years ago.  I sold the first label for $8.00.   Using simple math, I felt I had discovered a gold mine.  The lot should be worth about $112,000.   I sold about 2 of those labels a year at that price.  Another calculation presented a dilemma.  In order to realize this profit I would need to live to be 57,000 years old.  I thought maybe I could leave them to the kids, but 57,000 years is a long time to store paper.

I have since sold most of those labels at prices ranging from $50.00 to $100.00 a bundle.  I still have a few left, but rarely list one.  It is a nice looking label, but I can’t stand it.  Too much of a good thing I reckon.

I am a libertarian by nature, and will try to keep my political comments to a minimum, but I doubt I will be successful.   Too many things going on in the world today that just chap my hide.  I have avoided political discourse most of my life because I do not care for conflict and politics is nothing but conflict.  I am one of those people that feels like he knows the way things ought to be.  Oddly enough, when I get into a political debate I discover that not everyone is on the same page.  Religion has a similar effect.

Do you ever feel like trying to straighten out the world?  Have you ever wished you were King of the World for a few days.  Sometimes I do.  I would probably mess it up, but it sure would be interesting if you could give it a shot.

• Loud Boom Boxes, particularly in automobiles would be banned.
• Inflation would be a criminal offense.
• The primary subjects in school would include Manners.
• It would be against the law for a lawyer to become a politician. (obviously a conflict of interest)
• If all politicians were label collectors, bar codes and zip codes would be banned from labels.  Have you ever seen a label advertised as dating from the 1930’s with a zip code?  I have.
• All political offices, national and local would be determined by pulling their name out of a hat.  All registered voters would be eligible (required) to serve.   You would serve one term only at the same pay you were making when your name was pulled.  When it was over, you could go on about your rat killing, or whatever you did for a living.  If you truly want the elected officials to represent the population, you need a mechanism to give them equal voice.  I can appreciate the vote, however, elections rarely go my way.   If twenty percent of the people in this country are poor, then twenty percent of the politicians should be poor.  If five percent are rich, ditto.   Currently there are about 1,100,00 practicing lawyers in the United States, approx. .35% of the population.   Approximately 230 members of congress and the senate have law degrees.  That’s scary.  I am with Shakespeare on this one.

Welcome to the LabelTrader Blog.   More to come soon!