citruslabelsociety.com -- What's my citrus label worth?

What's my label worth?

By Jeff Dillon
Vice-president for Publicity
Citrus Label Society

There are two main questions that we get at the Citrus Label Society: "How do I find a particular label?" and "What's my label worth?"

The answers are actually closely related.

Label guides

The first commercial guide came in 1983, when collectors Gordon T. McLelland and Jay T. Last published "Fruit Box Labels: A Collectors Guide," now out of print. The soft-bound 192-page illustrated guide cataloged labels in four price ranges: Under $5, $5 to $25, $25-$50 and over $50.
In 1994, collector/dealer Thomas P. "Pat" Jacobsen published his own "Pat Jacobsen's Collector's Guide to Fruit Crate Labels" in two spiral-bound editions. McLelland and Last followed up in 1995 with "Fruit Box Labels: An Illustrated Price Guide to Citrus Labels," a 144-page full-color hard-bound book offering more detailed prices.
Jacobsen followed up in 2000 with "Pat Jacobsen's Millennium Guide to Fruit Crate Labels."
At the same time, collector/dealer Robert C. Mannheim was preparing his own price list in the form of an illustrated pocket guide. Mannheim updated "California Citrus Crate Labels: An Illustrated Price Guide" for 2003.

As with most collectibles, the value and availability of citrus labels are determined by market forces, how much people are willing to pay for them. Values can range from a few cents to hundreds of dollars. For citrus labels, that's largely determined by a handful of factors:

Rarity

Labels were only printed during the era of wooden fruit crates, from the 1880s to the mid-1950s, so, unlike baseball cards or movie posters, no new labels are being created. Most of the labels ever printed were used on crates or otherwise disposed of, so the only remaining labels are those that were saved by collectors over the past century, retained by printers and packers, or otherwise stashed away.

Some labels have vanished entirely; others are so common you can buy them in bundles of 100 for a few dollars and could wallpaper a room with them.

Subtle variations also make some labels more valuable to collectors than others that may appear identical at first glance. For example, a number of packinghouses used the Sunflower label for different types of citrus, so you may see versions that just say Sunflower, Orangedale Sunflower and for Washington Navel, Valencias and lemons. Orangedale Sunflower orange labels may sell for $10 or less; the lemon variant may cost $25.

Condition

Many surviving labels remain in near-pristine condition, but many also have been marred. Most collections will include labels that are torn, missing pieces, folded, stained or written upon. Such damage may make a common label worthless, but some rare or otherwise attractive labels may still be quite valuable.

Labels that have been glued to crates or otherwise used generally have only value as novelties.

Theme and attractiveness

Labels featuring attractive images are generally worth more. And that applies to the subject of the artwork, not just the quality of the art.

Upland Rose Images featuring dogs and cats are popular favorites and casual visitors to society meetings can often be heard gasping at prices ranging from $50 to $300 for Bulldog, Fearless, Fido, Greyhound Brand, Red Cat, Red Dog and Tomcat. Flowers -- Camellia, Daisy, Goldenrod, Sunflower -- are pretty and popular, but are so plentiful they're not worth much. The spectacular Cal-Oro multi-colored butterfly label is worth at least $150.

The value of labels also can be affected by the place names they carry. Someone who lives in or near Redlands, Calif. might pay more for a Redlands Foothill label that's otherwise worth only a few dollars. To an East Coast collector, the same label may be worth much more -- or nothing at all.

In the end, it's a combination of these factors that will determine the retail value of a label. Even with a tear, a torn Tomcat may be worth $100 to the right buyer.

Enough theory. What's my label worth?

Unlike baseball cards or more common ephemera, there's no newsletter or yearbook that publishes generally accepted prices for labels.

And it's crucial to remember that any price you see is likely to be the retail price -- what a dealer is going to charge for a label in his or her inventory, not what a deal is willing to pay. A dealer may offer only one-third to one-half of the expected retail price of a label because the universe of collectors is scattered enough that it make take months or years to find a buyer.

The latest efforts to set label prices are from two online dealers:

Pat Jacobsen with his "Millennium Guide to Fruit Crate Labels" (2000). At $59.95 plus shipping, the hefty tome offers prices for some 5,000 labels and still appears to be available from his fruitcratelabels.com site.

Robert C. Mannheim's "California Citrus Crate Labels: An Illustrated Price Guide 2003 edition" (2003). Available for $32.95 plus shipping at his cratelabels.com site.

Without any sort of central clearinghouse for label sales, there's no way to gauge the accuracy of any price guide, though prices do tend to drift toward those in published lists as less label-savvy antique shops and other dealers refer to the guides for pricing.

There are at least three other ways to check label values:

Look up prices on the Web sites of online dealers -- just search for "citrus labels" or "fruit crate labels" on Google for a list of dealers. Some dealers also will mail you price lists.
Search the auction site eBay for "citrus labels" and click on the "completed items" link to see what labels have sold for in the past week or two.
Bring your labels to a dealer or to one of the society's monthly meetings in Southern California. Society meetings, especially those held at the Sunkist headquarters in Sherman Oaks, attract a variety of dealers, any of whom will be happy to look at labels.