An Australian Collects Banana-Stickers!

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You must have heard about people who love collecting different types of stamps, but here"s a man who likes collecting stickers on bananas.

Robert "Hank" Ankins has a collection of more than 400 of such banana stickers that he got hold of by trawling fruit stores for six years, and searching for the labels stuck on Australian bananas.

The 65-year-old man eventually came to know via internet that he was just one of the hundreds of banana-label collectors around the world.

In 2006, all these banana-sticker-lovers staged an international convention in Munich.

While Ankins trades with sticker-lovers in the US, Britain and the Czech Republic, he is now looking for fellow collectors in his vicinity.

In fact, this Gymea resident even posted a request in The Daily Telegraph's In Search section, seeking like-minded Australians.

He said that he was surprised to find so many of banana-sticker-lovers existed round the world.

"I saw a banana label in a shop one day and thought: There can't be many of them around' - so I thought I'd start collecting them,'' British tabloid The sun quoted him as saying.

Ankins says that he just cannot resist going into fruit shops to look for stickers, despite knowing that it embarrasses his wife.

"She just waits outside,'' he said.

He is sure that other Australian collectors can help him add to his home-grown catalogue, which is almost complete.

"There are only three or four Australian labels, that I know of, that I haven't got,'' he said.