(This article originally appears in Antique Gazette in May 1989. It has been modified for the AMCC WebSite.)

(Editor's Note: Bill Retskin has just completed his first book on matchcover collecting, THE MATCHCOVER COLLECTORS RESOURCE BOOK AND PRICE GUIDE. He is also the editor of The Front Striker Bulletin, The RMS Bulletin (the national society for matchcover collectors), and the MARVA Collector.)

One of the first questions asked by a novice matchcover collector is, "What categories should I collect?" The thoughtful answer is usually, "Start as a general collector and you will eventually find a category or two that you like."

With that helpful piece of information, I have recently unearthed a listing from the Master Matchless Album Co., dated 1939. Omitting their directions on how to use the album, but including suggestions regarding "Classifications," here is a look into what might have been your choice sixty years ago.

Matchcover collectors accumulate what they like. Ten strike through 240-strike covers or full books. They always have and they always will. Some of us treat a mint condition cover like a rare treaty recently exhumed from some 18th century auditor's strong box, while others have been known to keep bobtails (matchcovers with the striker removed). Specialists emerge after the usual "beginner's" collection has been worked over and over again, checking and rechecking minute details of every cover and matching new findings with the authorities who publish the lists.

Details of this wonderful preoccupation with matchcovers are most pleasantly provided by some of the best conversationalists in all collectordome (the world of collecting). Experienced collectors love to offer blow by blow descriptions of how to saunter through collections, methods of impeaching the staple from the book, verse and chapter on who did what first and when and how. . . . but for the wide-eyed novice, this can all seem like the passage way to the Dark Crystal.

During a matchcover club meeting one chilly November night, I asked the prematurely gray-hair president of the Marva Club (rural Washington, D.C.) the question. "What should I collect?". In his inimitable way, Dave Riel started me off on the right foot. "Collect anything that you like," he said...and I did.

At one point, I turned to the subject of this article, and found it very helpful. The Matchless Album Company lists the following three sections (the second having four subsections) under a heading called "Classifications" in their shirt-back cardboard supplement that came with their 1939 matchcover album.

(1) Pictorial Covers - Screen and radio stars; baseball, football and hockey players; colleges; city views; souvenir views; floral sets; animals; bridge sets; cocktail sets; colonial designs; conventional designs; holiday greetings; initials; historical scenes; state views; athletics; sporting scenes.

(2) Advertising Covers - Hotels; hotel chains; apartment houses; restaurants; night clubs; taverns; lunch rooms and cafeterias; billiards and bowling; sportlands; liquors; beers and wines.

Rail; air; steamship and bus lines; terminals and travel service; taxicabs; automobiles, accessories and supplies; garages and service stations; roadhouses; tourist homes.

Department stores; cigar stores; drug and confectionery stores; other stores; toilet sundries; remedies; candies and gums; cigars and cigarettes; matches; foods and beverages; office supplies; typewriters.

Clothing; furs; shoes; laundries and cleaning; household articles; fuels; building materials; insurance; Realtor; public utilities; telephone and telegraph; express; banks and finance; publications; theatres; radio stations and broadcasts; barber and beauty shops; razor blades.

(3) General Covers - Clubs; lodges and associations; leagues; benefits; hospitals; camps; expositions, fairs and pageants; political clubs and candidates; military and naval units; public agencies; parks and resorts; municipalities; police and fire departments; private estates; yachts; family crests; photographs; anniversaries; coronations.

So take your pick. It is difficult to imagine this many collectible categories some 48 years ago. Today, there are several hundred more standard categories and collectors are coming up with new ones all the time. "Dressed Frogs," "Shamrocks," and "Black & White Photos," are just a few classifications that weren't around when it all first began.

Categories are what you make of them, and there are as many as there are inventive matchcover collectors.