Single-Top Labels

For many years the most popular type of label, especially among British collectors, was the single-top label. Not too many years ago this was the most common type of matchbox label to be found in the United Kingdom, although latterly it is used more on boxes of imported matches and is seldom, if ever, found on contemporary British-made boxes of matches.
The single-top label, as its name implies, is simply a one-panel label that is affixed to the top of a matchbox; it usually has either blue or yellow backing paper, but it can also be found stuck to a preprinted, skillet-type box. This type of matchbox label is usually very easy to remove from the matchbox and is not too difficult to mount into albums for storage and display - hence its popularity with most collectors of matchbox labels.

All-Round Labels

The all-round label, also known as an ARTB, has been obsolete in the United Kingdom and most other countries of the world for many years now. This type of label wrapped around the entirety of the matchbox and, when collected, it should always be kept intact. Never, ever cut the label into sections like the old-time collectors used to do; such a practice renders the label worthless, especially when compared to a complete, uncut specimen. The all-round label was used on British-made matches from the early 1830s until the late 1970s when it was superseded by the skillet, the type of unwieldy matchbox that now dominates the world of collecting.
Not strictly an ARTB in the accepted sense of the word, is the pill-box label. This sort of label wrapped around the outside of a cylindrical box. It was found mainly on matchboxes made in Austria, but was in common use in Australia and New Zealand in the early years of the 20th century. Pill-box match containers usually had a small, circular label on the lid of the box. Such labels are now very scarce and certainly worth collecting.

Skillets

Virtually the only type of matchbox to be found these days is the skillet. The skillet is similar to the all-round label in that the design of the label goes all around the box, but there the similarity ends. The design on a skillet is printed directly onto the box, not onto a separate label that is later attached to the box.
The skillet is not, in the strictest sense of the term, a matchbox label as such. However, it is still a matchbox and should, therefore, not completely disregarded. In fact it is the most common type of matchbox in existence today - so if you want to collect modern matchboxes, you will have to learn to live with the skillet.
Skillets, however, are not too popular with traditional matchbox label collectors - they are bulky, heavy, and difficult to mount into albums. Like the all-round label though, skillets should never be cut into panels; they can be opened out and flattened but they should always be kept intact.

Packet-Size Labels

Many collectors class packet-size labels as matchbox labels and collect them accordingly. The packet-size label is often known as the dozen or gross label, but quite often the packets on which they are used may contain just half-a-dozen boxes. Originally the dozen-size label was affixed to packets of 12 boxes and the gross-size label was affixed to packets of 144 boxes. Sometimes, however, a so-called dozen-size label may be used on a packet of 10 boxes and a so-called gross-size label may be used on packets that contain 100 boxes; through common usage they are still known as dozen and gross sizes.
Such labels are often neglected by collectors, mainly because they are not easy to come by and, because of their size, they are not easy to mount. It often follows that a packet-size label is worth more than a similar box-size label, simply because of its comparative rarity; this is especially true for the older varieties. A set of box-size, dozen-size, and gross-size labels is a rarity indeed and well worth collecting. Such labels should not be completely disregarded, therefore, because, apart from their comparative rarity, they also often contain information that cannot be found on their box-sized counterparts.