Packet-size labels are now only to be found on packets of imported matches; British manufacturers favour packing their boxes in pre-printed wrappers. Wrappers are really in a class of their own and cannot be called matchbox labels in the strictest sense of the word. However, if you can find one intact, take time to flatten it out nicely, and mount it properly then it can only enhance and help complete your collection.

Match Booklets

You must also seriously consider match booklets, otherwise known as covers. Many British collectors reject these because they are not widely used in the United Kingdom. In the United States, however, match-cover collectors are in the majority; many American collectors are interested only in covers and have very strict rules regarding their hobby.
Cover collecting was once considered to be an off-shoot of label collecting but it has developed into a hobby in its own right, especially among people who are interested in all kinds of advertising media.
Some collectors are interested in both labels and booklets and collect both with same degree of enthusiasm. This is especially true if a collector has chosen a specialist subject. For example, if you have chosen to specialise in, say, transport, it follows that you will be interested in all aspects of transport and collect both labels and covers in that theme.
Even if you don`t specialise there is no reason why you shouldn`t have a mixed collection of labels and covers. But you must remember that, because of that vast quantities of material available, you`ll soon have to specialise just to keep your collection at a manageable level.

Hardware

Another off-shoot of label collecting is that of collecting hardware. Hardware is the name usually given to the multiplicity of match strikers and containers that were in common use from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century and, to some people, this aspect of the hobby also includes other, earlier, fire-making devices such as tinderboxes.
Match strikers and containers were often made of brass, china, wood, or silver. The range of materials from which containers were made seems as limitless as the range of the designs in which they came, many of which were both novel and amusing.
The hardware category also includes the many metal matchboxes that were produced by bona-fide match manufacturers to contain their products; such items are both rare and interesting. However, true hardware specialists are probably most interested in the silver vesta holders that many a Victorian gentleman would dangle from his waistcoat pocket.
Like match covers, collecting hardware has developed into a hobby in its own right, having branched off from the world of matchbox labels to the world of genuine antiques. Many items of hardware are indeed antiques and are sought after by collectors other than those interested in the hobby of matchbox label collecting. Such a demand has made hardware collecting an absorbing, but expensive branch of the hobby.

Complete Boxes

Yet another by-product of the main hobby of collecting matchbox labels is the collecting of entire matchboxes, complete with their fiery contents. Complete boxes of matches, especially if they are very old, can make a very interesting specialist subject and can be used to display and demonstrate the many different varieties of match that people once used in years gone by.
Although difficult to come by these days, complete boxes of Fusees, Vestas, Was Vestas, Braided Vestas, Bengal Matches, Vesuvians, and Congreves all make the ubiquitous box of matches very interesting to a non-collector. They also provide people with a unique and valuable insight into how ordinary folk lived 100 or more years ago.
However, apart from the amount of physical space needed to house such a collection, the main disadvantage of this sort of specialisation is that very old and complete boxes of matches are seldom seen outside of a museum, thus making them very rare indeed. As a result, not only are they just extremely rare, they`re also very expensive to buy!