New Member from Washington DC Region
Mar 2, 2020 14:58:38 GMT -5
Gordon Lee, theindestore, and 5 more like this
Post by ferthalangur (aka Rob) on Mar 2, 2020 14:58:38 GMT -5
Greetings!
I have been collecting stamps since I was 11 or 12 years old. I never specialized ... I accumulated stamps from all over the world. At some point in life I was collecting US covers, US plate blocks, new issues from the post office, and all kinds of worldwide material. My best friend and I were members of a small collectors club in middle school, and we used to stay up all night soaking and sorting stamps. I think that we imagined at 13 that we could make money creating a stamp business selling our duplicates, or maybe new issues, or something. That didn't last long before we realized that there is much more to being a stamp dealer than that.
Collecting has been on and off for the next 45 years. No time in college, no time when working, except when I found time and got the collecting bug for a while, before something else distracted me. One of the things that I really enjoy doing is taking apart the albums or accumulations of other collectors ... just to get a feel for how they did it.
I vowed, about twenty years ago, not to buy any new material until I got myself caught up. Bwahaha! How well did that work out, do you think? Every time that I went to a stamp show ... "just to look, not to buy" ... I would come home with something else.
I am sure that all this sounds very familiar to many of you!
Last year I decided to limit my collecting to stamps that are older than I am ... nothing issued after 1963 ... except Iceland. We loved traveling in Iceland and I bought many year sets, and I can't bring myself to part with them, yet. However, everything else that is later than '63 will be disposed of. For the sake of expediency, much of it has been or will be donated to Stamps for the Wounded: www.stampsforthewounded.org .
Non-philatelic: I am in a state of "career hibernation" ... mostly retired, but in denial. I have had careers in information technology, and in archives. Much of what I do these days revolves around beekeeping, a hobby that I picked up in 2017. Bears are bad for bees, but I won't hold that against the site. I can't say that I will be super active on the site simply because I am so busy with taking care of the bees, mentoring other beekeepers, volunteering with local clubs, etc. that I don't have much time for stamps, or chatting about them.
I stumbled upon this site while Googling for links to Stamps for the Wounded, where I volunteer.
I look foward to browsing through the community.