Hello From Massachusetts

I got back into stamp collecting about 4 months ago after a 40 year hiatus. I kept having dreams that I could see my old Mystic Statue of Liberty book. I ripped my house apart trying to find it, but to no avail, so I have started fresh.

At present, I am interested in all U.S. stamps and once I have educated myself completely will venture into the world stamp market, as it is my belief that they create a much more vibrant stamp than the United States ever did.

I own and catalogue my stamps through the three American Heirloom binders sold by Mystic. I have approximately 1900 stamps hinged/mounted in the book, about 1000+ more to put in, and piles (10000+) of doubles on and off paper that have accumulated in a very short period of time.

I look to trade any stamps or knowledge with anyone interested but educating myself on the finer points of collecting and also to be able to understand the intricacies in determining which identical stamps belong to what Scott number. I've gotten pretty good at listing the earlier stamps with grills, watermarks, perfs, etc., but trying to figure out new stamps as to their "micro" perf, ATM, booklet, etc. is driving me nuts.

So hello from Massachusetts.

Welcome. I don't spend a ton of time in the U.S. sections here, but there are many who do, so your questions or comments will get lots of attention.

Welcome. May I suggest you start by reading a few articles if you haven't already:
The American Philatelic Association (APA) has a nice intro to collecting stamps at
http://stamps.org/Starting-a-Collection
Also Wikihow.com at
http://www.wikihow.com/Collect-Stamps
And of course Linn's at
http://www.linns.com/howto/wheretos...tostart.aspx

Welcome - what part of Mass are you in? I live on the Cape

Welcome dpoul34

Glad you could join us. Once you get settled and have the required posts in I have tons of US to trade.

Dianne