Hello - New Member Here

Hi everybody!

I am new here, I found these forums via a simple Google search. I browsed through some of the forums and it looked like a quality site for stamp information.

I am 44 years old. I still have my stamp collection I started when I was probably 5-6 years old (mid-1970s), though I have not actively collected since way back then, LOL! I was fortunate enough to have a beloved great-aunt and great-uncle that were passionate stamp collectors....I mean like they had their own business as dealers in Atlantic City NJ area.

Whenever I would visit them as a kid, I would get to browse through there tons and tons of well organized stamps and would come home with bunches of stamps. My father tells me that they would never let me leave with "the good stuff" so mostly I would get their left-over or junk stuff. I literally still have a bread loaf bag full of misc. stamps. I do have many "collections" that my aunt divided out as specials, with descriptions written by them and/or other collectors they traded with.

I am a WWII buff and a couple years ago I went through the bread loaf bag and picked out all German stamps. I have many, many pre-WWII inflation stamps and well as some Nazi era stamps. I also divided out the US stamps....some really old ones, but mostly 1970s stamps I collected myself as a kid.

I am now starting to go through the bread loaf bag to divide out the stamps by country, then further refine the collection. I am hoping this site will be of some help to identify the stamps and develope some friends along the way. Maybe I will find something rare, LOL!. As you may be able to tell, the value of my set is priceless to me due to it's family heirloom beginnings. All my cousins are jealous when I tell them I still have a ton of stamps from Aunt Ida and Uncle Eddie! We all have such good memories of them and their stamps. And I hope to pass it on to my kids.

I also created a computer database for my stamp collection. I wrote it in MS Access. It includes images of each stamp and places to add all condition information, issue date, country, Scott number, etc. So far I only have my US and German stamps entered. Plus I have no idea how to evaluate the conditions of the stamps so most data fields are empty.

I read through the forum rules...good thing, because you have some strict rules for beginners. Hopefully I do not become a bother, I will have lots of questions!

Cheers
Mark

A hearty welcome.

Welcome Mark

Glad you could join us

Dianne

Welcome aboard Mark! sounds like you have got quite the stamp horde there! We love good pictures and scans as that will help us help you ID them. Cheers! -Jeff

Hello, I am also new to this site! I

Mark don't be afraid to ask questions. Welcome to SCF

Mark to SCF all the way from Northern, MI Glad you decided to join in with us. Post pictures and jump into any discussion you would like to and ask to your hearts desire. Again