Do You Or Have You Had A Philatelic Mentor?

I am just wondering how many people out here have had someone take them under their wing and show them the philatelic ropes. I know there are many on this forum whom would be great for the job and already are to the many members of the SCF.My grandmother got me started with the basics, but I have since expanding beyond her knowledge. I think this forum is the best for nurturing new collectors, refreshing former collectors, and keeping experienced collectors excited about collecting.

Not really. My dad did encourage me to collect even though he didn't himself, and I didn't know a lot of collectors when I was growing up. Anything I learned about the hobby was from reading Scott's and the Canadian Stamp News. I had a lot of friends who did collect also, and I guess we all mentored each other.

Stamperdude...I WISH I had had a mentor..had to learn the hard way..and I would like to mentor a child interested in stamps..oh to find one !!

Hi Dad, did I say I love you lately?

my mom introduced me to stamp collecting but not much mentoring...

Oh my gosh, where do I start: There's Tom, Tom, Larry, Bob, Phil, David, I know I'm forgetting some but you get where I'm, going with this, this forum is my mentor.

Dianne

When it comes to my German specialized collection, I must admit that I have two mentors.

John G aka john9913, in Canada and
The Great Ludwig, Aka The Germanlion, from Germany.

Tom is definitely my tormentor, uurrrrr, I mean mentor.

I started as Cub Scout project and was pretty much self-taught, although I did have fellow cubbie collector which helped take some of the mystery out of it.

My dad started me out when he collected for a short while. He showed me a few of the basics. Now that I am collecting again I look to the people on this forum.

rockinrobin

I remember a little hole in the wall dealer I met early on. He taught me a lot, how to use tongs, identify colors and papers and all that good stuff. After becoming a regular customer he would let me take home a box of thousands of stamps, pick out what I wanted, keep a tally and pay him when I returned it. This I would do many many times. Then came an incident I was not proud of. I had become a little older and in fact got married, moved away, had a family etc. and somewhere in there a box never got returned to him. Fast forward some years and I returned to again live in my home town. It was time to face my shame and rectify this. So into his shop I came. Both of us much older and yet it was like I never left. We had a good laugh when I showed him the box with my faded tally sheet. I could tell by the twinkle in his eye that the lesson he had imparted to me concerning honor had taken hold albeit sloppily.
OG

Thank you OG and I had learned an important lesson from your experience.

All of you are my philatelic mentors,I am studing hard for US stamps,thanks all of you.