United States Classics - Collector And Dealer New To Forum

I have been a collector and dealer in United States classic era mint and used stamps since 1972.

I have actually been away from stamps since 2002 due to various business ventures and have recented returned. The stamp world has clearly changed a lot since I was gone.

I'm looking forward to joining this community which looks to be very active.

Welcome back, I'm sure many on the forum remember you well. Dan

Welcome! I did a google search and does your first name happen to be Joe?

Let's see if anyone remembers me.

My name is Joseph Luft (Joe) and as a software engineer, I started with a website right when the internet kicked off (my first browser was text based on my DOS computer - no images at all). I remember late night support calls to my first internet provider who was operating out of his bedroom at his mother's house before we got the internet access to work on my 110 baud modem. In later years, I saw that he sold his company for millions.

I ran a stamp link aggregation website called "Joseph Luft's Philatelic Links on the Web". When I started out, I counted exactly 3 websites across the entire internet related to stamps. Within a few years the site grew to 3,000+ sites. Here is a link to cute article published in 1996 after I had been at this website already for 4-5 years: https://www.facebook.com/1000191717...5498421507/. Note that I had reached 220 stamp related websites and predicted that in the coming years we could reach 1,000!

As a result of this website, in 1999 I was awarded the first International Philatelic Federation (FIP) - Best Philatelic Website award. https://www.facebook.com/1000191717...77235088000/ which was handed out in Beijing, China.

In parallel with this, I operated a mail order stamp business selling U.S. classics mint and used starting with regular postal price list mailing and graduating to online sales.

I'd LOVE to hear from anyone who remembers this website or did business with me in years past.

P.S. If you check out the links above, feel free to Friend me..*** Edited by Staff - Please Review the rules that you agreed to when you registered. *** ***Sorry, not allowed until you have 50+ posts.***

Joe, I remember your web site well. I was associated with PCSG during that time.

I remember you, that website and your sales well! I'm glad to see that you've returned to the hobby.

I've also been collecting since 1972, age 11.

Jeff

angore, I was a PCSG subscriber and enjoyed reading every issue.

Yes, I remember your website - back when things were getting started, you had one of the first central repositories for philatelic links. Welcome.

Sorta off topic but, I see a count of active users on this site. Is this accurate?

I see 13,570 at the moment... That's quite a number if it is. Does this count the Coins side as well? I emailed the staff to see if they would reply. I'm interested too.

I am not totally privy to how the numbers are calculated but I can tell you that right now at 9AM EDT there are a total of 1,131 visitors on the stamp portion of this site. I am fairly sure that this number includes humans and non-humans.
Don

Sorry I got backed up on my email.

The number is somewhat accurate. At any time up to 50 of them are robots / search engines, usually around 25 or so though.

The count is based on a 20 minute timeout. The server can't actually tell when you leave, so after 20 minutes of no activity it will remove you from the total.

A more accurate description would be "Visitors in the last 20 minutes."

Nonhumans ! An untapped population of potential new stamp collectors.