Every Time I Get Out, They Pull Me Back In.

Not really, actually.

Formerly DC, now in Chicago. Collected for about 20 years in my father's footsteps, then left the hobby when life got in the way about 15 years ago. Now getting back into things.

Collecting areas:
-Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic 1918-present
-USA to 1934
-Austria to 1938
-Germany incl. states, overseas, and occupations, to 1945
-British Commonwealth to 1952
-China to 1949

back classic paper,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

Russ

As the song goes:
Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends

I think you'll find enough here, current and archived, to fully reignite the interest.

Great collecting areas including pre WWII Austria and German colonies and occupations. If you read the Emperor of All Maladies, which is actually a history of cancer, the author nonetheless goes into great detail about the World stage prior to WWI wherein you essentially have GB, France, Spain. And Belgium carving up the world and creating colonies for itself and to provide for the mother country-achieved for the most part by exploration and then subsequently by conquest compared to Germany, landlocked and never acquiring colonies EXCEPT via the mechanism of war. Of course if you collected stamps, you might have realized this by virtue of so many overprints from German occupation as opposed colonies of Britain, France and Spain