Brand New To The Hobby

Hello, all

I am completely brand new to this hobby. I recently started collecting space-related items, which led to space covers. I used 'cachet' in my name, because I barely know what that is! Anyway, I figured it would be worth branching out and learning more about covers, stamps, cards, etc. and I came across this forum. I would like to try collecting non-space stamps, but I honestly have very little idea of where to start, so I'll probably be asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of research. Thanks for having me!

Welcome.
Don

Welcome!

Dale

Welcome AstroCachet.

As you likely are aware, Astrophilatlely is a popular collecting topic. With many resources, some of which are available online. For example, the American Topical Association has an Astro Study Unit which has published a collecting guide or "checklist".

Noted Astrophilatelist David S Ball published "American Astrophilately: The First 50 Years".

And Linn's Stamp News, a popular publication, publishes a recurring column on the subject.

Happy to have you with us. Look forward to you sharing some of your collection with the Forum.

Calstamp

Welcome!!

Welcome aboard. I don't think you have to worry about where to start, it looks like you already have! If space is your thing, there's plenty to choose from: USA, USSR, France, Japan, PRC, DDR, and Czechoslovakia are just a few that have/had issued a lot space-related materiel.

Obviously at some point you'll have to start thinking about organization, there are a lot of posts here (and resources generally) to help you with that, just ask. Look around first, since you may quickly develop some (dis)likes, but don't be afraid to ask.

You may also find this to be of great use, as well. Michel is one of the big names in the hobby: https://www.briefmarken.de/michelsh...l-space-mail

AstroCachet!

If you haven't already found some websites on astrophilately, you might want to check these out. There are a lot of websites on this topic.

https://americanastrophilately.com/?v=ae551853b692

https://astrophilately.club/

Dan

A big thank you to everyone for the warm welcome! I've skimmed through all of the resources that everyone has posted and have found a few more on my own. I'm going to read as much as I can and try to jump right in. I look forward to interacting with everyone more.

AstroCachet,

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

Welcome! Awesome area to collect, so much great material. This is a great resource to ask questions and find and discover new areas.

Welcome aboard! There are many savvy and respected philatelists here willing to help.

I really do appreciate everyone's advice and such. I just received my first stamps today, a block (?) of Polish stamps signed by the Soyuz 30 cosmonauts. It was a part of the Intercosmos program, so I think I'd like to focus on finding stamps related to that! I guess I already found somewhere to start. I apologize for not quoting everyone individually; I'm on mobile and it's quite annoying.

Wiki
Astrophilately is a branch of philately which deals with the collection of stamps and postmarked envelopes related to spaceflight. It is the intersection of space and postal history. Covers cancelled on the date and at a post office near the controlling agency are used in postal exhibits to share the development and conquest of the cosmos.

Topics of interest include postage stamps, cancellations, and covers connected to various projects. Examples include rocket mail, dating from as early as the 1928, and mail actually carried on space flights, a practice that began with Project Apollo missions, and has continued since then. Specialists distinguish astrophilately from topical collecting with a space theme; astrophilatelic items are those with direct connections to space missions, whether or not they include any special pictorial depiction.

The Fédération Internationale de Philatélie has a Section for Astrophilately.[1] Included are covers and cards cancelled at launch sites, tracking stations, Mission Control facilities, research laboratories, and recovery ships. Many, though not all, such items have cachets produced for the mission; others are recognizable only with specific knowledge of the postmark location and date corresponding to a launch.

As with regular airmail, items of mail carried aboard spacecraft are known as "flown covers".[2] They are known from both Soviet- and American-flown missions. While some types are rare, others, such as Space Shuttle covers, were carried in large numbers, and are thus relatively common, costing less than US$50.

Perhaps the most common item of astrophilately is the "STS-8 flight cover". In cooperation with the USPS, the Space Shuttle Challenger flight STS-8 carried several hundred thousand covers, franked with $9.35 express mail stamps, which were then sold to the public after the shuttle's return.[citation needed] The original plan was to carry 500,000, but the final number was reduced to 261,900, of which 2,523 were damaged during the flight and discarded.[citation needed] The remaining covers were each enclosed in a souvenir folder describing the mission and the cover, and sold for $15.35 each.[citation needed] They were sold out by November 1983, just a few months after the flight.[citation needed]

Much rarer are the "Sieger" covers, carried on Apollo 15.[3] German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger had arranged a deal, in which H. Walter Eierman convinced the Apollo 15 crew members to carry 100 cacheted covers to the moon and back, for the sum of US$7000 each, with the understanding that they would not be sold until after the end of the Apollo program.[3] These covers, along with an additional 300 that the crew would keep for themselves, were stuffed in David Scott's spacesuit pocket, and never listed on the manifest.[3] However, Sieger began selling the covers he received soon after the mission's return, reportedly for $1500 each, and when the whole affair came to light, NASA confiscated the astronauts' 298 surviving covers (two had been destroyed pre-flight), and grounded them permanently.[3] In 1983, hearing of the STS-8 plans, astronaut Alfred Worden sued for the return of the 298 covers, and the crew eventually recovered them.[3] The covers have appeared on the market from time to time since then. In an October 2000 auction, one of the crew covers realized US$14,950.

Welcome! I don't specialize in it but have a lot of Astrophilately mingled in.

I just recently added missile/rocket mail to my collecting 'range' (pun intended). I wonder, does that fall into Astorphilately?