New Member From Maryland

Hello all!
I enjoy collecting older stamps (1800's) mostly from the USA but from the World if I like them or if it has a good story behind them. I also enjoy collecting mushroom and plant stamps from anywhere if it has good eye appeal. I collected in mass when I was younger, then got out of collecting and now I'm beginning to get back into it. Thank you all in advance for your help with questions that I'm sure to have.

Welcome to the forum Jim!

JimT09,

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.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

You're not officially a member of the forum until Russ does a copy-paste of his "collecting/personal bias" welcome.

Welcome aboard.

Greetings and hope all of your collecting wishes come true!

Thank you for all the warm welcomes!

And thank you Russ for "copying and pasting" your bias, as classic_paper informed me.

I've not really thought about the ramifications of removing a used stamp from its cover. I must admit that I'm guilty of removing a few stamps from covers when I was younger. After putting some thought into the idea I will think twice about removing stamps from their cover in the future. There is something romantic to keeping the stamp and cover together.
Thank you!!!
:)