New To This Group. I've Collected For Many Years Like Ww.collect US Revenues N Taxpaids As Well

Hey!

I just got registered for this group. Strangely enough, I found it while doing research on a stamp and Google gave me one of the posts here as a search result. Looks like lots of good info and chatter among many good people, so I signed up.

I started collecting as a young kid back in the 70s. By the early 90s, I kinda set the whole thing aside. Back then, before the Internet, I had limited myself to United States (postage and revenues) because getting info on foreign issues was much too difficult. By the time of the "F" Rate "Flower" definitives and the various issues in that time period, I was kinda unimpressed with the direction it appeard that US stamps were headed, so while I never stopped collecting, I became much more passive, just accumulating stamps from incoming mail and when I saw good ones. I must say I did appreciate the Transportation Coil Series--all those various Bulk Rates in the series along with regular issues like the Fire Pumper was nice.

In 2008, I realized that the Internet was a great place to research stamps, and next thing I know, I'm collecting again. I resumed as a US collector, but by 2010 I expanded to worldwide.

While I collect worldwide, I'm especially interested in Central and South America, Africa, places like Philippines, Ceylon/Sri Lanka, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and others. Not as into the Iron Curtain nations as much. I've made a bunch of albums from the StampAlbums online printable pages, but still making them as time and supplies permit. My album pages are on cardstock, printed both sides, each page slipped into a plastic page protector sheet and stored in 1" three-ring binders. The sheet protectors keep my stamps safe, especially if I show an album to a random person--they can't mess with my stamps if they're under a cover :-} I make my own little mounts for stamps I don't want to hinge, something I'll post about in the near future in case anyone else might find it useful.

I also collect US revenues and taxpaids. In fact, I'm trying to build a collection of 21st Century taxpaids. They seem to be largely going extinct, except almost all the States use cigarette tax stamps. These are VERY hard to get, even most stamp collectors eye me suspiciously when I bring up the subject :-} It's hard to find images or info about this stuff.

Anyhoo, I'd classify myself as maybe just entering intermediate collector status; I still need far more stamps than I have in my collection. But I have an okay representation of quite a few nations.

I don't know how much I'll have to offer insofar as information goes, but I'm friendly and nice, generally get along well with others. And I look forward to learning more from fellow collectors here :-}

Josh

Josh,
Welcome to the forum. Like you, I collected for years, but only recently I joined the forum.

Sounds like your interests are fairly broad. If you're worldwide there is an excellent section called, Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection. It's really amazing what you'll find.

Again, welcome aboard.

Rick

Welcome to the forum. I got started in the 80's came back during Covid. Lots of great info here, I collect mainly us but got a few Mexico and Ukrainian stamps too.

Hi Mastodon,

A fellow taxpaid collector here, though my interests are fairly confined to issues of 1864 - 1879 (cigars, tobacco, distilled spirits). As for 21st century taxpaids, sounds to me like the State Revenue Society might be of interest to you. https://staterevenue.org/

Josh,

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

Again for me a very familiar story.

I'm glad I didn't get started too seriously again until just a few years ago. I'm in my mid-50s, and I can take my time and enjoy it now. Between ages 20 and 45 I would have come at the hobby as another thing to be conquered and burned myself out in the end.

I'm glad we're finding the forum!