Howdy, my name's Rob and I live in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri.
First let me say thank you to all those responsible for making this site available. It's no small task and their efforts are greatly appreciated!
I started collecting stamps when I was 12. My first stamps were a packet of WW scouting related stamps. I was a Cub scout and a year or so away from going on to the BSA. During that time I picked up a few more Scouting stamps and eventually put together a collection that earned me a BSA merit badge for stamp collecting.
That following Christmas, my parents gave me my first Harris Statesman Deluxe album, a couple of dozen packets of WW stamps and most of the tools of the hobby. During all this time I learned the basics of collecting, how to read perforations and watermarks, identifying most of the major countries and so forth, but never got into the depths of collecting like many others here do. While I've heard and understand most of the terms, things like cancellations and covers, printer and cutter types, ink variations, etc... are all pretty much foreign to me. So needless to say, I will very likely extract much more from this club then I will ever be able to add. For that I'm both sorry and yet thankful to those who have dedicated their time and knowledge for rookies, such as me, that come along on what I can imagine is a fairly regular basis.
With all this said, I consider myself a "collector" of stamps. I'm neither a hoarder/accumulator, nor am a I a true Philatelist. I simply collect what I like and I like stamps!
So take care folks, happy hunting and hope to meet ya'll in the forums,
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 13 Nov 2015 01:45:19pm
re: Yep, I'm a Hillbilly!
LOL! Welcome, Rob. Hillbillies are as welcome as Texans, lawyers, Canucks, Yankees and all the other and sundry rapscallions we have here! We are a fun bunch to travel with plus you can learn a little along the journey.
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
So Rob, I understand a man who collects what he likes, I'm one of those myself. What do you find is taking your fancy at the moment (from a collecting pont of view)?
I have a couple of holes to fill from '52 to about '62 but mostly complete from there up to about '76. I'll think about '77 to present later.
I'm always looking for Scouting related stamps and typically double up on any I find.(if possible) One for the WW book and one for the Scout collection.
My USSR collection is coming along nicely, but have spaces to fill there, too.
My other obsession, at the moment, is a nice lot of DDR covers with Berlin registers that I acquired more recently. They came from the same collector (deceased) who exchanged with another collector in Germany for a number of years. The problem I'm having is that some are on 9" x 13" envelopes and while I'd like to keep the collection together, I can't come up with a book (or whatever) to house them in nicely. The rest of the lot are on 5" x 7" and 6" x 8" envelopes.
As always with a collector like me, any other stamps that catch my eye are fair game. But those listed above are where my main focus has been over the past month or so.
Its amazing what stamp collectors i have known can come up with...one fellow had an East Germany collection with stamps only postmarked in the city of Jena..great presentation !
"With all this said, I consider myself a "collector" of stamps. I'm neither a hoarder/accumulator, nor am a I a true Philatelist. I simply collect what I like and I like stamps!"
Rob,
Welcome aboard SOR and your philosophy is the only way to do it, as far as I'm concerned.
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
Thanks Mike! For me, it's the cornerstone philosophy for all the things that I collect. Never for bragging rights or monetary gain, just for fun. Make a buck, that's cool. Impress a friend, that's awesome, but those are never the driving force behind my hobbies.
Phil, I feel very lucky to have acquired this lot of covers, I personally knew the collector who assembled it. He was a very accomplished collector of about 50 years.
Rob, i picked up 4 country collections at bargain basement prices recently...but now i feel obligated to fill in those higher value and hard to find spaces !
Yes sir, I know what you mean Phil. The Israel collection I'm working on is much the same way. The virtually complete sets from about 1952-76 came too easy and reasonably priced, but it's the '48-'52 era that's gonna be the bane of completing the collection. Especially MNH w/tabs!
This element of collecting is where I start having a problem with "focus". Rather then biting the bullet and just shelling out the bucks or saving my nickels and dimes to finish out the collection, I start getting sidetracked with other areas/countries. Next thing I know, I'm scrambling to get back on track and realize all the opportunities I might have missed to pick up the needed stamps at a reasonable price, because I wasn't watching at the right place and time. I know that I can't be alone in this, surely.
As a side note, the entire lot of DDR covers I mentioned earlier, were all cancelled at Berlin-Triptow. Wikipedia shows that it no longer exist after a reformation in 2001. Not sure at this point if that has any real meaning, but is something to add to the technical info anyway.
Hi David and thank you. I've seen some of your efforts posted, very nice!
I agree in that it took me less then 15 minutes of browsing to decide this was a club that I wanted to be a part of. I'm just a little fish in a big ocean, but at least I don't feel like I'm surrounded by sharks. An excellent group of folks with a knowledge base and passion to rival any other sites I've visited.
My Pa (who was a ridgerunner from the hills of Tennessee) always said, "....an educated hillbilly is called a 'hillwilliam'....."
And, by the way -
A ridgerunner (who can be a hillbilly OR a hillwilliam) is someone who lived ON the mountain, not just IN the mountains....
Pa had one leg slightly shorter than the other and had to wear custom soles on his shoes.
He always said this was so he could stand up straight while walking along the side of the mountain!