New Member Intro - Millennial from Iowa

Hey all, I'm a 32 yr old collector from Iowa. I inherited two collections from older relatives and never thought once about selling them, way more fun to carry on the hobby.

I've been collecting for less than five years but it wasn't until recently that I've really narrowed my focus from just amassing stamps to collecting stamps. I enjoy collecting modern US postal history covers. Mint stamps are cool and all, but I love slapping these suckers on envelopes and going to town. I usually drive around and find different post offices to mail myself covers--everything from the standard first rate $0.55, to flat rate $1.00, to flat rate with an extra ounce $1.20, etc., etc.. My favorite covers to collect right now are express mail covers and priority express mail covers, they are higher cost items and allow for lots and lots of stamps.

For me collecting modern postal covers is rewarding because it is active, challenging and also circumvents the annoying process of trying to remove self-adhesives from covers without ruining the cancel. However, I still have tons of older stamps from around the world so maybe one day my collecting interests will change and grow.

My biggest opportunity in stamp collecting right now is organization. I think that a collection can really be transformed into something wonderful if its owner knows how to properly label and store everything and I'm eager to look at other people's collections to borrow ideas from.