What Got You Interested in Covers? Share Your Story

Honestly a couple of friends  Rileysan, Kirk, Philb & of course wt1 got me interested addicted to classic period and advert covers. I love them because of all the information they contain, their over-all beauty, and of course the history contained in them! If any of these guys are here THANK YOU so much.

I'll have to post some of my covers in a bit. I actually just bought a Scott #231 "Broken Hat" variety on an advert cover on eBay.

Here are the sellers images of the piece:

close-up of Scott #231 broken hat on cover



Obverse:



Reverse:



Here is the auction link:

www.ebay.com/itm/1894-2-SIDED-SCALE-AD-COVER-COLUMBIAN-STAMP-NY-SPRINGER-TORSION-BALANCE-CO-/130949685129?ViewItem=&ssPageName=ADME%3AB%3AEOIBSA%3AUS%3A3160&item=130949685129&nma=true&si=RSDFg8GO0Wmx4DQjOendQVL3FRY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Well, I'm finally back home after traveling a bit, so hope to get some posts in!
The broken hat on 231, by the way, is on the hat of the figure to the front figure to the left of Columbus.
I started collecting covers in the early 1950's with my grandfather's help. I currently have about 8,000 covers (not including today's mail! - haha).
In a couple of weeks I will be giving a talk at our local stamp club on "Do fdc's and ffc's get a bum rap?"
I will try to post some of my more interesting covers here.

Thanks, I can see it now!

If you all don't mind, I'm going to revive this post from 2013! I see most of it's participants are no longer with us - ILS of course we lost 4 years ago, the others are inactive. I hope for the best and that they're healthy and happy.
Me? I love covers, as you may know. I returned to stamps a mere 9 years ago after being away from collecting for over 3 decades. I had a few covers and post cards in my old collection, but nothing spectacular. I focused on Canadian and US stamps, and started going to stamp shows, something I'd never done before.
This opened up a whole new world. While window shopping I saw tables of envelopes and cards. Many going back over a hundred years. I love history, so the ideas that these had been THERE intrigued me. The handwriting and postal marks were often beautiful.
So I slowly dipped my metaphorical to, and now my collection is 10 binders and growing. Now I look for old mail where ever I go, bourses, antique stores, flea markets, garage sales, you name it.
Stampless have become my favourites, probably because each is so unique.

So that's me. What about the rest of you? What got you hooked?

My late dad what a cover "freak", mostly Canada but through the past years have added USA covers, World covers to the collection and bought some classic Canada covers too. I did receive through givaways many nice covers from Israel, Russia, and France as well as many US covers. Too many names to re-thank.......they know who they are and am still grateful !!

There was time when I did not collect any covers. In fact, I used to accuse my fellow stamp club members who collected covers of buying them solely for the cachets. Then around the turn of the 21st century, I did a complete reversal and collecting stamps became secondary to collecting covers. What caused my conversion was the realization that it was the interrelationship of a cachet, corner card, the postmark, the addressee, the stamp, or other auxiliary markings on the envelope that caused me to appreciate a cover and collect it. Conversely, I also realized that I was not interested in envelopes with cachets or other printing on them that had no stamp or had not been postally serviced. An unused illustrated post card, for example, was just a photo or piece of commercial art work, not something I would buy.

While I was still an avid stamp collector, covers became my primary collecting focus. That led to collecting a variety of covers such as aircraft on covers, covers addressed to noteworthy people, covers from philatelic publications, stamp dealers covers, philatelic events, stamp clubs and philatelic organizations, commercial covers with advertising, cinderellas on cover, NAMW covers, Christmas covers, selected first-day covers used commercially, airmail covers with variant borders, covers with religious themes, selected postmarks and slogan cancels, Iowa- and Oklahoma-related covers, and covers with novelty or cartoon cachets. I have posted some of these categories on this forum, others remain buried in my albums.

I remain an avid collector of both stamps and covers, but I am again going through a transition stage as I move from covers being my primary focus to acquiring cinderellas. To what depth that collecting field might develop, I am not yet certain.



Don StampHinger

stamphinger

My late dad had a collection of at least 100 of these covers, certainly not "postal" but to commemorate the passing in our City, Edmundston, of the "Discovery train" on October 13,14 and 15, 1979 - Organized by Canada National Museums. A variety of Canada Stamps decorate each cover. Envelopes were printed by my late dad's "printing office" which explains the logo LM (Le Madawaska) which was also the name of his Newspaper (french)

Can you help me define what type of cover these 100+ would be - all Postmarked on the 3 dates of visit - Thanks !!
René
............an example

Hi Rene: 

Well, I'm not sure how I would categorize them or what to make of these covers. They look like they were postmarked by the Edmundston post office, so I would consider them postally serviced.  They do not, however, appear to be what is usually referred to as a philatelic event cover.  I believe I would call them a cultural event cover. 

When I first read your description of the covers, I thought of the "Freedom Train" that toured the U.S. in 1975-1976 to publicize the Bicentennial Year, or the Royal Train that in 1939 carried the royal family across Canada.  There were multitudinous covers prepared for both of those events and covers can be found in abundance for sale on eBay.  A quick search of Canadian covers on eBay did not turn up any prepared to commemorate the museum train's visit to Canadian cities. Do you know, were your father's covers commemorating the Edmundston visit the only ones that commemorated the train's route and stops? I find it unusual that collectors and dealers in other cities did not prepare a cover or two commemorating the event, especially since it appears there is a commemorative postmark for Edmundston. Perhaps, I was using incorrect search terms.  I used "Discovery Train," and "National Museums."  Is the postmark "official" or is that a privately prepared commemorative postmark? If that is a privately prepared postmark that would put the covers in a whole different category.  Not sure how to classify them, fantasy items, perhaps?  

What about the cachets?  Were they all the same with different franking, or were they all different cachets with similar franking?  If the cachets were different, that would be a good sub-organization group arranged, perhaps, chronologically by topic.  The one you posted was of a prehistoric theme. 

I find your father's effort to commemorate this train an extraordinary effort and this cover group interesting in its own right.  Would you start a thread and post some other examples.  Maybe others on the forum have one or more covers commemorating the train's visit to other cities.  

Thanks for posting.

Don StampHinger

No story.
I have never been that interested in covers but my interest has been tweaked with this Commonwealth collection I am selling and again after seeing the collection of Clive's (Anping).
But it's too late now I guess, that time has gone.

Londonbus1. 

I wasn't referring to covers with labels affixed but to the subject in general. I was never interested in covers for most of my collecting life, only in stamps and sheets. I couldn't get into it at all. Then some very nice covers I found in the CW collection I agreed to sell for a friend got me thinking. Then when I saw Clive's collection I just wondered what I had been missing. But Cinderellas aside, I don't think I am going to start collecting Postal History now, it's just a bit late.
But I can still look !!