u/shadufr

Hi there! As the title says, I’m brand new to this, so I’m a bit nervous to be posting, but I’m super excited to be here! I just recently started postcrossing after months of wanting to do it. Same deal here, I’ve been considering jumping in for a while lol. I’ve also been getting pretty interested in stamps lately, and I plan on buying some vintage ones to use in the future (when my wallet allows it). Collecting multiple hobbies at once currently.
I’m from the US, and I’m open to finding a penpal from anywhere! Whether you’re also in the US or international, I’d love to connect! I’d love to learn about you, your interests, daily life, culture, state/country, anything like that. I think I’d really enjoy having deep conversations, whether it’s about life, society, or whatever you’re interested in/passionate about. Otherwise, I’d still be interested in hearing about anything you’d like to share.
I play video games, love love love music, especially love discovering new artists and songs, watch more youtube than shows and movies combined (by a long shot), and sometimes partake in silly little miscellaneous crafts. Just depends on the month, really. But despite my sporadic crafting tendencies, I probably won’t get very elaborate with my letters. I don’t have lots of supplies for it, and don’t want to spend the money on it right now. You could probably expect loose-leaf paper and plain white envelopes from me, at least to begin with. If that’s not your thing, I totally understand! Whether you love decorating them or not, I’d be happy to receive letters.
Also, I have some great postcards and a few greeting cards if you’re interested in that! I’d love to exchange them sometime!
Also, I’m queer, use she/her pronouns, and would love to connect with other lgbt+ people too! (Though I’m open to writing to anyone and everyone!)
If any of what I said sounds like your cup of tea, send me a message. Looking forward to it!

Hello, I have a dumb question for you all today. I’m not really a stamp collector, but I’ve been getting very into postcrossing, penpals, and snail mail in general (US based btw). I’ve been wanting to get some cool older stamps to use as postage, but I sort of just want to make sure I somewhat know what I’m doing. I don’t know a lot about the hobby but I’m trying to educate myself. I understand that most stamps released since the 1960s (at least) were being printed in huge quantities, so, correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume this means I should be safe to use basically most stamps without accidentally destroying some collector’s item. Of course I’m also aware that if I’m buying stamps for close to face value or just barely marked up, I could assume they’re not rare or high-value anyway.
So, what should I be shopping for? Unused only? Mint? Or MNH? I think I saw a post from someone once that bought mint stamps, expecting to be able to use them for postage, but they were seemingly already used and pulled off a letter. Is this to be expected when purchasing single stamps? Would I be safest sticking to buying sheets or panes?
And for my final question… I’ve been looking at Mystic Stamps to get some information about stamps, but I know they tend to be very overpriced. And HipStamp seems to have pretty fair prices generally. Are there any other websites that y’all would recommend? I’d appreciate recs whether it’s for information about stamps and releases or for purchasing unused stamps.
Any additional tips or advice would be totally welcome. Thank you all in advance! :)