AMERICAN FIRST DAY COVER SOCIETY OFFERS $850 IN COUPONS, FREE FDCs AND PUBLICATIONS TO NEW MEMBERS

The American First Day Cover Society (AFDCS) is offering a complete first day cover collecting package to new members, while supplies last, who join the society during its 50th anniversary celebration beginning now.

The components of the special offer was designed to be a complete package to get a new FDC collector off to a great start or to entice a veteran FDC collector to join the AFDCS to learn something new and add to their collection.

The featured item in the package is a 47-page booklet of coupons worth more that $850 for first day covers and other hobby merchandise. Seventy-one coupons are offered by 47 First Days advertisers and cachetmaker-members for FDC books, publications, auction services, supplies, catalogs, and, of course, lots of first day covers!

In addition, new members will receive several informative publications:

• Mini-Adventures in First Day Cover Collecting by Monte Eiserman which offers instructions about starting a first day cover collection, obtaining current FDCs, selecting cacheted covers, making your collection grow, servicing your own FDCs, and much more.
• The 2004-2005 edition of the AFDCS Cachetmakers Directory , to get new members started finding sources of FDCs. The Directory consists of more than 300 listings of current cachetmakers and complete information on contacting and obtaining cachets from these FDC makers.
• The AFDCS New Member Handbook which includes a survey of membership services and benefits, expertising instructions, list of chapter, instructions for ordering back issues of First Days magazine and various indexes, color slide programs, a glossary of FDC terms, and information about using the AFDCS archives.
• Cram Course in First Day Covers by Professor Earl Planty and Michael A. Mellone is the latest AFDCS publication and includes nine lessons about first day cover collecting by the esteemed professor including collecting newer first day covers, buying first day covers, working your way back to the older FDCs, and specializing.

In addition to the free publications described above, the society will provide to all new members five free cacheted first day covers to begin or add to their collection. These are actual first day covers sought after by collectors and have been generously donated to the AFDCS specifically for this purpose.

Members will receive the award-winning, lively First Days magazine every six weeks filled with articles and features that inform, enlighten, and entertain. Each issue contains research, checklists, columns, do-it-yourself advice, and plenty of FDC information.

The AFDCS, founded in 1955, is the third largest stamp collecting organization in the United States. The AFDCS is a nonprofit, non-commercial, international society and the world's largest society devoted to first day cover collecting.

The special AFDCS membership package of free publications, coupons, first day covers, and First Days magazine is worth more than $875 and is available to new members who join now. Membership in the AFDCS is $25 per year for U.S. residents, $31 for non-U.S. residents and can be obtained by writing to AFDCS, P.O. Box 65960, Tucson, AZ 85728. Sample copies of First Days are available for $4 postpaid.

Click here for the online membership application.