First Day Covers and Albums

"The first day of issue is the day on which a postage stamp, postal card or stamped envelope is put on sale, within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority. Sometimes the issue is made from a temporary, as in a Philatelic Exhibition, or permanent foreign or overseas office. There will usually be a first day of issue postmarkwhic can be a pictorial cancellation (this is done to mark the occassion of a special flight or a train trip, indicating the city and date where the item was first issued, and "first day of issue" is often used to refer to this postmark.

A first day cover (FDC) is an envelope whereupon postage stamps have been cancelled on their first day of issue. Depending on the policy of the nation issuing the stamp, official first day postmarks may sometimes be applied to covers weeks or months after the date indicated.

Unofficial first day of issue postmarks can also occur when a stamp collector purchases the stamps in question from a post office in the first day of issue city and then takes them (on that same day) to a post office in another city to have them cancelled, or when stamps are affixed to envelopes that are simply dropped into the mailstream on the first day and receive that day's normal postmark." Albums for FDC's help keep your covers in good condition by protecting them from dust, humidity etc Taken from Wikipedia