Hello & welcome !

I'm also a beginner, I'm collecting for two years in Bretagne
(Atlantic coast of France) and Malaysia during holidays. Something I
would recommend would be to buy one or two books to help you in the
identification. With little experience you'll find out that all the
shells you've identified as one species are in fact two or three
different ones.
For the books the best would be to have local guidebook
(unfortunately I cannot help you being from the other side of the
Atlantic !) but a first approach could be  (DK Handbooks: Shells by
S. Peter Dance, Matthew Ward (Photographer) - amazon:15 $). If you
are ready for second investment, a second step, almost unavoidable:
the compendium, no description, huge amont of photos, geographical
distribution, a lot of errors but still a classic and very used
guidebook for most of us (ABBOTT, R. Tucker & DANCE, S. Peter 1990
Compendium of Seashells. American Malacologists, INC. - amazon: 60 $).
When you are going to the sea, be careful with the tides. In France
we have at spring and autumns "grandes marées", great tides when you
can find much more interesting shells and new species because the
tide goes lower.
Looking for a good beach, as I have no connection with anyone around
who could help me, I've two criteria:
- looking on a map at a mixed of rocky and sandy shores usually
covered by the sea,
- and following people who live around. In France it is very common
to see people "fishing" on beaches looking for shrimps, crabs, little
fishes and shells to eat. Of course, in this case, the interest is
more gastronomic than malacologic !
As I've seen on Paul's list they are some common species from a side
of the ocean to the other, if you are interested in I can send you
some of the shells we found around here.

Kind regards

Sophie


>Hello Paul,
>
>Thanks for the quick reply to my post. Being a newbie to the list, I
>know from my experience with other lists, that, if the subject
>matter isn't appropriate, it can bring quite the strong reply from
>the members. Thanks for letting me know that the question was in
>line with the mission of the list.
>