1,111 Colnectors became our contributors!

Today we are celebrating a very important and beautiful occasion

1,111 contributors on Colnect!

What does this number actually mean? It means that 1,111 passionate collectors from all over the world spend their free time helping Colnect happen. They are so open-hearted to share their knowledge, time and expertise to bring more value to Colnect catalog so collectors from different countries could use it and enjoy their hobby of collecting.

Day by day Colnect is getting bigger and better and every single catalog is increasing in quality and quantity. Colnect is able to deliver information about collectibles around the world in the best way thanks to the group of hardworking collectors who are putting their effort into helping out fellow collectors to get what they desire.

In just two years the number of contributors jumped up from 777 to 1,111. We are happy that so many people are ready to dedicate their time to make the experience of collecting more enjoyable for those who share same passions and interests. It’s admirable what every single one of these collectors has done.

We would like to thank everyone for being a part of this amazing community which keeps on getting better. You guys are truly amazing and we appreciate everything you do. Every catalog on Colnect is what it is because of your contribution.

Colnect has been built by collectors just like you. If you wish to contribute to our growing community of collectors and start making catalog better for other fellow collectors then you can add new items, add images and information to already existing items, help to translate catalog to your language, edit the catalog, write wiki articles, and even create your own categories.

Surprising Lego Facts

It wouldn’t surprise us if we see a stack of Lego sets at our friends’ places. Lego, the universal game, has become probably the most popular entertainment for children and adults. Various difficulty levels, numerous collections, different theme parks around the world and many more features make this game such a great investment as a collectible.

Spider Monkey, from the Colnect catalog

Today we would like you to get familiar with some of the most impressive facts about Lego that you probably never heard of. Even if have heard those before, come and brush up your memory! :)

Let us know which fact gripped you the most in the comments below.

1. The Lego group got the patent rights for the standard brick in 1958. All 2x4 Lego bricks ever produced have been exactly the same.

2. Statistically, there are ~1140 elements made per second (!). 

 Small Pre-School Basic Set Minitalia, from the Colnect catalog

3. On average, every person has 83 Lego bricks. Crazy, no? 

4. Almost 28 Lego sets are sold each second during the Christmas season.

Three Christmas Decorations - Santa Tree and Snowman, from the Colnect catalog

5. If you lay together all Lego bricks sold in a year, the line would stretch around the Earth 20+ times. 

6. The world's tallest Lego tower is 28.7m high (made from with 465,000 bricks).

 

Sears Tower, from the Colnect catalog

7. Willing to reach the Moon? You'd need a column of around 40 billion Lego bricks!

8. Since the first Lego minifigure was made in 1978, more than 4 billion have been manufactured – making it the largest population group in the world. In addition, every minifigure is exactly 4 bricks tall (without a hat).

 

Day 1 - Minifigure & Drumstick, from the Colnect catalog 

9. The exact number of combinations you can get from connecting 6 eight-stud bricks (2x4) is 915,103,765!

10. Currently there are Lego theme parks in Denmark, The UK, The USA, Germany and Malaysia. The construction work is still ongoing for new Lego theme parks in The UAE (opening 2016), South Korea and Japan.

"LEGOLAND Picture Frame - Billund Edition", from the Colnect catalog

Colnect’s Lego sets catalog currently has more than 6.700 sets. To find out more about the history of the toy and our catalog, have a look at 80th Anniversary for the LEGO name post.

You are also welcome to participate in the Lego poll!

100,000 Collectors 110,000,000 Inventory Items Now on Colnect

We have reached a perfect score! The Colnect members community has expanded to a perfect 100,000 Collectors.

100,000

We have been counting up to this milestone in a rising pace, starting way back in August 2009, just a few thousands, then going up - 11,111, then it took us a year to reach the next step 20,020, climbing to 33,333, 40,004, 50,505, passed the wicked 66,666 to 70,707 and now we are doing a great leap, skipping a few steps ahead into the nice and round 100,000.

"20 Dollars (Black-eyed Susan)" 2010 Canadian coin, new on the Colnect catalog

These 100,000 collectors all manage their collections on Colnect, which has brought the total amount of items in the Colnect inventories lists to a whopping 110,000,000 items! Each item on this list is a collectible piece someone has, wants to swap or is interested in. That is a satisfyingly great collecting power.

"Football Party" 1953 USA commuter card, new on the Colnect catalog

A significant part of the community are the contributors, Currently there are over 800 active contributors on Colnect, each helping in their own way into building and perfecting the Colnect catalogs. Would like to join in and contribute to Colnect? Learn more on the Colnect Contributor Guide.

"Algarve. Rocha beach" 1988 Portuguese postcard, new on the Colnect catalog

The contributors are doing great work and the catalogs have been flourishing, each catalog reaching new and impressive milestone of size and quality. The Stamps catalog has surpassed 500.500 Stamps just in the last month. All numismatic catalogs have been perfecting their art. All catalogs have expanded and are looking beautiful.

"Order of the Württemberg Crown Commander with Star" 1818 German medal, new on the Colnect catalog

We're proud of this community and glad to see how far Colnect has come since it's inception. Colnect only develops as it's community does. Every new collector affects the catalog and community and makes it better.

"Rodenbach" Belgium beer coaster, new on the Colnect catalog

We're excited to see this vivid and bustling activity on Colnect and appreciate all who participate and all those who help make it happen. We wish fun collecting to everyone, see you on the next milestone!

"You're Great!" 2015 USA gift card, new on the Colnect catalog

Google Indexed More Than 245 MILLION Colnect Pages

The world's most popular search engine has now indexed over 245 Million Colnect pages! That is a phenomenal amount. That is almost 10x times more pages presented than in Colnect's previous milestone. Colnect is ever rising and the results are definitely showing worldwide :)

What does it mean? It means that our catalogs are growing and so there's much more information that is made available to everyone around the world. It means Colnect is flourishing and that Google accepts its original content as something valid and useful.

Globe "Now Your World is One" United States Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

Chinese Puzzle Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

To give you readers a better idea of how far the Colnect catalogs have come since then, here are a few more numbers. In comparison, Colnect's Tea Bag catalog, then only in its beginning, has added more than 50,000 items, making it 20 times larger than its original starting point. The Stamps catalog, one of the most well-entrenched collectible fields on Colnect, has gone from 90,000 stamps to almost 450,000, adding close to 400,000 Stamps at that time period. The Colnect Phonecards catalog, then already celebrating a respectable size of 222,222 Phonecards has now almost tripled its size into over half a million phonecards and the largest Phonecards catalog in the world. This is not to mention (just for the lack of space in the article, since they do deserve a mention) all the new categories that have been added since then.

Emblem, Mother and Child Vietnam Stamp, newly added on Colnect

Growing catalogs mean a growing community. Colnect's collectors, then a lucky group of 8.888 members, has ballooned tenfold and will soon complete the even luckier 80,000 collectors. Colnect has then been experiencing 111,111 visits a month which are now more than 666,666 visits made by almost 400,000 users a month. The site rating given by the most reliable source available on website ranking, Alexa, has gone up from 83,000 to 36,485, climbing almost 50,000 steps up the competitive online ladder, which is more logarithmic than linear.

Grøn Te med Citrus, dif flap Denmark Tea Bag, newly added on Colnect

Earl Grey, dif flap Denmark Tea Bag, newly added on Colnect

All this data may seem cold, but what must be seen is that they are the mirror that reflects the work, dedication and heart of contributors, translators, editors, coordinators, too numerous to count. Each number contains years of searches, cooperation, attention to detail, challenges overcome and achievements made. It shows how much could be created when a group of people, no matter from which country, sex or age, gathers together over something they are truly passionate about.

Chinese Art China Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

Chinese Art China Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

Colnect's catalogs are meant to serve collectors wherever they may be and they do. On behalf of collectors everywhere we thank you, Colnect volunteers, for your efforts to create and perfect this invaluable source of information. This benefits all those who have or will chance upon collecting along their path.

Olivia sayana Ravenel Netherlands Antilles Stamps, newly added on Colnect

The New Colnect Core Coordinator - Hernan Bofill [hbofill12]

In the great Colnect team there are many different roles. Some start out initiating something new, some Colnect finds for a new role, for some a role simply grows on them. But this is not one of these cases, this case is unique. Here a role is just so perfect for a collector, that it's almost as if it was created for him.

The collector, as most of you know him, is Hernán Bofill [hbofill12] and the new role is Colnect Core Coordinator (CCC). This role will allow him to be in contact with coordinators of all categories, offering his support and advice. He will be with a finger on the pulse of all catalogs, so he'll know when something is needed to be done and what. At the same time he'll have the bird's eye view of Colnect, with the freedom to introduce and push forward ideas. Hernán Bofill [hbofill12] is now your top guy on everything related to the catalogs.

Hernán and his son, Nino

Since joining 3 years ago, Hernán has been relentless in pushing the catalogs and the community forward. Most importantly, he has been relentless in his enjoyment of what he does, refusing to let anything stifle his enthusiasm and momentum. He has very quickly made himself an invaluable resource. By offering his expertise, time, mentoring and always his care he won the respect and gratitude of many of Colnect's team and members.

You see him all the time, editing and coordinating on so many catalogs, answering on the forum and in private, swapping and listing, but let's hear a little more from him about himself.

hbofill12 as you all know him

- What do you collect?

My primary collecting items are coins. Then I have a lot of tokens and medals, that I am putting in order. Due to a "space issue” I only collect labels of the beverages that I drink. I am also a Beatles fan, so I collect Beatles CDs and memorabilia. I have a huge quantity of events tickets (Sports, Concerts, Admission) and Pins, and also some rocks, fossils and shells.

- How did you start collecting?

Since I was a child, I always had the collecting virus in me. Toys, magazines, stickers, glass balls. I always wanted to complete a series…

- Why do you think collecting is valuable?

Collecting, no matter what you collect, means two principal things to me. First, a lot of learning and knowledge. Second, creating relationships with other collecting partners.

- Which roles have you taken on Colnect before?

I've started in Colnect as a Coins editor for Argentina, Paraguay and Fantasy Issues. I would really like to thank Jim [Rubycored] for his mentoring. He was the one that motivated and pushed me to become what I am in this community. Then I became a Global Coins editor and Drink Labels coordinator. One year later, I was helping Jim and Angelo with the coordination of Coins, and handling the coordination of Tokens and Medals. In the middle of that Jim offered his Security Manager position to me and I accepted. With this, Amir also wanted me to become one of the site admins and I started working with some of the other category coordinators, helping them, for example, assign stars and grant editing permissions.

- What do you think are the main challenges Colnect faces?

We have a great catalog and we cover most of the “Swapping” collectibles, which is great. The main challenge that I see now is to improve the data in our catalogs. Doing this, I am sure that we are on the way to become the world's main collecting reference.

- Which are the first issues you'll be focusing on?

I would like to make the coordinator's day by day in Colnect more easy. I am working in a couple of ideas and I hope to share them soon.

- How can members help out?

There are many ways to help out in this community. I think that one of the best ways to start is asking your primary collection coordinator how you can help him. Be sure that he/she will find a task for you to do. This could be a good starting point.

- What would you like collectors to know about you, that they don't know yet?

Well, most of them know me but perhaps they don’t know much about me. About my personal life, I can tell you that I am from Argentina and I am 38 years old. I am married and have two kids. Nino who is 10 years old and Helena who is 6. I am a Systems Engineer and work for a pharmacy industry company, leading the Latin America software factory projects. As I said above, apart from collecting, I am a Beatles fan and enjoy going to music concerts. I also like to watch Football and Rugby.

Hernán Bofill and his family

To wrap this post up, we will finish resolving a mystery with another mystery. Many have asked and wondered, what is the meaning or reason of Hernán's OM avatar? The answer lies before you. As he wrote: "This is my necklace. It was created especially for me and it has been with me since 1997."

Thank you, hbofill12, for all that you have done and with all that you will do. Good luck and congratulations on this new role, we are all excited for you :)

666 Contributors on Colnect - Making Colnect a Reality

The number 666 has been demonized quite a lot throughout history. However we can remember that it is also the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel and in that is Judaism 666 is the number which represents the creation of the world. For us on Colnect today this number represents the 666 contributors that make Colnect happen. These collectors, each with their time and collection, create extensive current collectible catalogs that are open to all and help translate Colnect to make it available in 62 languages.

The Colnect Contributors - the very beginning of the list :)

In March 2012 a 5 star system of contribution was introduced on Colnect and it seems it has been happily accepted by all Colnectors. The 5 star system allows Colnect to show it's acknowledgement of the help of the contributors and adds fun to the process.

Contributors on Colnect have helped it reach achievements such as cataloging over 1,111,111 collectible items. In the last month alone there have been over 20,000 collectible items added to the Colnect catalogs. 

Colnect started as a Phonecards database and since then has expanded to house 25 categories of collectible catalogs and growing, thanks to the good will and cooperation of collectors worldwide. Many new categories have been in the works for some time by dedicated collectors and many more are being suggested an discussed now on the New Categories forum.

We would like to thank all the contributors and wish them good luck and fun collecting! As always, we'll be happy to hear what you think, in the comments and on the forum, what do you think of the 5 star system? What do you think of the current catalogs?

Would like to become a contributor on Colnect too? Go to our Contribution Guidelines page. See you there :)