777 Colnect Contributors - Creating Colnect Magic

A new year, a new milestone reached, a new satisfying number to celebrate. Colnect has passed 777 contributors.

The number 7 has always represented some sense of wonder, of far reaching ventures, of worldwide phenomena, the seven seas, the seventh heaven, the seven wonders of the world, the seven colors of the rainbow. Associated widely in cultures throughout history with special occurrences, miracles and power, we on Colnect certainly hope this number bodes well for this budding year and its potential to unite and innovate.

A year after our previous milestone of 666 contributors on Colnect, more than 111 new contributors have joined to empower, improve and enhance Colnect.

Each of these sevens, seven hundred, seventy and seven, is comprised of individual collectors on Colnect that decided to give some of themselves, some of their time and drive, to the Colnect catalogs. The catalogs you see today on Colnect are purely the result of the combined contribution and dedication of these collectors.

On the website design front, Colnect is doing its best to provide new tools and improved features for contributors, editors and coordinators on Colnect. Those help make activity on Colnect easier, smoother and more effective.

Of the new features provided, there were many to enable and aid Colnect editors. A New Comments Counter allows for quicker and easier dealing with the collector comments. The Item Edit History has become available to all editors, the Editing Menu has been optimized and there were many other changes and fixes introduced.

The look of Colnect has been going through some improvements recently as well. As part of that the badges on the collector profile page, those that indicate the role of the collector as a contributor and the amount of the stars awarded to that collector, has been renewed and polished.

As always, we'd like to thank all the wonderful contributors, editors, translators and coordinators on Colnect. This ever-growing group of collectors joined by a common goal and passion has achieved much in the past year. It brought the Colnect catalogs another long stretch forward in making collectible information available to all collectors worldwide in the best way.

66,666 Collectors on Colnect

We at Colnect are happy to welcome more than 10,000 new collectors who have joined our global community since marking our previous milestone of 56789 collectors. Now we have reached the devilishly delightful number of 66,666 Collectors.

The community of collectors now compliments the group of contributors on Colnect, that not long ago reached it's own "sixy" milestone of 666 Contributors.

As always we have new categories joining Colnect as well. We welcome new collectors of these items to familiarize themselves with Colnect and check out the catalogs for Sports Cards and Paper Clips. Come see what other new categories are being suggested and built on Colnect on the New Categories forum.

Check out also new features recently added to Colnect such as the Item Condition and Quantity menus for Inventory Notes, Collectors Inventory Notes appearing on item lists, extending the Personal Custom lists and more additions you are welcome to explore on the Announcement forum.

Want to turn those sixes around into a nice and "niney" milestone? Join our world multi-lingual community of collectors of all kinds by Signing Up to Colnect it's quick, free and easy.

New: See Collectors' Inventory Notes on Item List

As collectors looking to exchange, trade or just look around, browsing collections of other fellow collectors- you need to look at the exact details of the items, look at the collection itself. Now this has been made easier with the help of Personal Inventory Notes. You can now see the notes made by collectors when browsing their lists.

The new information that appears is the public notes made by the collector of the quantity, condition and any additional free text notes they have added about the item in their collection. Simply go to a collectors page, look at their list and you will notice that new information now appears along the item details, marked in a separated colored box.

Previously, public inventory notes where only available on the single item pages of the catalog, together with all collectors that have this particular item. Now you can also see it on collectors' individual list.

Come take a look, browse some collections, and let us know what you think :)

Colnect 2013 was Fun - version 2014 is going to be so much more!

They say that the way you start a year, is the way it will be for the rest of it. If that saying has any truth to it, judging by the amount of activity and newly added improvements, it seems Colnect is getting ready for a blast of a year to come :)

Lottery Ticket "Happy New Year!"

So what did we have in this year of 2013?

This year must have gotten some good luck when we celebrated our catalogs reaching 1,111,111 collectibles, which is seven lucky numbers one. Since then almost 300,000 additional items have been published on the catalogs.

This year had many new categories joining, from Lottery Tickets to Medals, from Drink Labels to Video Games, and from a familiar game changing Functional Cards to a the sister catalog to Teabags - Tea Labels.

Drink Label "Kruger Pilsner", from the new catalog

The New Year 2014 is now expected to bring with it New Categories that were waiting in the wings to be launched. We will have the highly anticipated Sports Cards category, and also Paper Clips, Milk Cup Lids, Kids Meal Toys and Music CDs. Many more were already suggested and are sure to join in the upcoming year.

Functional Card "Happy New Year", from the new catalog

There could never be too many helpful features and additions. In everything having to do with collectors and Colnect, the more helpful tools is definitely the merrier. We've just now added some cool helpful hands to the Inventory Notes. That's not the only feature we've added though, we did much more throughout the year. We've opened up the Personal Customs lists to all, so you can put your collection any way you'd like. We parsed the seas and divided the collectibles into Continents. We've made it easy to find items through Face Value. We sped things up with Quick Filter options. We've diversified the catalogs with adding Variant support. We even put a looking glass right into the catalog and added a Zoom into the pictures.

Medal "Royal Military", from the new catalog

Each collectible category is unique and has it's own specific needs. Many categories got tweaked and improved, decorated and streamlined. You can see that on the Postcards category that finally had Theme Collectors give out a sigh of relief, Phonecards that has split in two, following much debate, and Hotel Key Cards that got a cool new Aggregation Feature added to it's catalog.

Our community kept reaching new heights, we have marked the occasion of having 56789 collectors on Colnect, and had the opportunity to thank the 666 contributors on Colnect making it a better place for collectors every day.

Tea Label "1 De Beste", on the new catalog

Finally, December ended on an especially heart warming note, when the wonderful Colnect Coordinators, were able to gift Free Premium Memberships to some 100 happy collectors.

Lottery Ticket "Happy New Year!", from the new catalog

Colnect has been preparing to welcome the New Year in style and festivities. It has been an eventful December, that will undoubtedly lead to an exciting January 2014, full of new features, new categories, more options and more collecting.

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 :)

50,505 Collectors Now Connect on Colnect

It's always satisfying to see the Colnect community grow and reach another new level and a brand new number. It seems we have reached the 5th level of expansion and the number seems to be a lucky one for Colnect. Many new features joined the site and many older ones were improved.

Proudly marking another milestone, the Colnect community now consists of 50,505 enthusiastic and devoted collectors. Those collectors together, by contributing, editing, commenting, exchanging, discussing and browsing, bring Colnect alive as an interactive, attentive and strengthening organism. On Colnect we only count real members who validated their email address and logged in to Colnect. You can also quickly reach Active Collectors in any category of your liking and see their Personal Collection.

Colnect, as always, works to make the experience of touring through Colnect as fun, easy and intuitive as possible. One important change was the improvements made to the browsing process of the catalogs, which included new comfortable Filter Options, the Quick Filter box and a Continent Division in the country lists.

The new "Zoom In" feature, now available on all Colnect catalogs

The catalogs benefited from new Variant Items support, new Face Value lists and an easy-on-the-eyes "Zoom into pictures" feature. The management tools were enriched with Custom Personal Lists becoming available to all members and the personal profile pages were made more understandable thanks to a useful "Auto-Translate" icon. See the new features and let us know what you think!

Colnect also opened it's gates and it's API, inviting more collectors to show their programming skills with innovative, useful and fun new ideas for tools for collectors.

Spanish lottery ticket, newly added on the Colnect catalog

As always, more interesting new collectible categories have joined our ranks since our last milestone, and are now displaying beautiful catalogs already. Those categories are Lottery Tickets, Medals, Functional Cards, Drink Labels and Video Games. More exciting new categories are right now in the works, go see the New Categories forum to find out which they are and see their progress.

Bulgarian medal, newly added on the Colnect catalog

We would like to thank all the inspiring and inspired collectors, who with their passion, kindness, dedication and sense of community, all this has came to be. Thank you! :)

NEW and Pretty: Minor Visual Changes :)

It's always pleasant and pleasantly surprising to see the place you've visited many times spark-up and shine a little brighter. Lately, more than a few nice little visual changes have been made to make Colnect easier on the eyes and even put a smile on your face sometimes.

These little gems include:

< Nicer flowing hover over color movement over lists (try it out! hover over a list).

< Rounded Buttons.

< Red glowing warning sign on deactivated members profiles.

< Enlarged writing in some pages, for comfort, and many more changes.

< An elegant new pop-up language menu.

Go look for them now, let's see if you could find some more :)

We also did not forget all those who see Colnect without logging in. There are many new flashing, popping, changing, surprising little hidden boxes for non-logged-in visitors. Go ahead, log out and browse around and see what happens! Then log back in and tell us what you've found.

Little touches in design can often create a significant difference in the experience. Let us know what you think of the new design!

Custom Personal Lists - Now Available to All Collectors!

We're happy to announce that the useful and comfortable feature of Custom Personal Lists is now available to all members of Colnect.

What are Custom Personal Lists?

In addition to the common inventory lists on Colnect (Collection / Swap / Wish), you can create custom personal lists to suit your needs. When custom lists are added, you can add and remove item to and from them in the same way you do for the common lists. Premium members can create up to 44 lists, each one with 10,000 items at most. Other members are limited to 2 lists, each one with 50 items at most. Read more about it here.

Custom Personal Lists can be Private or Public, according to your needs

In the past, the feature of Custom Personal Lists, has been available to Premium Members only. Now all Colnect members can try them out and enjoy.

Try it out and let us know what you think  :)

Continent Division in Country Lists !NEW!

As part of the latest efforts to make the browsing of the Colnect catalog even more swift and intuitive, now all Country lists have been divided into Continents on quick on-page tabs, so you can rush past all irrelevant information on the way to your wanted collectible items.

As in all the other lists on Colnect, you can also use the Quick-Filter box. Just start typing into the yellow search box and see how the list quickly adjusts and shortens to include only options you may be interested in.

This continent division is, of course, optional and you can still view all countries in the regular list format if you prefer it.

Combined together these options make for not only fast searches, but also for convenient view of the Country List pages, with no scrolling down needed, just a click or a type.

Try it out now and let us know what you think! Come on, search for something... :)

Face Values Lists - Easily find your item by its Face Value !NEW!

Following a lot of discussions and work, the Face Values Lists are now publicly available. Look at your item, now at the face values list, now back at your item, now back at the screen - you've found your item :)

Colnect has been working to make browsing the catalog as comfortable to use as possible. Now you can find the item you are looking for at a glance. If you have a stamp and can read its value and perhaps another detail, you're more likely to quickly locate it on Colnect. Also, if you want to know how many coins with a face value of 5 you have, simply add the "Face Values" filter.

Together with the option of the Quick-Filter, hitting your desired item is made even easier. Use the quick-filter search box to quickly shrink your list to include only the values you may be interested in. This option is available on all Colnect list pages.

The Face Values lists can be seen by clicking "Face Values" under any of these categories -
Stamps face values
Phonecards face values
Transportation tickets face values
Gift cards face values
Banknotes face values
Coins face values
Functional cards face values
Tokens face values
Lottery tickets face values

So browse away, and enjoy the hunt for your favorite items. Once you've done that - let us know what you think of the new feature! Like it as it is? Want to see any changes made to it? Simply adore it? Fire away.

Colnect: Goodbye 2012 - Welcome 2013!

This past year has been a year of many additions, from collectible categories, through features to the very inner workings of the system for Colnect. Colnect has grown, both as a community and as a catalog, network and website, and with it it learned, improved and bettered itself. Just as 2012 begins and ends with the number 2 which symbolizes togetherness, Colnect began and is ending it's year peaking with it's greatest strength - cooperation.

Many collectible categories joined the Colnect ranks in 2012, to proudly represent and cater to all their collectors. Categories such as Pocket Calendars, Sugar Packets, Lego Sets, Stickers and Trading Card Games are each now holding their place with a respectable catalog of their own. All these categories were established by collectors and with collectors that initiated, maintained and contributed to make it all happen.

Year 2013 Pocket Calendar, from the Colnect Catalog

Some categories are in the works now, to be made public in this coming year of 2013, such as Drink Labels, Medals, Video Games and Functional Cards. All collectors interested are welcome to join and contribute to the new categories by contacting the respective category coordinators. We wish all these categories and their coordinators luck and success in the new year. All the process of construction of new categories has been available since this year on the new "New Categories" forum, where everyone cam follow new suggestions of categories and suggest some of their own.

Year 2013 Pocket Calendar, from the Colnect Catalog

The Colnect community itself has been increasing in size, as more and more collectors are discovering all the advantages it offers. Only last month Colnect marked it's latest milestone of 40004 collectors registered. The community members have also been reaching out to each other more on the personal level, and were afforded the comfortable opportunity to in the new Meetings and Events forum.

Year 2013 Pocket Calendar, from the Colnect Catalog

The expanding catalogs have been benefiting from the many generously active helping hands of collectors around the world, and have also marked milestones of their own. The Stamps category reached 300303 Stamps, the Coins category now superseded it's previous milestone of 30003 Coins, while the Phonecards category has achieved the number of 400004 items on it's catalog.

Year 2013 Pocket Calendar, from the Colnect Catalog

Possibly the most important and influential changes introduced to Colnect are in the added features and the improvement of the system. Colnect has been working to make itself smoother, more accessible, easier and friendlier to use. New features included the valuable Best Matches option, the Colnect Item Score for collectible items and the 5 Star Contribution system.

Year 2013 Pocket Calendar, from the Colnect Catalog

The most exciting part of this changing year is that 2013 is sure to bring with it much more revolutionary changes, improvements and many more very welcome additions. Already now we are expecting great potential from the results of the work on the Colnect API, the New Method to Add Items and Colnect Marketplace.

Year 2013 Pocket Calendar, from the Colnect Catalog

Thank you to all are continuously helping to realize such a wonderful, useful and effective tool for collectors of so many items around the world. There is no room to thank each one individually, but we hope this will be a great year for each one of you and for all of us together.

Happy New Year 2013 !

The Story of Colnect

Lately it seemed that one thing was missing in the Colnect story, and that is Colnect itself telling it. Colnect’s active and beautiful community is always telling the story of what Colnect is, but the time has come to type down some official version of how it came to be. So here it goes.

Amir and Frognector climbing the Triund trail at Dharamsala, India

Beginning - The Idea and IPD

or “How an idea, a family and a community grew together”

From son to father, from father to son, from son to brother. It all started when Amir's younger brother, Uri, started collecting phone cards. Soon enough their father, Avi, trying to help out his son with his new hobby, got hooked too. Avi Wald became an avid and dedicated collector. In 2002, Amir's older brother Ofer decided to create a website for their father to encourage him to use the internet more. That is how “Islands Phonecards Database” (IPD) was created. The word of the site spread around to other collectors and they began frequenting it. Amir, coming back from his world travels near the end of 2007, decided to take it on, from a hobby into a serious undertaking.

Amir Wald has made his first steps as a developer at the age of 8. Amir had solely written from scratch a shelf product for an educational company before he turned 18. Amir was involved in numerous software projects of various fields (educational, financial, military, and more) and was thus well-versed in facing new challenges in unknown environments.

The most important changes Amir began with were allowing collectors to directly contribute phonecard information and translate the site online. This approach created a huge potential to exponentially expand the catalog's and site's scope. It proved very effective as more collectors from around the world joined and helped by contributing more collectible card information. Many collectors that joined IPD are today coordinators on Colnect, contributing their time, knowledge and effort to the Colnect catalogs for the benefit of all collectors. Collectors such as Vadym Sulimenko, Ignacio F Lopes Vico, Jens Bruno Wittek stayed with Amir and helped it all happen. Today the list of contributors is growing as well and we owe each and every one of them a big thank you for contributing to the community.

Amir and Frognector are ready for action in Rishikesh, India

Building Colnect - A Chain Reaction

IPD was gaining popularity fast. It wasn't long before it quadrupled the number of its active collectors and continued doubling on. Its collectible phone cards database increased in size and more collectors managed to easily swap cards with collectors from other countries. The success of IPD has motivated Amir to create Colnect.com. Colnect, (Collect + Connect), was created to open up to embrace all collectors of all collectibles everywhere.

Colnect gathered a large, active, attentive, loyal and kind natured community around it. More and more collectible categories were added, from Stamps and Coins, to Tea Bags and Drink Labels.

Avi Wald, 1949-2010

As Colnect grew into a name in the collectors community, it naturally also grew a new face. Frognector, the frog collector, has risen from his humble beginning as Amir’s nephew’s toy, to stardom as Colnect’s beloved green mascot. Frognector was born in 2009, making his first appearance in the StartUp20 competition in Bilbao, Spain, where Colnect won 1st prize. From there on Colnect has gone on to win more competitions such as the TechAviv Peer Awards.

In 2010, Avi Wald, Amir’s father, passed away. He was a devoted collector whose spirit and enthusiasm has inspired and brought about Colnect’s existence. His honest and kind ways will always be remembered, among others, by the many collectors he has gotten to know and exchange with on Colnect. His love and appreciation for knowledge and for the collecting spirit manifests and continues on in the community and workings of Colnect.

Frognector visiting a Buddhist temple in Kunming, China

Colnect Today

Today Colnect is translated into more than 60 languages, visited by over 300,000 unique visitors a month, has over 40,000 registered collectors, has nearly 1 million items cataloged on its 19 online collectible categories, has over 50 million items marked in member's collections and counting. There are always new categories in the works, contributors uploading information and collectors joining from across the globe, from beginners to experienced collecting veterans. The goal is to eventually cover and include the entire collectible world.

In 2011 Amir, as always both the driving power behind Colnect and the fast typing hands operating it, has decided to take himself, Colnect and Frognector with him on the road. Amir has been traveling around the world, all the while developing Colnect, meeting up with collectors, visiting collectors fairs, markets , exhibitions and writing about his experiences.

Frognector getting a kiss at a fountain in Pattaya, Thailand

Looking Forward - The Future of Colnect

The enormous progress Colnect has made so far has only inspired its creator to take it further. The long and prosperous way the Colnect community has made together so far goes to show that Colnect succeeds not only for it's idea or the one who executed it, but also because it is useful. It responds to a need, and it has the ability to fill that need because it is made with and for the community it serves. Colnect is on it’s way to making itself smoother, more comfortable and much more available.

Among the additions in the works are the Colnect MarketPlace, Colnect Applications and Products and Upgrading Colnect’s features and system. Ideas a little further along the way include Colnect Wiki, Colnect Social communications and more.

400,004 Phonecards on Colnect

The number 4 is proving to be a lucky number for Colnect. Only a few days ago we announced 40004 Collectors on Colnect, and today we are happy to announce that the items on the catalogs are fast catching up on their own landmark numbers. No less than 400,004 phonecards are now available on the Colnect Phonecards catalog.

Colnect's largest catalog is showing it's strength by not slowing down. Since it's last milestone it continues to grow as more and more dedicated collectors contribute their time, effort and heart to the catalog. All of it wouldn't have been possible without the guidance of the Phonecards category coordinators, Carlos Rodriguez  [venezuelanphonecards], Karl Heinz Degener [neizi], Jorge Pablo Villegas [Jorgepablo2005], Eyüp Güçmen [kolleksiyon], and Komdej Chulapprawut [komdej] who continued in the footsteps of our previous coordinators and are assisted by a multitude of contributors and editors the world over.

A notable change that made a true impact on this last great influx in the Phonecards category is the addition of Japanese Phonecards. Cards from Japan are now a large portion of the catalog, numbering at above 80,000 cards. In the past 180 days out of the 44,018 cards added, 31,203 cards were from Japan. The Japanese cards are having an impressive presence and hopefully it will continue to prosper and get through to more collectors of Japanese Phonecards.

"Waterfalls" - Japanese Phonecard. Newly added on Colnect

"Fish in front of a firework" - Japanese Phonecard. newly added on Colnect

One of the most astounding things to see on Colnect is the enthusiasm and loyalty of it's contributing collectors community. We are very happy to see the spirit and willingness of so many contributors joining in and working together to make the best catalog possible for all collectors worldwide. Thank you all, it is truly a joint effort :)

"Save the Turtle" - Maldives Phonecard, Newly added on Colnect 

The infrastructure of Colnect itself is right there advancing at the same pace, improving the system and finding the best and most convenient ways to serve the collectors community. The method in which items are added on the catalogs is now being redesigned to an easier, faster, streamlined process. Want to weigh in with your opinion as to how you would like things done? You are welcome to join the discussion.

Colnect wants to make itself as accessible as possible, making it's features available everywhere and for all needed purposes. Colnect has now opened the Colnect API, making the information on Colnect reachable to all who wants to make an app or a program, have an idea for a product or feature based on Colnect.

"Philswis, the fine art of collecting - Globi bei der Post" - Switzerland Phonecard. Newly added on Colnect

At times there is talk of Phonecards production slowing down, but as a collectible they have proven themselves to be a rich collectible source to a devoted company of collectors. Phonecards are booming with more than 100,000 Phonecards added to the catalog since our last milestone.

"Sea Waves" - Mongolia Phonecard. Newly added on Colnect.

Want to find out how you can contribute to Colnect's fast growing catalogs as well? Come see our Catalog Contribution Guidelines help page. Want to add a new collectible category to Colnect to compete with the Phonecards catalog? Please see our More Collectibles? page.

"Joe Dominique's Interpretation of The Court House" - Netherlands Antilles Phonecard. Newly added on Colnect.

Happiest Collecting to All and a Happy Holiday Season :)

300303 Stamps on Colnect

One of the largest catalogs with the one of the richest and longest standing record in history of collectible items has now reached 300,303 items on Colnect! As many as 100,000 Stamps were added to the Colnect Stamp Catalog since our last landmark milestone. 

Colnect Stamp Catalog - the latest Stamps added

Amassing that amount of information and documenting it is no easy feat and great appreciation is due to those who worked hard to achieve it, from all who contributed to the catalog to, of course, the dedicated Coordinators and Editors. A special thank you is owed to Lola22, Peti543, clodius, DarioDeSantis and fabellogo and the many contributors who sent them information to be added.

"Sprint" - 1989 Stamp from the Maldives, Newly added on Colnect

Colnect is on it's way to streamline itself even more, making faster and easier the process of contributing to the catalogs. Hopefully that will mean that soon the Stamps catalog will rocket itself even further forward, covering the majority of the worldwide abundance of stamps. Follow the process to design the most comfortable way for anyone willing to join in on the building of the catalog.

"Eagle and Dan Dare" - 2012 Great Britain Stamp

From big to small features, the Stamps catalog structure never ceases to improve itself. Attention to detail is in the heart of the Philately collectors community and that reflects on the Colnect catalog. Only in the last few months there have been changes made to the Adding Images option, Filters for Printings and Perforations, Stamps Colors, and the Catalog Order. All is done by requests made on the forum in order to listen to the needs of a growing company of passionate collectors who want to see the future of collecting happen before their eyes.

"Braunschweig Coat of Arms" - 1856 German States Stamp

Diversity of Stamp items can sometimes be overwhelming. In just the last 30 days there were stamps added from 170 different countries. The stamps cross continents from The Maldives, through Australia to Japan, as well as decades, from the 1800's, through the merry 1960's and 1970's to the latest stamps printed.

"Ibaraki: Rose" - 2011 Japan Stamp

The aspiration to encompass not only the complete sequence of world Stamps in it's entirety but also of Stamp Collectors is a common wish of Colnect as well as the collectors community. As we add in a joint effort more items, more people, we expand, we extend the passion and knowledge to others. We not only document the information but pass onward the skill and joy of collecting. If you would like to participate come see how it is done.

Happy Holidays for Everyone and Happiest Collecting :)