Interesting facts through collectibles: Eiffel Tower opens

What comes to your mind when you think about France? The first thing to pop up into the most people's head is the Eiffel Tower. It is not only the most recognizable symbol of  France but also it is the most-visited paid monument in the world.

Phonecard, Eiffel Tower, France, 2001, Colnect Catalog

After 2 years of hard work, construction of the Eiffel Tower was finally finished on March 15, 1889. After 16 days, on March 31, it was opened and celebrated by commencing the first ascent to the top of the tower. The elevator was not working yet, so 1,710-step climb had to be done by foot.

Coin, 10 Dollars (Eiffel Tower - Paris, France), Cook Islands, 2007, Colnect Catalog

Eiffel Tower is very popular in the collecting world. There are many different types of items which display this magnificent tower. Here are some examples from our categories of coins, phonecards, and even lego sets.

Lego Set, Eiffel Tower, Advanced Models, 2007, Colnect Catalog

On average, 25,000 people are visiting the tower every day. The most popular Eiffel Tower-themed collectibles are postcards and stamps. In addition to being able to share the experience with family and friends, they serve as a memory trigger for the days of visiting Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

Postcard, Paris. Eiffel Tower and Trocadero gardens, France, Colnect Catalog

Do you collect the collectibles of a specific topic? If yes, share in comments the topic you're interested in. 

Stamp, Chagall - The Betrothed and Eiffel Tower, France, Colnect Catalog

If you want to contribute to Colnect you are welcome to check Contributor Guide. To purchase or sell your collectibles feel free to visit Colnect Marketplace.

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

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.

56,789 Collectors now on Colnect!

It's always fun to see more and more collectors joining Colnect and participating in the community. Every day you can see more collectors from different countries swapping items, discussing collectible issues on the forums and suggesting useful new ideas, keeping the Colnect community vibrant, current and on it's toes.

In the last 3 months Colnect has reached 56,789 Collectors, an increase of  over 11 percent. That means over 6000 collectors have joined Colnect in the past 3 months, becoming members of the community and enriching it with their input, with their collections and their character.

"25 Rupees - Queen's Silver Jubilee" - Seychelles Coin, newly added on Colnect

It's truly beautiful and inspiring to see the cooperation between collectors on Colnect, from those who have been with Colnect since the beginning to brand new collectors. The more veteran Colnect collectors are happily reaching out to new ones with help and advice, creating new connections of collectible exchange and friendly relations, helping improve the catalogs and the website with their comments and remarks and more.

"Nissay" - Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

New items are constantly added to the Colnect catalogs, thanks to the wonderful contributors, editors and coordinators on Colnect. You can see some examples of them right here in this post. Some categories have reached new impressive achievements such as the Japanese Phonecards section that accumulated over 111,111 Japanese Phonecards, with much of it due to the dedicated work of the editor of Japanese Phonecards, Karl Heinz Degener [neizi].

"Peter Rabbit" - Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

There are also new categories that have been in the works for some time now. Those will be joining Colnect soon such as Sports Cards, CDs, Paper Clips and Milk cup lids. Many more great collectible category ideas are being suggested on and off the forums and we hope eventually we will be able to create a home for all of them.

A big thank you to all those devoted and enthusiastic collectors that are the beating heart of Colnect, both very active and very kind, from Coordinators, Editors, Translators and Contributors to all the Collectors on Colnect that swap, discuss, manage their collection and show much care and appreciation for Collecting.

"Famous Uruguayan Women - Nelly Goitino" - Uruguayan Stamp, newly added on Colnect

Would you like to know how you can contribute to the Colnect catalogs too? Have a look at our Catalog Contribution help page. Would like to suggest and create a new category you would like to see on Colnect? Post it on the New Categories forum.

"Vessel with flowers" - Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

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.

Trading Card Games on Colnect - New TCG Catalog

We're very happy to announce the addition of a new category to Colnect: Trading Card Games

We're starting with 5,281 Game Cards but surely with your help it'll grow very quickly. The coordinators for the category are SerdarAkar and ALeitao. If you've never contributed information to Colnect before, please read our Catalog Contribution Guidelines.

The category has started at the request of collectors and the entire discussion can be seen here on the forum. You may suggest and become a coordinator of more categories on Colnect - just read our More Collectibles? page.

Our blog has been quiet for a while as most of our announcements are published directly on our announcements forum where you can get regular updates. If you wish to write to our blog don't hesitate to make your suggestions.

Happy collecting :)

Building of Vimanmek Mansion - February 3 - Today in History Through Collectibles

Many of the items that collectors on Colnect collect are in fact associated with certain historical events that have taken place over time. This applies especially to Stamps, Phone Cards, Coins and Banknotes. To commemorate these special historical events, countries release special issues of these items that depict images and information relevant to these events.

Through our “Today in History Through Collectibles” Blog we will highlight special events in history by featuring Collectible items from our Colnect Catalogs that are associated with historical events that took place on specific days in history.

Two hundred and twelve years later the gorgeous Vimanmek Mansion, the largest golden teakwood home in the world, is still one of the premier tourist attractions in Bangkok, Thailand.



The Vimanek Palace's creation in February of 1900 by Thailand's King Rama V is celebrated beautifully in one of Colnect's featured collectibles: the LENSO City of Culture Vimanek Palace Phone Card.



The world renowned mansion was constructed uniquely, without using a single nail with the golden teakwood. King Rama V built the Dusit Garden in between the Krungkasem canal and the Samsen canal and the Vimanek Mansion became its first permanent settlement, as King Rama V moved the royal family there.

This Thai baht phone card captures the essence of the innovative architecture found with the luxurious Vimanek Palace, which was renovated in 1982 to serve as a museum of Bangkok's culture and decadence. The phone card showcases the scarlet roof and the curvilinear golden wood walls amidst a glorious emerald lawn. The card itself is good for three hundred Thai baht worth of international calls.

The vast depths of Colnect's catalogs feature many rare, historic, and artistic artifacts in vogue with the Vimanek Palace phone card that is featured here today. Unique and amazing wonders of man's creation are celebrated for fun and, of course, for collecting.

14 December, AMUNDSEN REACHES SOUTH POLE - Today in History Through Collectibles

Many of the items that collectors on Colnect collect are in fact associated with certain historical events that have taken place over time. This applies especially to Stamps, Phone Cards, Coins and Banknotes. To commemorate these special historical events, countries release special issues of these items that depict images and information relevant to these events.
Through our “Today in History Through Collectibles” Blog we will highlight special events in history by featuring Collectible items from our Colnect Catalogs that are associated with historical events that took place on specific days in history.

14 DECEMBER 1911 : AMUNDSEN REACHES SOUTH POLE
Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the South Pole by beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott.

Roald Amundsen born in Borge, near Oslo - Norway, in 1872. He was one of the heroes in polar exploration.
Amundsen planned to be the first man to reach the North Pole, and was about to embark on his mission in 1909 when he was informed that the American Robert Peary had already achieved the feat. He instead sailed for Antarctica in June 1910, where Robert F. Scott, the English explorer was also headed with the same aim of reaching the South Pole. Amundsen sailed his ship into Antarctica's Bay of Whales early in 1911 where he set up his base camp closer to the pole than Scott. Both explorers set off in October – Amundsen used sleigh dogs while Scott used Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs. Amundsen's expedition won the race to the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and he returned safely to base camp in late January.

Scott's expedition was marred by misfortunate. His team reached the pole on 18 January 1912 only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by over a month.

Amundsen established a successful shipping business after his historic Antarctic journey. He later made attempts to become the first explorer to fly over the North Pole. In 1925 he flew within 150 miles of the goal, but in1926 he succeeded and he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible just three days after American explorer Richard E. Byrd had apparently done so in an aircraft. A diary that Byrd had kept on the flight was however found in 1996 that suggested that the he had to turn back 150 miles short of his goal due to an oil leak. This thus confirms that Amundsen's dirigible expedition was in fact the first flight over the North Pole.

Amundsen disappeared on June 18, 1928 while trying to rescue a fellow explorer whose new airship Italia had crashed at sea near Spitsbergen, Norway while returning from the North Pole. It is believed that the plane Amundsen was in crashed in fog in the Barents Sea, and that he was killed in the crash, or died shortly afterwards. His body was never found.


Collectibles on Colnect that Commemorate This Day in History:

➢ COINS:
Russia issued a silver coin in 1995 in their Expedition & Exploration series to honor this great man.

➢ PHONECARDS:
This is another of the Norway Phonecards that honour Roald Amundsen:

➢ STAMPS:
Several countries have honoured this noble man by featuring Amundsen on stamps:

HAPPY COLLECTING . . . :)

300,003 Phone Cards on the World's Biggest Phone Card Catalog

The world's biggest and most extensive phone card catalog has now surpassed 300,003 unique phone cards. The amazing growth of the phonecard catalog reflects the tireless efforts of many volunteer contributors.

300,003

We would like to especially commend Ignacio F López Vico [iflvico] and Carlos Rodriguez [venezuelanphonecards]. Ignacio has been our dedicated and talented phone card coordinator for a long time before becoming our respected community manager. Carlos has filled Ignacio's role as a coordinator for a few months and has also been doing a fantastic job.

The diversity of the catalog is incredible and many phone cards are continuously added from around the world. There are now 236 countries represented on our phone card catalog. Even during the last week, phone cards from 33 different countries have been added, including China, Iran, United States, Nepal, Russia, France, Israel, Greece, Luxembourg and more.

Click any of these phone card images to see some of the recent additions:

Colnect's catalog, created by volunteering collectors for all the collectors in the world, is the world's biggest and most extensive phone card catalog. It's unique wiki-like nature is the main reason for its rapid growth and development. Colnect has started with only phone cards and due to Colnect's catalog success we now have different categories such as coins, stamps and more.

We're always looking for more contributors to Colnect and if you have any phone cards missing on our catalogs, you're welcome to learn how easy it is to contribute to our catalogs.

Happy collecting :)

20,020 Collectors Manage Their Collection and Swap Lists on Colnect

          In February 2011, Colnet collectors community’s website was able to prove its strength by reaching over than 20.020 members from 190 countries around the world.

This website allows these members to easily manage and organize their personal collections with catalogs and automatically match their swap lists with those of other collectors. However, Colnect is available in 58 different languages, as you can communicate and swap with collectors over the word without irritation.

Starting on 2002, as Islands phone cards database, with one aim is to create a catalog of all phone cards, but after that, as 11 other catalogs has been added as 11 other types of collectors has been joined.

Right now, Colnect offers public catalogs of stamps, phonecards, coins, banknotes, bottle caps, tea bags, post cards, bank cards, travel tickets, Casino cards, hotel key cards and beer coasters.
Now a days Colnect’s phonecards catalog is the largest one in the world.

If you collect and you connect, then you should really be member in Colnect.

Collectors Flock to Manage Their Collections and Swap Lists on Colnect

Colnect's popularity amongst collectors has surged in recent weeks, with site traffic reaching record levels and new members signing up at unprecedented rates! For instance, Colnect received an impressive 5,000 visits yesterday (February 22), whereas only 1 month ago we were setting records with a mere 4,000 daily visits. This indicates a phenominal growth rate and should bode well for our goal of developing an extensive collectors community touching every corner of the globe. The number of new collectors has also smashed all previous records, as 48 new members signed up on February 22 alone while 258 registered for that entire week (both records we plan to break soon).



A key reason behind this exceptional progress is likely our recent overhaul of Colnect's layout to make the entire site more user-friendly, attractive, and easier to navigate. These changes have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from long-term Colnect members and new collectors alike, who have responded by using the site more than ever to meet their collection needs. Some credit also goes to Colnect's volunteer translators and their manager, Ben Ulster, who have done an exceptional job translating pages from the site into 47 languages! These translations are an extremely important long-term project that should one day allow collectors from anywhere in the world to use Colnect in their native tongue. If you would like to contribute to Colnect through translations, catalog additions, or have any other feedback, please Contact Us.

Colnect Unveils Dynamic New Look to Improve Collecting Experience

Colnect is excited to launch a brand new layout that is both prettier and easier to use for collectors! One of the most important changes is a greater emphasis on displaying only the relevant category information for a particular collector, meaning that someone who only collects stamps can easily customize their top menu bar to display only pages important for stamp collectors (i.e.: clicking on a collectors' list will show only those who have stamps). This reorganization has become particularly warranted in recent months with the addition of several new, highly-specialized categories that appeal primarily to niche collectors. In addition, numerous smaller modifications have been made that will make navigating the site more efficient and intuitive, such as checkboxes that indicate when an update is in progress and automatic redirects to item list pages. For a complete list of changes, please see the new Face-lift page.



Creating the new version of Colnect entailed months of meticulous design, experimentation, and consultation with collectors. Although adjusting to the new layout may take some time and there will inevitably be some temporary glitches, we feel that the aforementioned advantages will make this project beneficial for the entire Colnect community in the long-term. Please send us any feedback you may have about these changes so that we can continue working to improve Colnect and make your collection experience more enjoyable.

World's Biggest Phone Cards Catalogs Now Has Over 200,000 Phonecards Listed!

Colnect's comprehensive catalogs reached yet another milestone today, as 200,000 phonecards have now been uploaded onto the site. Perhaps even more impressively, over 4,444 phonecards were added by dedicated phone card collectors and contributors in the past month alone. More phone card collectors enjoy Colnect, with over 400 collectors currently having at least 1,000 phonecards marked in their collection (and many more with smaller but still sizable inventories). Brazil, with over 50,000 phone cards listed, is now by far the largest source of these phone cards.

Our phone card catalog is only as big and as extensive due the continuing work of contributing collectors who help us make it the best catalog out there. We would like to extend our gratitue to each and every one of and especially to our phone card coordinator, Ignacio F López Vico [iflvico].

The World's Biggest Phone Card Catalog lists over 186,000 phone cards

Happy to announce that Colnect's phone cards catalog, the world's most-extensive phone card catalogs, has now over 186,000 phone cards listed in it.

Amazingly, the catalog keeps growing faster than before, with over 27,000 phone card listed during the last 30 days. By the time you read this post the number 186,000 may already be obsolete.

Colnect's catalog is an endeavor of many collectors from all over the world who constantly work improve it.

Using Colnect's catalog, collectors from around the world can easily manage their personal collection on Colnect and find swap buddies from around the world.

Special thanks goes to all the contributors, editors and translators of Colnect.

Happy collecting :)

Banknotes and Bottle Caps Google Gadgets

Do you see the random collectibles on the side of this blog? These are Colnect's iGoogle gadgets.

Following the recent addition of banknotes and bottle caps to Colnect, the matching Google Gadgets, showing a random collectible, are now available.




They can easily be added to your iGoogle page, blog or website using following URIs.

Banknotes:
http://colnect.com/integrations/google_gadget/collectibles/banknotes

Bottle Caps:
http://colnect.com/integrations/google_gadget/collectibles/bottlecaps

The previous gadgets are also available:

Coins:
http://colnect.com/integrations/google_gadget/collectibles/coins

Stamps:
http://colnect.com/integrations/google_gadget/collectibles/stamps

Phone Cards:
http://colnect.com/integrations/google_gadget/collectibles/phonecards