One Year of Colnect Around the World

Do you know where Colnect offices are? Well, they’re not there. Not anymore. Colnect offices are on the move all over the world and chances are that by the time you read this page, they will be somewhere else than where they were when we wrote it.

Frognector was very impressed by the distinguished Indian gentleman's mustache

Today, 7/7, it will be One Year of Colnect on the road. The roads were various and many, led by the fierce and fearless Frognector. He went from the remote hitchhiking paths of Iceland and down the European continent all the way to Ukraine. He then turned east, floating in the dead sea in Israel, visiting desert caves in Jordan, being tossed around on buses and trains through India, enjoying shakes and massages in Thailand and now celebrating the long and yet-to-become-longer way in Laos. We even have pictures to prove it - the Famous Frog on top of Thai temples as well as Polish buildings and battling Indian snakes.

Look behind you, Frognector! The golden Buddha on the mountain is staring at you

So why create the Traveling Office? Well, for one thing, how else will Frognector get to meet the amazing collectors on Colnect? Yes, they can come to a Colnect Convention. But that is in the future. For now, Frognector just has to be every place. That way he got to connect a smiling face to those on Colnect whom he knows so well from working on Colnect. He got to see their collections for himself and see how their Colnecting home station looks like. In Berlin, in Prague, in Bangkok, all presented impressive collections and some good inside advice that can only be given by a collectors’ first person long term experience.

The Red Rock of Petra, Jordan, amaze even Frognector into a moment of silence

In every nook and corner the world hides amazing collectibles. Some already on Colnect, some soon-to-be-added on Colnect. As with Frognector’s travel plan, so it is with Collectible Categories and Collectible Items on Colnect - The Sky is the Limit. During the journey Colnect was constantly buzzing and busy with adding new Categories. Just like Tokens joined in Colnect, Sugar Packets, Trading Card Games and Lego Sets will soon be announced, many others are in the works and soon will be on Colnect as well. On July 2011 we have decided that Colnect should be everywhere, and so should we be. That kept Colnect growing more than ever and light on its feet ever since. Hopefully this is the start of a new exciting second year, with more developments on the site, more countries visited and more collectors met.

My visit to WSC ISRAEL 2008

My interest in visiting the world stamp championship exhibition might have been a bit different than that of most visitors. As stamps are the next collectible to be added to colnect, I wanted to get better feeling of the hobby and meet some people with whom some future business cooperation would be achieved.

My experience was enriching as stamps, unlike phone cards, have existed for ~170 years and so have more stories and are more established as collectibles. It's a complete world to discover.

Meeting representatives of a few postal authorities went very well. I tried to interest them about the benefits colnect could bring them. Most of the people I spoke with were excited about the ideas presented and so I hope that the enthusiasm would continue to real actions.

The attached pictures show boards containing some of the world's rarest stamps presented in the exhibition.

Collectible phone cards database passed 90,000 listed cards today

A few months ago, I've decided that it's too hard for one person to gather all the requested information about collectibles that needs to be out there for the collectors to use. Even worse, I'm not a collector myself thus can easily do some embarrassing mistakes.

So the decision was made to let the collectors on the site help with what's most important for them on the site - information about their collectibles.

At the time, Islands Phonecards Database (later renamed colnect.com) had ~30,000 listed collectible phone cards. The amount of listed phone cards have been growing quite rapidly and as of today over 90,000 cards (from 172 countries) are listed! Collectors managing their personal collection on the site have ~2.5 million physical collectible phone cards!

Who deserves kudos for this achievement? Not me, I was just providing the technology that allowed the collectors to place the content they wanted. Many collectors have become contributors and editors and I'd like to thank them all.

Most importantly, Vadym Sulimenko has been coordinating the contributions and supporting collectors who wanted to help but needed guidance.
These are the collectors who have recieved 3 contribution stars on our site which mean they were working long and hard on making the site as good as it is: Brocky Godzilla harmesse Hugo2 iflvico mozistv nzexchange Paolo73 thorsten.

My inspiration for the catalog building process is taken from WikiPedia though I prefer to give editing rights slowly. Random visitors cannot update any information. Registered collectors can comment and upload photos on the site or contribute new card information which will be reviewed by more experienced contributors.

The Islands Phonecards Database story

To learn a bit about colnect.com and its history you're welcomed to read this post made by a collector.