New collector products with Colnect's API

Do you want to create unique products for collectors based on the unique information freely available on Colnect?

Colnect's new API enables you to query Colnect's database to extract relevant information available on Colnect. You can then use this information to offer new products to collectors. This opens a new world of possibilities.

Rock The Collectors' World

Here are some ideas for products that can be implemented using Colnect's new API:

• Mobile applications for collectors
• Facebook applications for collectors
• Offline collection management software interacting with one's Colnect account
• Online marketplaces or shops can extract updated collectible item details for sales
• Statistical analysis applications based on unique collectors information
• Mashup applications such as image recognition to search for an item on Colnect
• Tools to automatically check and update Colnect's catalogs

Background

Colnect is the constant work of so many people and that's how it has become as amazing as it is today. Colnect contains unique information found nowhere else and it's easily and freely available to anyone. At the heart of Colnect are the online catalogs used by collectors to manage their personal collection and use advanced features such as Best Matches.

Colnect's catalogs are extensive and in many of the collectible categories supported they are THE BEST catalogs available anywhere in the world. They are offered in 61 languages to more than 333,333 people visiting Colnect every month. The members of Colnect currently manage about 50 million items on their inventories on Colnect.

How to Use the API

Please see the post on Colnect's forum and write us that you're interested in using the API and what you generally plan to do with the information. You will then be given more specific information and a unique API key to enable you to use the API.

40004 Collectors Connect on Colnect

The 4 Elements, 4 Noble Truths, 4 Gospels, 4 Sons, 4 Books, 4 does seem to be a uniting number :)

Colnect can now thank over 40,004 collectors for their contributions to the exciting site about all things collecting! As over 333,333 people visit Colnect every month, we hope and expect more of them to join us and continue making Colnect the best community for collectors around the world.

Though the world is filled with conscientious historians and just plain old fun loving collectors, there have been few places to bring together these people with similar interests. It is true that many purchase and sell their artifacts on various sites, but the digital auction house lacks the innovation that Colnect works hard to perfect: the connection.

In the last few months New Categories were welcomed into the Colnect catalogs: Tokens, Trading Card Games, Stickers, Pocket Calendars, Sugar Packets, and Lego Sets. Many more are in the works and will join soon, categories such as Video Games and Medals.

Colnect is in a constant state of improvement, building more features and making better the existing ones. All is done to make Colnect as collectors would like to see it. Colnect is now under the process of upgrading it's system so all browsing and use of Colnect will be as smooth, quick and comfortable as possible. 

There have also been changes to services such as Finding Similar Items on eBay, so finding your preferred item would now be made easier and without hassle.

Colnect has hundreds of thousands of stamps and other beautiful collectibles on it's database. That database automatically translates languages from around the world. It allows people to exchange information and trade their collections.

40004 is a landmark number (as Colnect had 33,333 members about 6 months ago), because you, the fans of collecting, have gathered here at Colnect to meet and expand the vast online catalog of collectible treasures. As you continue to upload items onto Colnect, a world-wide treasure map is being composed for all to see and enjoy. It is the people who help to make the catalogs better that deserve to take a bow. Thank you!

Pocket Calendars on Colnect - Pocket Calendars Catalog

We're very happy to announce the addition of a new category to Colnect: Pocket Calendars

Pocket Calendars Category now on Colnect

There are already 1,905 Pocket Calendars and surely with your help that will grow very quickly. The coordinators of the category are steamtrain and Pelacanyes. If you've never contributed information to Colnect before, please read our Catalog Contribution Guidelines.

The category has started at the suggestion of collectors and thanks to their wonderful and dedicated contribution. The entire discussion and build 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.

Maria Creus - Spanish Pocket Calendar from the Colnect Catalog

TGV - Train a Grande Vitesse - Spanish Pocket Calendar from the Colnect Catalog

Comisión Fiestas 5ª Promoción - Spanish Pocket Calendar from the Colnect Catalog

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 :)

Neil Armstrong Passed Away at the Age of 82

Yesterday, 25/08/2012, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon passed away at the age of 82. Armstrong was an American astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor and United States Naval Aviator. He was one of the first U.S. civilians in Space, commanding NASA's Gemini 8 mission. He became an iconic figure around the world as the first human to step on the moon, and will be remembered for it for generations and generations to come.

Neil Armstrong, lunar module "Eagle" from Apollo 11

Eroberung des Weltraums: Neil Armstrong phonecard issued in the year 2000

His achievements as an astronaut and his historic arrival upon the moons' surface has inspired people around the world and ignited human imagination of space travel. The inspiration and appreciation produced many collectible items to be designed to commemorate those achievements. You can see commemorative Neil Armstrong stamps issued phonecards over the years.

Sugar Packets, Lego Sets and Stickers - all now on Colnect

As more and more collectors join Colnect, categories of collectibles are joining in as well and at a faster rate. Today we are glad to announce the addition of three new categories, including Sugar Packets, Lego Sets and Stickers. All were added at the request of collectors on Colnect.

 

For the category to grow and expand, many collectors contribute information to the catalog. If you haven't contributed before and would like to know how, please read our Catalog Contribution Guidelines. 

The beginning of the Sugar Packet Category

All the categories are now in their infant stages, but are already off to a good start. Stickers already has 7836 items on it's catalog. The coordinators for the new categories are tuixons for Sugar Packets, nzexchange for Lego Sets and Paolo73 for Stickers.

First stages of the Lego Sets Category

Would you like to see more categories on Colnect? Collect a kind of item you would like to see on the Colnect catalog? Colnect is always looking to expand the catalogs and add all categories that collectors are interested in. The categories were born of discussion with collectors on the forums. You can participate too. You can become the coordinator of a new category. Just take a look at our More Collectibles? page. 

The new Stickers Category

 Take a look at the new categories and let us know what you think. If you have any suggestions or notes you are welcome to comment here on our blog. Thank you to all that helped on these builds.

Happy collecting for everyone :)

TechCrunch vs. India Mess - Entrepreneur Around the World

Frognector has been moving around the world and has already visited 14 countries during the last year. Being on the road allows us to meet up with collectors in different locations and some dedicated members of Colnect. It also creates an interesting story we use to make Colnect more known. We've had amazing experiences in lovely and exciting places and have met wonderful people on the road.

Frognector enjoying a red/yellow corn in Laos

Throughout this journey a column has been made public on NewsGeek (in Hebrew), sharing some experiences and insights learnt throughout the journey. Recently, we wanted to appeal to a larger audience of English readers and have tried to pitch the story to various publications. A few publications have shown interest in the story and we might soon be published in more places.

One publication, however, has made some very interesting mistake that has created vast amounts of anger amongst its reader. A sample that was sent to TechCrunch to evaluate the level of writing and judge whether our column would interest TechCrunch technologically-oriented readers, has been published by mistake. It was first attributed to someone else and has been put with wrong pictures. But the best part here was that the title was changed and, lacking any introduction to our journey, created the false impression that we're bashing India's hi-tech scene. Quite saddening that this happened as many readers became very upset about it. You're welcome to read the TechCrunch post and the comments there.

As we're now in China and couldn't see the comments (Facebook is blocked in China), we didn't even know they existed. When we got access to them, we could finally respond and here's the full response below.

"

First and foremost, please accept my deepest apologies for this post that has been MISTAKENLY made public on TechCrunch and completely taken out of context. This post was a part of a series of posts describing my PERSONAL experiences as a startupist traveling the world. It was sent to TechCrunch only as a SAMPLE to evaluate the level of writing and see if this could interest TechCrunch readers. I was shocked to find out it was published without any prior request. Its title was changed by TechCrunch and made many of you think it's an opinion about India's Hi-Tech industry. It's not. Many have thought it's bashing India. It's not. I've spent about a year of my life in India (passing through most of its states) and have much appreciation for this diversified nation.

NOW THE REAL CONTEXT: I'm the founder of Colnect ( http://colnect.com/ ), a community website for collectors worldwide available in 60 languages (including a few Indian languages). Coln

ect is offering collectors unique services, such as automatically matching exchanges between collectors based on their personal collection, and has been built by over 500 volunteers from around the globe.

Over a year ago, I've left my home and decided to keep developing Colnect while on the road. There were various reasons for that decision: meeting Colnect members and other collectors, promoting Colnect locally and through the "Entrepreneur around the world series" and enjoying an ever changing work environment. The journey has so far passed in UK, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Jordan, India, Thailand, Laos and China.

The 22 posts made so far described personal experiences of a traveling startupist and shared my personal tips on how to facilitate traveling and working. One of the posts, published in Hebrew, was titled "7 Reasons to Leave Everything and Start your Startup in India" ( http://www.newsgeek.co.il/startup-in-india/ ).

In an effort to reach a wider audience, I've decided that the series should be made available in English and so we've addressed a few publications we thought would be relevant. One of them was TehcCrunch. They asked for samples and got them. We didn't hear from them. Then I get a Google Alert and saw this post online. Although shocked, I thought that any publicity is better than no publicity, even though the post was first attributed to another person, contained wrong pictures (first isn't mine and second is me in Thailand) and no links to Colnect. Beeing behind China's firewall, FaceBook was inaccessible and I wasn't aware of the comments until my brother let me know about them. So here I am now, explaining how all this happened.

If you've actually read this far and want to keep bashing the post, myself and TechCrunch, feel free to have another go at it.

"

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 :)