Frognector Sees Coins and Banknotes at the British Museum

Collectors be warned, Frognector is out on the loose and has started his journey around the world. You can meet Frognector and Colnect's founder, Amir Wald, when they pass near you. Big collector club conventions and collector fairs are Frognector's favorites but if you have an interesting collectors shop or own an interesting personal collection, don't hesitate to make contact. If you meet Frognector and get to take a picture with him and your collection, you may win cool prizes such as Colnect memorabilia and Colnect premium membership.

Even at the height of summer, London is not missing rain. There's surely a reason the weather is a common topic of discussion.



But such rainy days offer other interesting alternatives, such as the world famous British Museum which holds amazing pieces of art from around the globe.





Perhaps more interestingly for collectors, there are nice sections of world coins and world banknotes on display.



Even a few bank cards and phone cards are out on display.



So the next time you visit the British Museum in London, don't focus only on eating in the cafeteria.



Focus on the interesting coins, banknotes, bank cards and other items on display.

Charing Cross Collectors Fair

Collectors be warned, Frognector is out on the loose and has started his journey around the world. You can meet Frognector and Colnect's founder, Amir Wald, when they pass near you. Big collector club conventions and collector fairs are Frognector's favorites but if you have an interesting collectors shop or own an interesting personal collection, don't hesitate to make contact. If you meet Frognector and get to take a picture with him and your collection, you may win cool prizes such as Colnect memorabilia and Colnect premium membership.

Quite an odd and interesting collectors fair (or market) is held every week in Charing Cross.



It is located in an underground parking space where dozens of sellers present their coins, banknotes, stamps and, more rarely, other items such as postcards other memorabilia.



Frognector and Colnect's founder, Amir, were introducing Colnect to the sellers and collectors in the market but, with the exception of one Colnect member, it seems most are not yet accustomed or wishing to use the Internet. Some have promised to check Colnect out and perhaps one of them is now reading this post :)



Which collector markets are held next to where you live?

Which collector markets have you visited when being abroad?

Frognector in London - An Ancient Meteorite

Collectors be warned, Frognector is out on the loose and has started his journey around the world. You can meet Frognector and Colnect's founder, Amir Wald, when they pass near you. Big collector club conventions and collector fairs are Frognector's favorites but if you have an interesting collectors shop or own an interesting personal collection, don't hesitate to make contact. If you meet Frognector and get to take a picture with him and your collection, you may win cool prizes such as Colnect memorabilia and Colnect premium membership.

When visiting London, Frognector did not forget to have his picture taken next to important monuments such as the British parliament.

And let's not neglect the famous London Underground and the magnificent city view from Greenwich village.




Next, Frognector's next to probably the oldest rock you could ever touch: a part of the Gibeon meteorite that is believed to have hit the Earth in prehistoric times.




Coming next: Charing cross collectors market and collecting at the British Museum.

Have you been to London? What did you like best?

Collectors Take Heed! Frognector's World Journey Commences

SPOILER ALERT: great music video in the end of the post.

Collectors be warned, Frognector is out on the loose and has started his journey around the world. You can meet Frognector and Colnect's founder, Amir Wald, when they pass near you. Big collector club conventions and collector fairs are Frognector's favorites but if you have an interesting collectors shop or own an interesting personal collection, don't hesitate to make contact. If you meet Frognector and get to take a picture with him and your collection, you may win cool prizes such as Colnect memorabilia and Colnect premium membership.

The journey started in TLV airport where Frognector had enjoyed his last supply of tahini before setting out to London, United Kingdom. Tahini is very healthy and Frognector makes a great hummus even though some humans don't like the added nutritional value of flies added.




The picture heading this post, as well as those followed here are from the South Bank area. Grafiti is abundant is a small area for all rollers (bikers, skateboarders and such).



But children needn't worry as a fake beach was created where sand is in plenty as well.




And relaxing on the river bank, there's always time to make new friends.




And finally rest on a fake beach.



When the sun is down, another stroll revealed these extremely talented street musicians.




Next Destinations?
Frognector is planned to stay around London unless you can lure him next to your place. Frognector will land in Iceland's captial, Reykjavik, on July 21st and then continue to travel around Iceland.

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 :)

Collectors Alert: Problems With Mail and Packages to and from Venezuela

Collectors ALERT: if you're going to rely on postal services from Venezuela, please read the following warning published by our dear member Carlos Rodriguez [venezuelanphonecards]. More information can be found on Colnect's forum.

Hello fellow collectors,

I want to state that all incoming and outgoing mail from Venezuela are amazingly delayed, collectors have been waiting at about 3 or 4 whole months to receive their letters, so these delays are becoming a very serious problem, because it can´t be guaranteed that the letters are going to arrive in a short period of time till the problem with the mail system get solved

What i know from a employee is that the main branch at the capital city (Caracas) is currently out of capacity of handling the huge ammount of incoming and outgoing mail, so the handle the most recent mail and older mail has no priority. There is one more thing and is that the company don´t have efficient ways of transport, they trucks are used in other tasks different from Ipostel and also there are a lot of trucks out of service. There could be more reasons, unknown by me

The problem are not the secondary branches from the cities around Venezuela, they all work fine and efficiently, at least offices from Maracaibo works very well and efficient, as i´ve noticed, the main problem has always been the mail branch at Caracas

Having said all this, on behalf of the community of collectors of Venezuela i´m asking to the whole community of collectors of Colnect please understand this situation that has been developing for several months and when making or receiving a proposal for exchanging know the shipment will take longer than usual and you will have to be patient at the time of receiving the letter and know that any events that may occur after the letter was sent is not the responsibility of the sender but the company where the shipment is made

---

Quiero informar que todos los envios entrantes y salientes de Venezuela han estado enormemente atrasados, muchos coleccionistas han tenido que esperar entre 3 y 4 meses para recibir sus respectivas cartas. Estos atrasos se han convertido en un problema serio, ya que de esta forma no se puede garantizar que las cartas vayan a llegar en un corto tiempo hasta que el problema se resuelva

Lo que he sabido por una empleada es que en la sede principal en la capital Caracas es que están trabajando fuera de capacidad de manejo de la correspondencia, por lo tanto no pueden manejar las enormes cantidades de correo que entra y sale, entonces al manejar la correspondencia no se tiene ninguna prioridad ya que las cartas recientes son mezcladas con las viejas entonces se envía lo primero que este a la vista sin importar lo demás. Hay otra cosa mas y es que la empresa no cuenta con formas eficientes de transporte, los camiones son destinados a otros usos distintos a las funciones propias de Ipostel, eso sin mencionar el monton de camiones que están fuera de servicio. Pudiera existir otras razones, pero las desconosco

Una aclaración es que el problema no se debe a las sedes secundarios de las ciudades alrededor de Venezuela, en mi opinión todas funcionan bien, al menos aquí son muy eficientes, tal como lo he notado, el problema es cuando toda la correspondencia es enviada a la sede principal en Caracas

Habiendo dicho todo esto, en nombre de la comunidad de coleccionistas de Venezuela le pido a toda la comunidad de coleccionistas de Colnect que por favor, comprenda esta situación se ha venido desarrollando desde hace varios meses y la toma de cuándo o recibe una propuesta de intercambio de conocimientos el envío tomar más tiempo de lo habitual y tendrá que ser paciente en el momento de recibir la carta y sepan que todo evento que pueda ocurrir después de haber sido enviada la carta no es responsabilidad de quien envía sino de la empresa por donde se realiza el envio

Pido a todos los coleccionistas de Venezuela, aparte de mi persona, que actualmente tengan problemas con sus intercambios favor hagan sus comentarios aqui

100,000 Phone Cards! Meet Jorge Pablo and his Phone Card Collection

Jorge Pablo Villegas [Jorgepablo2005] is the first Colnect member to have more than 100,000 items marked on his personal collection on Colnect. He has been a Colnect member since 2005, when Colnect was still a website only catering to phone card collectors and was called Islands Phonecards Database.

Jorge has been contributing a lot to Colnect and has been awarded the prestigious 3 stars of contribution award which is given to collectors who have spent hundreds of hours helping Colnect become better for the benefit of the entire collectors community.

We've asked Mr. Villegas a few questions, to learn a little about how he got this far as a collector.



Where do you store all your phone cards?

I have almost an entire room 2 x 2.5 meters, which used to be the study room, but is now my phone cards storage room. It always looks messy.







How did you start collecting?

My entire life, since I was a boy, I have been collecting many items like coins, stamps, calendars, cigarette packs, wine labels, box matches. I really had a lot of stamps and cigarette packs.
By the time I was ~20 years old, my mother threw away my collections when cleaning our home (he laughs) and I didn't collect anymore for nearly 20 years.
In 1997 I couldn't take it anymore and started my phone card collection, because it was a relatively new item to collect.



What is the main focus of your collection?

First, I started with my own country, Argentina. I later expanded to South America, then Europe and one day decided to go with all the world. I like all phone cards, except the prepaid and refill GSM cards.

How did you first learn about Colnect?

I learned about Colnect when it was still called Islands Phonecards Database, from a friend here in Buenos Aires. In the year 2005 not many catalogs were available on line, and Islands had that terrific feature that allowed automatic matching with other collectors.
I remember how the site kept growing week after week. Very exciting!




How many hours a week do you spend on Colnect and on your collection?


I would like to say that I enjoy the hours on Colnect, and don't spend my time. With other things I "spend" time, but on Colnect, it's almost an investment of my time. As for my job I log in to Colnect several times a day. It may seem that I'm always connected, but the reason is that Colnect is my initial page, and I check it in at morning, in the evening and in the night. I guess I invest 3 hours per day on Colnect and my collection.


Why are you contributing to Colnect's phone cards catalog?

I think that the best way to get phone cards is to add missing cards, because when a card appears, it is no longer a ghost but a real card. Then one person marks that he has it, another marks that she wants it. The more people marking the card on Colnect, the easier it becomes to get that card.
When a phone card appears only on a seller listing in the market, it may have a high price. But when it becomes listed on Colnect, you can easily see who has this card and it becomes more easily available. More importantly, my contribution and the contribution the many collectors is different than that of sellers because collectors only collect, and are not trying to make a profit.

Which are the things you like best about Colnect?
The automatic matching system and the great possibilities that any collector can add more things, is a very modern and open concept.

Which is the most important improvement that you would like to see on Colnect?

It is not easy to ask more from Colnect. Maybe a faster site and more items on the catalog? Perhaps a photos section about a collector's life, methods and goals of collecting, an open market, etc.

Do you have a message to collectors out there?


I would like to thanks Amir, founder of Colnect, for Colnect and the possibilities it brings. Your work is great, and while others just talk, you do things. I would also like to thank the collectors, without whom life will be a little boring :)


Thank you Jorge for this interview and we hope to see your collection grow even bigger with Colnect. Happy collecting :)

Colnect - Where 22,222 Collectors Connect

Following our tradition of reporting statistics in interesting numbers, we're happy to announce there are now 22,222 collectors connecting on Colnect. During the last month, Colnect has been visited by more than 150,000 people. If you're one of those collectors visiting Colnect but have not yet chosen to become a member, you're welcome to join us. Colnect is really special in the services it offers collectors.




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 want to connect with other collectors, Colnect is the best place for you.

Colnect T-Shirts

We are happy to offer Colnect T-Shirts to our collectors. T-Shirts are 100% cotton and display Colnect's log on their front.
Volume discounts are available so it's best to order with your friends.

(: ORDER NOW :)

(: ORDER NOW :)

Colnect Collectors FireFox Persona

On Colnect, we recommend FireFox as it provides a fast and high quality browsing experience and a new FireFox Persona is now available to all collectors using FireFox to view Colnect. To install it simply follow this link and click "Wear This Persona"



The Colnect Persona has been created by Carlos Rodriguez [venezuelanphonecards], who is also our phone cards coordinator. Thanks Carlos :)

You're welcome to write us what you think about this persona and suggest your ideas for others which will fit Colnect.

Avi Wald - Birthday and Tombstone

Avi Wald has passed away on September 27, 2010 following over two and a half years of battling Glioblastoma Multiform IV (GBM), the most common and violent form of brain cancer. Without him, Colnect would never have existed. You're welcome to read our previous post In Loving Memory of Avi Wald.

Avi Wald was born on the 2nd of April so today would be a good day to publish this post showing his tombstone with marble phone cards. Collecting phone cards and exchanging phone cards with collectors around the world has been a serious hobby for Avi for over a decade. He has always been fair and friendly as many positive ratings on Colnect prove. Avi made numerous friends through this fantastic hobby, some of whom he later met in their countries or his own.



To those of you less proficient in Hebrew the tombstone reads:

Avraham (Avi) Wald
Son of Gershon and Frida RIP
Brother to Raanan RIP

Dedicated to the family and a true friend
Book loving polymath
Honest, modest and loved
Forever carved in our hearts

May he rest in peace and may his legacy linger.

If you have no idea how Avi is connected to Colnect, you're welcome to read our previous post In Loving Memory of Avi Wald.

Tea Bag Catalog Surpassed 10,101 Tea Bags

Colnect's tea bag catalog is quickly growing and has passed an important milestone since our last announcement of its growth. Tea bag collectors can now enjoy a catalog featuring over 10,101 tea bags from 73 countries. Tea bag collectors have developed a significant community on Colnect that can be found nowhere else. Although it's not one of Colnect's biggest categories, it is definitely catching on and there are more tea bag collectors on Colnect to connect and swap with than ever before.



We would like to praise the hard work of our tea bags coordinator, Carine De Pauw, who is doing a fantastic job making our tea bag catalog the best in the world.


If you are a tea bag collector, you're most welcome to sign up to Colnect and upload tea bags from your collection to the site. The current success and future greatness of Colnect rests on the shoulders of devoted volunteers like Carine and YOU.

oDesk Warning For Employers

Our blog for collectors rarely deals with issues that are not related to collecting and collections, but this is a special case. My apologies to collectors who may find it not interesting.

Big Warning To Employers on oDesk

The short version: after working with oDesk for 6 months and hiring dozens of contractors and getting perfect feedback from them, oDesk suddenly suspended Colnect's account which had 26 active contracts WITHOUT even providing a reason. It took 5 days and many requests to realize that oDesk did it since bonus payment to one of the contractors was passed using PayPal and not oDesk. As I was unaware of this being a "serious violation" of oDesk's rules, I offered that contractor to get her bonus via oDesk or PayPal and she chose PayPal. About 2 months later, when we ended our contract, she decided to complain on oDesk since she didn't like the feedback she got. So basically, they lost less than $5 commission from that bonus not passing through their system and decided to suspend Colnect's account although thousands of $USD were passed on oDesk and got we got only excellent feedback from contractors.

After their support failed to answer my issues properly, I contacted oDesk's CEO Gary Swart with the story. Finally, after 2.5 weeks, oDesk resumed Colnect's account. They never apologized for the damage they've done to Colnect and 26 active contractors without a good reason and they refused to change their policies or consider any compensation to the contractors they hurt or Colnect.

This is the reason this post has been made - to warn employers relying on oDesk.

Why Should You Be VERY Careful Hiring on oDesk?

• SUSPENSION - oDesk may quickly suspend your account for any violation without consulting you thus rendering ALL your contracts inactive.


• PRIVACY - Much hiring information is publicly available and CANNOT be hidden. For example: every contractor can see how much you paid other contractors at all times and what their job description is. So if you want to raise the hourly salary of a good contractor, you risk losing all others who do similar jobs.


• PAY FOR NOTHING - When hiring people by the hour, it's a big problem if they report work time and have actually done nothing. The screen shots indicate they've done nothing but you're still supposed to spend much time trying to contact them and open a dispute if that fails. Many times, it's not worth your time and people get away with not doing the work they were assigned to do. Contractors may also add "offline time" without your pre-approval which means they can bill you as they like and you have to stay alert to prevent such billing from occurring.


• SPAM APPLICATIONS - Many applications are pure spam applications from people who have never read your posted job description. Many employers thus ask for some feedback in the actual application to know they're dealing with someone who has actually read the description. oDesk doesn't seem to handle these spam reports as I've seen the same contractors applying again and again.


• HIRED BUT NOT WORKING - Too often we've hired contractors for an hourly job and they worked just a bit and then stopped. There's no option to set minimum weekly hours but only maximum weekly hours. This is very problematic if you expect a job to be completed on a specific date.


• HARD TO FIND CONTRACTORS - in the few times I've tried to find contractors rather than wait for them to contact me, I had great difficulties finding the right candidates as many contractors post wrong details so they'd be ranked higher in the search results. Contacting oDesk support on these issues yielded no results.

If you wish to receive more details to make this more public or if you would like to know which alternative Colnect is using, you're welcome to comment here.

March 9, 1959: The First Barbie Doll - 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.

The first Barbie doll was presented at the american Toy Fair in New York March 9, 1959 by her creator Ruth Handler. The almost immediate success of this new kind of doll gave chance to her husband and another partner to create the Mattel Creations. The Barbie doll with its opulent breasts, its thin waist and long legs would, in fact, completely against the style of dolls and asexual round of the day.

Barbie is short of Barbara, the name of the daughter of Ruth Handler. Initially Barbie was a copy of an adult German doll named Lilli, Ruth Handler had given to her daughter Barbara after observing that children preferred playing with paper dolls representing adult women. Her measurements, initially hypertrophied, were reduced to normal proportions over the years.

From 1959 to 1960, Barbie was only black and white: its her was platinum blonde, the apple of its eye was white and it wore a striped shirt. The reason is that advertising Barbie mobilized a new medium at the time: Television. It had to be at its best on the small screen that does not yet broadcast in color. In addition, from 1959 to 1970, the Barbie looks slightly downwards and right. Since then gently bent the doll's head, it gave the false and mischievous eyes subjected women of the time.

In 1997 Malibu Barbie blonde heady tanning flawless' look straight ahead at last. The reason is that Barbie now drives its own car can no longer be doing so, it looks through. From that moment, Barbie had its multiply trades, professions and leisure in a perspective more explicit diversification role of women.


If since 1980 the ethnic type of Barbie has so much more diversified, it is not so much of its original companion Ken that he has changed little over the years. In 2005, Barbie has also severed its connection with Ken for Blaine, an Australian surfer; but Mattel relaunched Ken in February 2006 against the indifference of young buyers for Blaine.

Collectibles on Colnect that Commemmorate This Day in History:

➢ PHONECARDS:
Several countries released Gift cards to commemorate and celebrate Barbie Doll: