Tea Bags Catalog Exceeds 60,006 Teabags on Colnect

We on Colnect are proud to announce that the charming Tea Bag Catalog on Colnect has now reached 60,006 Tea Bags! The catalog has progressed a lot over the years,  into a beautiful and well structured catalog, that now also works as a counterpart to its brother catalog, Tea Labels. With over a thousand tea bags added just in the last month, the catalog's growth rate, years after its creation, is impressive.

This achievement is made even more admirable when you consider it's all the result of the ever dedicated coordinator and founder of the category, Carine De Pauw [crookscarine]. The Teabag category has gotten help from great contributors, of course, but as the sole coordinator and editor of the category, Carine is the main grand orchestrator and executor of it all, maintaining 2 categories at once. Without her, no of this was possible.

Carine with a Colnect T-Shirt at a fai 

Carine is a serious collector of Stamps, Phonecards, Tea Bags, Tea Labels and Beer Coasters. She has been a Colnect member since 2005, when Colnect was still a website only catering to Phonecard collectors. Let's take a few moments to get to know her a little better.

- Carine, you are taking on both the Tea Bags and Tea Label categories on your own as the sole coordinator and editor for both categories. How are you managing that?

This works because I use all my free time to work on both catalogs. I try to add new teabags every day. This is only possible thanks to my contributors who are sending scans. Some of them also send me new teabags, so I can enlarge my own collection, because I don’t have much time to swap. Sometimes I get comments regarding mistakes in the catalog which help me edit the catalog. Therefore I would like to thank all my contributors.

The first one. when I’ve started in 2009, was Els Van Gastel [leeuwin] from the Netherlands. In October 2011 I saw beautiful teabags from Brooke Bond on Facebook from Marjoke. I’ve asked her if I could get the scans for Colnect. She agreed and from then on I’ve gotten a lot of new scans from her for the catalog.

Here you can see a picture of Marjoke and Emilienne, another member on Colnect. It is at an international fair at Rijkevorsel in November 2012, where I advertised Colnect.

Left to right: Emilienne, Carine and Marjoke, collector fair at Rijkevorsel, November 2012

Special thanks to all my contributors, without whom I would never have had 60006 bags in the catalog:
From the Netherlands - Els Van Gastel [leeuwin], Marjoke Rozier [marjatea], Veerle Daams [dragons], Jan De Graaf [Saturn] ,Cees Verbaan [Cornelis], Irene Ramp [teagirl], Christel Aerts [CIEV2004], Hillie Janssen-Kiers [hillie1956]
From Belgium: Geert Vinck [GeertVinck], Nancy Vergauwen [bambi]
From Denmark - Flemming Axelsen [axpro], Inge Nielsen [vinkel]
From Finland: Ljuba Brown [Zamppa]
From Germany: Jacklin
From Latvia: Ivan Dimitrov [ventspils]
From Spain: Manuel Faja I Riera [ttags]
From Indonesia: Dhanya Rahardjo [dhanya]

- What do you think of how the TB catalog and Colnect have changed over the years?
Since the start of the catalog there are some interesting changes. I think the variants are very useful, as well as the link to the corresponding Tea Labels.

In the future I would like to add many new teabags and also spend more time on the tea label catalog which I have started in January 2013.

- What kind of reaction do you get from Tea Bag collectors regarding the catalog?
Some collectors are very grateful and they say “You’re doing a great job”.

- Do you have a favorite teabag?
My favorite teabag is not just a teabag, it’s a puzzle from an English tea shop with 25 small tea boxes. It’s a present from my daughter.

Carine's favourite item on her the Tea Bag collection

We're delighted to have Carine on board the Colnect ship and happy to celebrate with her a double occasion, her recent birthday and her great accomplished creation, the Tea Bags catalog on Colnect. Many Tea Bag collectors around the world now benefit from her generosity with her time and enthusiasm to the collecting of Tea Bags.

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

The New Colnect Core Coordinator - Hernan Bofill [hbofill12]

In the great Colnect team there are many different roles. Some start out initiating something new, some Colnect finds for a new role, for some a role simply grows on them. But this is not one of these cases, this case is unique. Here a role is just so perfect for a collector, that it's almost as if it was created for him.

The collector, as most of you know him, is Hernán Bofill [hbofill12] and the new role is Colnect Core Coordinator (CCC). This role will allow him to be in contact with coordinators of all categories, offering his support and advice. He will be with a finger on the pulse of all catalogs, so he'll know when something is needed to be done and what. At the same time he'll have the bird's eye view of Colnect, with the freedom to introduce and push forward ideas. Hernán Bofill [hbofill12] is now your top guy on everything related to the catalogs.

Hernán and his son, Nino

Since joining 3 years ago, Hernán has been relentless in pushing the catalogs and the community forward. Most importantly, he has been relentless in his enjoyment of what he does, refusing to let anything stifle his enthusiasm and momentum. He has very quickly made himself an invaluable resource. By offering his expertise, time, mentoring and always his care he won the respect and gratitude of many of Colnect's team and members.

You see him all the time, editing and coordinating on so many catalogs, answering on the forum and in private, swapping and listing, but let's hear a little more from him about himself.

hbofill12 as you all know him

- What do you collect?

My primary collecting items are coins. Then I have a lot of tokens and medals, that I am putting in order. Due to a "space issue” I only collect labels of the beverages that I drink. I am also a Beatles fan, so I collect Beatles CDs and memorabilia. I have a huge quantity of events tickets (Sports, Concerts, Admission) and Pins, and also some rocks, fossils and shells.

- How did you start collecting?

Since I was a child, I always had the collecting virus in me. Toys, magazines, stickers, glass balls. I always wanted to complete a series…

- Why do you think collecting is valuable?

Collecting, no matter what you collect, means two principal things to me. First, a lot of learning and knowledge. Second, creating relationships with other collecting partners.

- Which roles have you taken on Colnect before?

I've started in Colnect as a Coins editor for Argentina, Paraguay and Fantasy Issues. I would really like to thank Jim [Rubycored] for his mentoring. He was the one that motivated and pushed me to become what I am in this community. Then I became a Global Coins editor and Drink Labels coordinator. One year later, I was helping Jim and Angelo with the coordination of Coins, and handling the coordination of Tokens and Medals. In the middle of that Jim offered his Security Manager position to me and I accepted. With this, Amir also wanted me to become one of the site admins and I started working with some of the other category coordinators, helping them, for example, assign stars and grant editing permissions.

- What do you think are the main challenges Colnect faces?

We have a great catalog and we cover most of the “Swapping” collectibles, which is great. The main challenge that I see now is to improve the data in our catalogs. Doing this, I am sure that we are on the way to become the world's main collecting reference.

- Which are the first issues you'll be focusing on?

I would like to make the coordinator's day by day in Colnect more easy. I am working in a couple of ideas and I hope to share them soon.

- How can members help out?

There are many ways to help out in this community. I think that one of the best ways to start is asking your primary collection coordinator how you can help him. Be sure that he/she will find a task for you to do. This could be a good starting point.

- What would you like collectors to know about you, that they don't know yet?

Well, most of them know me but perhaps they don’t know much about me. About my personal life, I can tell you that I am from Argentina and I am 38 years old. I am married and have two kids. Nino who is 10 years old and Helena who is 6. I am a Systems Engineer and work for a pharmacy industry company, leading the Latin America software factory projects. As I said above, apart from collecting, I am a Beatles fan and enjoy going to music concerts. I also like to watch Football and Rugby.

Hernán Bofill and his family

To wrap this post up, we will finish resolving a mystery with another mystery. Many have asked and wondered, what is the meaning or reason of Hernán's OM avatar? The answer lies before you. As he wrote: "This is my necklace. It was created especially for me and it has been with me since 1997."

Thank you, hbofill12, for all that you have done and with all that you will do. Good luck and congratulations on this new role, we are all excited for you :)

Phonecard Catalog Exceeds HALF A MILLION Phone Cards - The World's Biggest

As some of you may already know, Phonecards was the very first category on Colnect. It is the founding corner stone of our community. All other categories on Colnect have originated following the first footsteps made by the Phonecards category, community and most of all - coordinators, editors and contributors.

"A Sua Melhor Companhia No Vital" Brazilian Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

It is incredible to see how far it has gone since! Colnect now is very proud to announce that the Phonecards catalog now displays 500,005 phonecards, surpassing half a million cards.

"Jap. Writing" Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

"Igreja De Pedras - Vigia - PA - P5978" Brazilian Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

How was it done? It was done by the ceaseless quest of so many collectors to add more items, more information, make it more accurate and in general - make the Colnect Phonecards Great. It a long journey that aims for perfection. In the last 30 days alone, 2,701 Phonecards from 50 countries were added to the catalog.

"Goldcard" Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

And therefore we have to give credit, as we can, to the numerous wonderful collectors who have made it happen and are continuing to make it happen every day. Coordinators that manage the catalogs, keeping a keen eye for detail, country Editors that diversify, clean and correct the catalogs, Contributors that add new information and images every day.

"Jap. Writing" Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

The current Phonecards category coordinator is no other than the amazing Ignacio F López Vico [iflvico], Colnect's community manager and one of the original core team on Colnect. He has coordinated this category before as well, but there were more coordinators along the way who have helped bring the category to where it is today - Yury Yelensky [Landerstorm], Carlos Rodriguez, [venezuelanphonecards], Vadym Sulimenko [Dravec] and Trudy Hoogenboom [trudyh]. Important to note also Karl Heinz Degener [neizi], Hernan Bofill [hbofill12], Sombat Tamtirapong [kung1951], Graeme Kilpatrick [nzexchange] and Jorge Pablo Villegas [Jorgepablo2005].

"Jap. Writing" Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

It is not possible to properly thank the many many collectors who have each added to this accomplishment in a great way. As you see on the editors and contributors lists, they are too many to mention. Each of them taking much care in their treatment of the catalog, each responsible for different part of the catalog, sometimes even creating a whole section from scratch. Thank you all, for bringing all this beauty into the world's view.

"Jap. Writing" Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

Thank you very much to each and every one of you, for making the catalog beautiful for the hundreds of thousands visiting it every month from around the world.

"Paris s'eveille L'Arc de Triomphe" French Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

Want to join the Phonecards category team? Have Phonecards you would like to see on the Colnect catalog? Read more on our Catalog Contribution Guidelines help page and get started!

Medal Catalog Surpasses 10,001 Medals

The Medals category has been long discussed and much anticipated before it was finally created in March 2013. Medals, items that are made only for the most special and selected occasions, are precious and rare. Creating a catalog of them, much like the collection of medals, is more like a treasure hunt than regular cataloging.

"Medal Fire for Courage" Bulgaria 1950-1975, from the Colnect catalog

That is why Colnect is extremely proud to announce that the Medals catalog is now displaying over 10,001 Medals! Not only that, but the catalog has a perfect shiny 100% of items with beautiful quality images and completed with usage, composition and Colnect catalog codes. Despite the challenges the creation of a Medals category presents, the coordinators, editors and contributors of the category insisted adding as much information as possible in the best way possible.

"Medal of Motherhood" silver Albania 1950-1990, from the Colnect catalog

We would wholeheartedly like to thank all those have brought this category to light. Thank you to the category coordinator, Hernan Bofill [hbofill12], for his leadership and for the meticulous and relentless work to bring this category to perfection. Special thank you is owed to top talent collaborators Petyo Shopov [PShopov], milanovt600 as well as to hashtablakoo2000 for the creation of the Iranian section. To all the Editors and Contributors, without whom this catalog will not be possible and to all those who supported this category from the very beginning. The catalog itself is a Medal reflecting your amazing efforts :)

"Commemorative Medal to visit the Manchu emperor in Japan 1935" China, Dynastic Empires, from the Colnect catalog 

"Ordre de la Centreafricaine Reconocimiento, Chevalier" Central African Republic 1962, from the Colnect catalog 

You can follow the whole discussion that brought about the category into being, including the deliberation of what form the catalog should take, on the Medals category forum thread on the New Categories forum. Interested in creating a new collectible category yourself on Colnect? Go to the More Collectibles? page for more information.

"Order of the Zähringen Lion With Oak Leaves Commander" German Empire 1812-1918, from the Colnect catalog

Would you like to join the Colnect Medals team? Want to add more Medals to the catalogs or some other collectible? Read more on how to become a Colnect contributor on the Catalog Contribution Guidelines help page.

"Medal In Memory of Nicholas I for university" Russia 1896, from the Colnect catalog 

50,005 Banknotes on Colnect

Just as a banknote is thin in size but has value much beyond its measure in weight, the Banknotes category may not be the largest on Colnect in quantity, but its meaning and worth are way beyond its number of items. Each banknote added to the catalog is a substantial addition to the catalog.

New 2014 banknote, 500 Francs from the French Pacific Territories

With that said, thanks to the beautiful work of the Banknotes coordinator on Colnect, Vidami Istvan [mozistv], and the categories editors and contributors, the Banknotes catalog has reached the impressive milestone of 50,005 Banknotes listed on our Colnect catalog.

New 2014 banknote, 1000 Francs from the French Pacific Territories

The catalog has grown and so has its diversity. Banknotes is not the oldest collectible item type, but still we have the oldest banknote on Colnect, a 300 cash Ming Dynasty Chinese note from the year 1368. You can do also a nice leap of over half a millennium forward in time and see the beautiful modern banknotes of 2014.

The oldest banknote on Colnect, 1368 300 Cash Ming Dynasty Chinese note

Around 400 new banknotes are added to the catalog every month. You can see the new notes to join the catalog here. Have banknotes that are still not on the catalog? Would like to help the category grow? Learn how to become a contributor on Colnect on our Catalog Contribution Guidelines page.

New 2014 banknote, 1 Disney Dollar, a fantasy issue from the USA

The category coordinator is dedicating efforts to make the catalog not only as large as possible, but complete with all accurate information, including beautiful pictures. What is a good catalog without good quality pictures? Right now we are looking for collectors willing to help adding pictures to banknotes with a missing picture. There are 2,770 active Banknote Collectors on Colnect and the category needs your help!

New 2014 banknote, 3½ Polar Dollars, a fantasy issue from the Arctic Territories

Thank you to all who made this wonderful catalog possible and to all who will make it even better in the future.

70,707 Collectors Connecting on Colnect

Less than 2 months have flown by and lo and behold, Colnect is growing faster! More than 4004 collectors have joined our community since our last 66,666 milestone post and so we have developed into a community of 70,707 happily colnecting collectors :)

Not only the community has grown, but the catalogs as well. We've had a new Kids Meal Toys category and Milk Cup Lids category joining our ranks recently. We wish the new categories, with their coordinators, editors and contributors, the best of luck.

Newly added lid on the Milk Cup Lids catalog on Colnect

Each catalog has added many new items to its pages, with the great dedicated help of the wonderful Colnect coordinators, editors and contributors. It's worth to note especially the Stamps, Gift Cards, Medals, Paper Clips, Phonecards, Postcards, Sugar Packets, Trading Card Games and Tea Bags categories. Combined they have added more than 15,000 new items to the Colnect catalogs in the last month.

Newly added toy on the Kids Meal Toys catalog on Colnect

Colnect is not just a tool and catalogs, though. Most of all it's a social network of a great vibrant community. That community showed also it could really take a joke on the last 1st of April, when "Automatic Exchange" was introduced. Many more discussions have developed on the forums in the past weeks and you are welcome to join! Go see what's on our forums now.

Newly added Stamp on the Colnect Stamps catalog

Have collectibles you'd like to add to the Colnect catalogs? Read all about how to become a contributor on the Catalog Contribution help page.

Newly added card on the Colnect Gift Card catalog

We would like to welcome all the new collectors to join Colnect and thank our wonderful community that makes Colnect what it is every day.

Newly added card on the Trading Card Game catalog on Colnect

Kids Meal Toys - Fun and New on Colnect

We're excited to announce that the new Kids Meal Toys category is now available on Colnect.

"Chevrolet Corvette" McDonald's toy car from the "Hot Wheels" series, now on the Colnect catalog

Kids Meal Toys is a home for all Food Premium toys, all the surprising hidden passengers you would find when purchasing your food items. The catalog is open to include Fast Food toys, Morning Cereal toys and Kinder Egg Surprises.

"Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" toy from "Burger King", soon on the new Colnect catalog

This category is such a great idea that we decided to go ahead with it even though currently it has no coordinator. We very much need a coordinator for this category! This category has a lot of potential with collectors worldwide collecting toys of different kinds. We already have resources for information and pictures for the catalog and we can get more. What we need now is the orchestration master :) If you are interested in coordinating this category or participating in any way or know anyone who might, please post on our forums or write to [Dana-Levitas].

The category was initiated by Steve Jones [SteveJ09], an enthusiastic collector on Colnect that made the efforts to make this category come to life. You can read the whole process of starting this category on the Kids Meal Toys thread on the New Categories forum.

"Bambi" fixed figure toy from "McDonalds", soon on the new Colnect catalog

The category still needs coordinators, editors and contributors to realize it's potential. Kids Meal Toys is a large and diverse collectible field. As such it needs your help to try to encompass as much as possible from what it has to offer. Want to help to add information to the catalog? Read here more on How to Help the Catalog Grow.

"2003 Lady Bug Girl" doll from the Madame Alexander series for McDonalds, soon on the Colnect catalog. 

Your collectible category is not yet on Colnect? Would like to create a new collectible catalog? Read more on how to add More Collectibles, take the reigns and make your suggestion on the New Category Forum.

Come take at the new Kids Meal Toys catalog, and let let us know what you think!

"NASCAR" McDonald's toy car on the "Hot Wheels" series, now on the new Colnect catalog