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. While there is a lot that can be written about Avi and his life, this post will focus solely on his connection to Colnect and the world of collecting.
Avi started collecting after fourth and youngest son, Uri, asked him to help his phone card collection. At first he just helped Uri by looking for used phone cards left on public phones but he soon became interested in the phone cards themselves and started collecting together with Uri.
As Avi's collection kept growing and he became a serious collector his second son, Ofer, created Islands Phonecards Database for phone card collectors. Ofer wanted his father to use the Internet more and has thus created a site to allow Avi to manage his phone card collection and easily swap phone cards with collectors the world over. Islands Phonecards Database gained popularity with phone card collectors as it offered them free online catalog of phone cards and means to communicate with each other.
Avi's third son, Amir, later took control over Islands Phonecards Database from Ofer and transformed it into Colnect. The phone card catalog started growing quickly with the help of Colnect's community and Avi spent hours a day in front of Colnect updating his personal collection (with over 25,000 different phone cards from 171 countries marked on Colnect!) and interacting with fellow collectors. He was always honest and generous in dealing with other collectors. Some of them became Avi's friends. Even as Colnect progressed to include more collectible categories, Amir had frequently consulted Avi.
Avi's phone card collection is presented in several videos about Colnect
At the end of February 2008, the whole family was shocked when Avi was diagnosed with GBM. The grim prognosis of GBM meant that half the patients in Avi's condition died within 11.2 months of initial diagnosis. Despite this and other medical issues which soon surfaced, Avi always tried to keep his and his family's spirits up high. He never gave up on his phone card collection and kept in touch with other collectors. Even as his condition worsened, he still tried to attend collector meetings.
Avi died at the age of 61, leaving behind his wife Aliza, his sons Dror, Ofer, Amir and Uri and his grandchildren Raz, Yuval, Almog, Inbar and Zohar. May he rest in peace and may his fantastic character always inspire us.
