Tuesday, September 16, 2014

It's the 80th Anniversary of the Lego Name, and Colnect Celebrates!

With most of 2014 behind us, which included the release of the incredibly popular Lego themed film "The Lego movie", we can take a look back at the history of Lego. We'll find out that there are more amazing achievements that the company that created this beloved toy, icon and collector favorite has reached this year.



80 years ago, in 1934, Ole Kirk, the founder of a Danish wooden toys company, was contemplating how to name it. He already had 2 names in mind but he was not sure. Eventually he had decided on a name of his own invention - Lego, named after the Danish phrase "Leg godt" which means "Play Well". Little did he know that the name he chose will turn out to be not only a good choice but a prescient prediction of the company future. The word "Lego" in Latin means "I put together" or "I assemble".

"Emmet" minifigure from the 2014 Series: "The Lego Movie", from the Colnect catalog
Jumping forward 30 years to 1964, half a century ago, the Lego Company has launched its first Model Set. The model set has later become one of the most popular and widely recognized features of the Lego company. It is also the corner stone of the Colnect Lego Sets catalog, dedicated to showcasing all sets from the 1960's until this very day.
"Locomotive" Train set from 1966, from the Colnect catalog
The documentation of all Lego Sets in history is no simple feat. From Train sets to Minifigures, from "Homemaker" sets to "The Hobbit" movies themed models, there are so many wonderful details to capture, so much information to add. On a community catalog that is based on volunteers, such as Colnect, this means contributors. Enthusiastic collectors, each adding what ever pieces of information they have. The more help the catalog has, the better and more comprehensive the catalog is. The existence of the catalog enables Lego collectors to gain access to a worldwide community and advanced comfortable collection management tools.
"Horizon Express" train set from 2013, from the Colnect catalog
The catalog has been created and has gone a long way based on the initiative of its coordinator, Graeme Kilpatrick [nzexchange]. He has single-handedly added thousands of sets to what is now a beautiful catalog of sets old and new. It is a remarkable achievement. So now, what about more? :) Come join to make this catalog even greater and let us know your opinion.
"Falling Water" set from the Architecture series 2009, from the Colnect catalog
Have sets in your collection that you'd like to see on the Colnect catalog? Interested in helping develop the Lego Sets catalog? Learn more on the Lego Sets Contribution help page. Want to get even more involved? Would like to help lead the charge to develop this global Lego Sets catalog? Check this out and let us know.
"Electric Train" train set from 1968, from the Colnect catalog

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

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.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

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

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