Sunday, April 27, 2014

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

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

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

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Milk Cup Lids - Now Joining the Colnect Catalogs

We're happy to announce that Colnect now displays a new Milk Cup Lids catalog.

"Nutroma" Belgium Milk Cup lid, on the new Colnect catalog
Milk Cup Lids are a delicate and lovely collectible. They are also appreciated for the beautiful and detailed prints displayed on them. Many collectors choose to collect those items by the themes of these prints.

"Frischli" German Milk Cup lid, on the new Colnect catalog
We would like to thank all those that helped this category get on it's feet for their efforts and dedication. We wish the new coordinator of the Milk Cup Lids category, Els Van Gastel [leeuwin], luck and success with this new catalog :)

"Nutroma" Belgium Milk Cup lid, on the new Colnect catalog.
The catalog it starting it's way with 1,255 Milk Cup Lids. We need your support and help to grow the catalog and hold more and more lids from different countries, companies and themes.

Would like to know how you can help? Interested in contributing information to the Milk Cup Lids category? Learn how to do it on the Catalog Contribution help page.

"Anaemone hepatica" Austria Milk Cup lid, on the new Colnect catalog
This category has started at the initiative of collectors on the forum. You can see the whole process and see how it came about on the Milk Cup Lids thread on the New Categories forum on Colnect.

"Frischli" German Milk Cup lid, on the new 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 a look at the new Milk Cup Lids catalog, and let us know what you think!


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

66,666 Collectors on Colnect

We at Colnect are happy to welcome more than 10,000 new collectors who have joined our global community since marking our previous milestone of 56789 collectors. Now we have reached the devilishly delightful number of 66,666 Collectors.


The community of collectors now compliments the group of contributors on Colnect, that not long ago reached it's own "sixy" milestone of 666 Contributors.

As always we have new categories joining Colnect as well. We welcome new collectors of these items to familiarize themselves with Colnect and check out the catalogs for Sports Cards and Paper Clips. Come see what other new categories are being suggested and built on Colnect on the New Categories forum.

Check out also new features recently added to Colnect such as the Item Condition and Quantity menus for Inventory Notes, Collectors Inventory Notes appearing on item lists, extending the Personal Custom lists and more additions you are welcome to explore on the Announcement forum.

Want to turn those sixes around into a nice and "niney" milestone? Join our world multi-lingual community of collectors of all kinds by Signing Up to Colnect it's quick, free and easy.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Colnect Welcomes the New Sports Cards Catalog

A much anticipated collectible category is making it's first steps on Colnect. The Sports Cards catalog is now publicly available on Colnect.

1990-91 Wayne Gretzky Score card, from the new Colnect Sports Cards catalog

1990-91 Wayne Gretzky Score card, backside, from the new Colnect Sports Cards catalog 
Sports Cards are a well-established, well-known and popular collectible worldwide and for good reason. Sports are a great device to bring people together both regionally and worldwide, through the admiration of the players, their effort and talent. Collecting is also such a uniting factor, bringing people together through their appreciation of the art and effort of building and maintaining a collection. Sports Cards, therefore, are a natural powerful union and we're glad to have them on Colnect.

2013 Matthew Boyd Select Australia card, from the new Colnect Sports Cards catalog
This category holds, at it's very beginning, 6,454 Sports Cards of 5 Sports, from Seasons raging from 1910 to 2013, from a variety of Brands and including cards with Special Features. With your help that number will grow quickly. Read more on how to make the catalog larger on our Contribution Guidelines.
2012-13 Cameron White SE Products card, from the new Colnect Sports Cards catalog
This category has started at the wonderful and welcome initiative of collectors on the Colnect Forums. You are welcome to read the whole process on the New Sports Cards Category forum thread.

1992 Joe Carter Donruss card, from the new Colnect Sports Cards catalog
The category will be co-coordinated by Dana Levitas [Dana-Levitas] and Graeme Kilpatrick [nzexchange]. Thank you to all those who helped us make this category come true. A special thank you is owed to [neweden], without whom the category would have never come alive.
1990-91 Gary Roberts Score card, from the new Colnect Sports Cards 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.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

New: See Collectors' Inventory Notes on Item List

As collectors looking to exchange, trade or just look around, browsing collections of other fellow collectors- you need to look at the exact details of the items, look at the collection itself. Now this has been made easier with the help of Personal Inventory Notes. You can now see the notes made by collectors when browsing their lists.

Others Inventory

The new information that appears is the public notes made by the collector of the quantity, condition and any additional free text notes they have added about the item in their collection. Simply go to a collectors page, look at their list and you will notice that new information now appears along the item details, marked in a separated colored box.

Previously, public inventory notes where only available on the single item pages of the catalog, together with all collectors that have this particular item. Now you can also see it on collectors' individual list.

Come take a look, browse some collections, and let us know what you think :)


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Bogus Requests From Msnbot/Bing Crawler Resulting in Error 404

Apologies to the collectors on Colnect, this post is a technical post not related to collecting and collectibles.

Recently, we've started seeing a lot of bogus requests from msnbot. These were requests to URLs that never existed on our website and were filling up our error logs. Internet searches have led to nothing which is the reason for this blog post.

Suggested solution: disable msnbot on your robots.txt file and submit a ticket to their support. While it did take them some time to respond, they finally did and the issue has been resolved. We've then removed the block on our robots.txt and for over a week now, everything seems fine.

When asked about the reasons for these problem, the support team provided NO EXPLANATION as to what might have caused the problem:
"Thank you for patiently waiting. The product group have resolved this request but no additional information was provided."
"We are sorry to inform you that we cannot provide any information regarding this. We hope you understand."

Which leads us to believe the reason is a bug in msnbot or an attack on msnbot which messed up URLs between websites.

Here are a few such bogus requests:
[27-Dec-2013 03:48:51 GMT+0] REQUEST[/content/dam/aba/global/global_nav_logo.png] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[65.55.215.33]

[27-Dec-2013 03:49:36 GMT+0]
REQUEST[/bin/dashboard/default-avatar-unknown.png] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[65.55.215.39]

[27-Dec-2013 02:50:38 GMT+0] REQUEST[/enclosure.jpg] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[199.30.20.57]

[27-Dec-2013 02:53:48 GMT+0]
REQUEST[/user_data/packages/ginichi/img/common/btn_en.jpg] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[65.55.215.71]

[27-Dec-2013 02:54:14 GMT+0]
REQUEST[/DesktopModules/CATALooKStore/MakeThumbImage.aspx?fileticket=ikazmqBNAjM%3d&PORTALID=0&W=120&H=120] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[199.30.16.47]

[27-Dec-2013 03:33:21 GMT+0]
REQUEST[/upload/save_image/category/c1177.jpg] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[65.55.215.74]

[27-Dec-2013 03:49:20 GMT+0]
REQUEST[/wvc-1365778711/wordansfiles/images/2013/4/12/186393/186393_340.jpg] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[199.30.16.30]

[27-Dec-2013 03:52:45 GMT+0]
REQUEST[/core/media/media.nl?id=343820&c=337772&h=2fd9dd88833b005b614a] REFERER[]
USER[0] AGENT[msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)] ADDR[199.30.16.14]

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Paper Clips Collectors Welcome to Colnect

First in a batch  of new categories joining the Colnect catalogs is Paper Clips. These sweet, shiny and sometimes colorful devices will be gracing the Colnect pages from now on. We are calling all collectors of Paper Clips to come, take a look, let us know what you think, and help the catalog grow :)

Axion Paper Clip, newly added on the Colnect catalog
We wish the new category coordinator, Bruun Visser [Bruun01], good luck with his new role and thank him for the efforts to create this catalog for the benefit of all collectors.

Wing Paper Clip, Newly added on the Colnect catalog

This category is starting out with 2,390 Paper Clips and with your help it will grow soon to be more. Read here how to add Information to the Colnect catalogs.

Dutch Paper Clip, Newly added on the Colnect catalog
The category has started, like all categories on Colnect, at the imitative of enthusiastic collectors on the forum. You are welcome to read how it all came about on the Paper Clips forum thread.

Promo Paper Clip, newly added 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.

Wing Paper Clip, newly added on the Colnect catalog

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Colnect 2013 was Fun - version 2014 is going to be so much more!

They say that the way you start a year, is the way it will be for the rest of it. If that saying has any truth to it, judging by the amount of activity and newly added improvements, it seems Colnect is getting ready for a blast of a year to come :)
Lottery Ticket "Happy New Year!"
So what did we have in this year of 2013?

This year must have gotten some good luck when we celebrated our catalogs reaching 1,111,111 collectibles, which is seven lucky numbers one. Since then almost 300,000 additional items have been published on the catalogs.

This year had many new categories joining, from Lottery Tickets to Medals, from Drink Labels to Video Games, and from a familiar game changing Functional Cards to a the sister catalog to Teabags - Tea Labels.
Drink Label "Kruger Pilsner", from the new catalog
The New Year 2014 is now expected to bring with it New Categories that were waiting in the wings to be launched. We will have the highly anticipated Sports Cards category, and also Paper Clips, Milk Cup Lids, Kids Meal Toys and Music CDs. Many more were already suggested and are sure to join in the upcoming year.

Functional Card "Happy New Year", from the new catalog
There could never be too many helpful features and additions. In everything having to do with collectors and Colnect, the more helpful tools is definitely the merrier. We've just now added some cool helpful hands to the Inventory Notes. That's not the only feature we've added though, we did much more throughout the year. We've opened up the Personal Customs lists to all, so you can put your collection any way you'd like. We parsed the seas and divided the collectibles into Continents. We've made it easy to find items through Face Value. We sped things up with Quick Filter options. We've diversified the catalogs with adding Variant support. We even put a looking glass right into the catalog and added a Zoom into the pictures.
Medal "Royal Military", from the new catalog
Each collectible category is unique and has it's own specific needs. Many categories got tweaked and improved, decorated and streamlined. You can see that on the Postcards category that finally had Theme Collectors give out a sigh of relief, Phonecards that has split in two, following much debate, and Hotel Key Cards that got a cool new Aggregation Feature added to it's catalog.

Our community kept reaching new heights, we have marked the occasion of having 56789 collectors on Colnect, and had the opportunity to thank the 666 contributors on Colnect making it a better place for collectors every day.
Tea Label "1 De Beste", on the new catalog
Finally, December ended on an especially heart warming note, when the wonderful Colnect Coordinators, were able to gift Free Premium Memberships to some 100 happy collectors.
Lottery Ticket "Happy New Year!", from the new catalog
Colnect has been preparing to welcome the New Year in style and festivities. It has been an eventful December, that will undoubtedly lead to an exciting January 2014, full of new features, new categories, more options and more collecting.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

666 Contributors on Colnect - Making Colnect a Reality

The number 666 has been demonized quite a lot throughout history. However we can remember that it is also the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel and in that is Judaism 666 is the number which represents the creation of the world. For us on Colnect today this number represents the 666 contributors that make Colnect happen. These collectors, each with their time and collection, create extensive current collectible catalogs that are open to all and help translate Colnect to make it available in 62 languages.


The Colnect Contributors - the very beginning of the list :)
In March 2012 a 5 star system of contribution was introduced on Colnect and it seems it has been happily accepted by all Colnectors. The 5 star system allows Colnect to show it's acknowledgement of the help of the contributors and adds fun to the process.

Contributors on Colnect have helped it reach achievements such as cataloging over 1,111,111 collectible items. In the last month alone there have been over 20,000 collectible items added to the Colnect catalogs. 

Colnect started as a Phonecards database and since then has expanded to house 25 categories of collectible catalogs and growing, thanks to the good will and cooperation of collectors worldwide. Many new categories have been in the works for some time by dedicated collectors and many more are being suggested an discussed now on the New Categories forum.

We would like to thank all the contributors and wish them good luck and fun collecting! As always, we'll be happy to hear what you think, in the comments and on the forum, what do you think of the 5 star system? What do you think of the current catalogs?

Would like to become a contributor on Colnect too? Go to our Contribution Guidelines page. See you there :)

Thursday, October 31, 2013

56,789 Collectors now on Colnect!

It's always fun to see more and more collectors joining Colnect and participating in the community. Every day you can see more collectors from different countries swapping items, discussing collectible issues on the forums and suggesting useful new ideas, keeping the Colnect community vibrant, current and on it's toes.

In the last 3 months Colnect has reached 56,789 Collectors, an increase of  over 11 percent. That means over 6000 collectors have joined Colnect in the past 3 months, becoming members of the community and enriching it with their input, with their collections and their character.
"25 Rupees - Queen's Silver Jubilee" - Seychelles Coin, newly added on Colnect
It's truly beautiful and inspiring to see the cooperation between collectors on Colnect, from those who have been with Colnect since the beginning to brand new collectors. The more veteran Colnect collectors are happily reaching out to new ones with help and advice, creating new connections of collectible exchange and friendly relations, helping improve the catalogs and the website with their comments and remarks and more.
"Nissay" - Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect
New items are constantly added to the Colnect catalogs, thanks to the wonderful contributors, editors and coordinators on Colnect. You can see some examples of them right here in this post. Some categories have reached new impressive achievements such as the Japanese Phonecards section that accumulated over 111,111 Japanese Phonecards, with much of it due to the dedicated work of the editor of Japanese Phonecards, Karl Heinz Degener [neizi].

"Peter Rabbit" - Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect
There are also new categories that have been in the works for some time now. Those will be joining Colnect soon such as Sports Cards, CDs, Paper Clips and Milk cup lids. Many more great collectible category ideas are being suggested on and off the forums and we hope eventually we will be able to create a home for all of them.

A big thank you to all those devoted and enthusiastic collectors that are the beating heart of Colnect, both very active and very kind, from Coordinators, Editors, Translators and Contributors to all the Collectors on Colnect that swap, discuss, manage their collection and show much care and appreciation for Collecting.

"Famous Uruguayan Women - Nelly Goitino" - Uruguayan Stamp, newly added on Colnect
Would you like to know how you can contribute to the Colnect catalogs too? Have a look at our Catalog Contribution help page. Would like to suggest and create a new category you would like to see on Colnect? Post it on the New Categories forum.

"Vessel with flowers" - Japanese Phonecard, newly added on Colnect

Sunday, July 21, 2013

50,505 Collectors Now Connect on Colnect

It's always satisfying to see the Colnect community grow and reach another new level and a brand new number. It seems we have reached the 5th level of expansion and the number seems to be a lucky one for Colnect. Many new features joined the site and many older ones were improved.


Proudly marking another milestone, the Colnect community now consists of 50,505 enthusiastic and devoted collectors. Those collectors together, by contributing, editing, commenting, exchanging, discussing and browsing, bring Colnect alive as an interactive, attentive and strengthening organism. On Colnect we only count real members who validated their email address and logged in to Colnect. You can also quickly reach Active Collectors in any category of your liking and see their Personal Collection.

Colnect, as always, works to make the experience of touring through Colnect as fun, easy and intuitive as possible. One important change was the improvements made to the browsing process of the catalogs, which included new comfortable Filter Options, the Quick Filter box and a Continent Division in the country lists.
The new "Zoom In" feature, now available on all Colnect catalogs
The catalogs benefited from new Variant Items support, new Face Value lists and an easy-on-the-eyes "Zoom into pictures" feature. The management tools were enriched with Custom Personal Lists becoming available to all members and the personal profile pages were made more understandable thanks to a useful "Auto-Translate" icon. See the new features and let us know what you think!

Colnect also opened it's gates and it's API, inviting more collectors to show their programming skills with innovative, useful and fun new ideas for tools for collectors.

Spanish lottery ticket, newly added on the Colnect catalog
As always, more interesting new collectible categories have joined our ranks since our last milestone, and are now displaying beautiful catalogs already. Those categories are Lottery Tickets, Medals, Functional Cards, Drink Labels and Video Games. More exciting new categories are right now in the works, go see the New Categories forum to find out which they are and see their progress.

Bulgarian medal, newly added on the Colnect catalog
We would like to thank all the inspiring and inspired collectors, who with their passion, kindness, dedication and sense of community, all this has came to be. Thank you! :)

Friday, July 19, 2013

NEW and Pretty: Minor Visual Changes :)

It's always pleasant and pleasantly surprising to see the place you've visited many times spark-up and shine a little brighter. Lately, more than a few nice little visual changes have been made to make Colnect easier on the eyes and even put a smile on your face sometimes.

These little gems include:

< Nicer flowing hover over color movement over lists (try it out! hover over a list).

< Rounded Buttons.


< Red glowing warning sign on deactivated members profiles.


< Enlarged writing in some pages, for comfort, and many more changes.

< An elegant new pop-up language menu.

Go look for them now, let's see if you could find some more :)

We also did not forget all those who see Colnect without logging in. There are many new flashing, popping, changing, surprising little hidden boxes for non-logged-in visitors. Go ahead, log out and browse around and see what happens! Then log back in and tell us what you've found.

Little touches in design can often create a significant difference in the experience. Let us know what you think of the new design!

Link and Search

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