Tuesday, May 17, 2011

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 :)

20 comments:

  1. Hello Jorge,
    Congratulations! You are a Champion.
    This is true story of a life of dedication to the collection.
    People like you are key to keeping alive the Phonecards Collection around the world.
    His contribution to the Colnect is fantastic
    I am pround to be your friend.

    Greetings from Brazil.
    Alisson XMF

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulatios to a very big and fine phonecard collection.
    Greetings from Sweden/ulfa52

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations for my very good friend Jorge Pablo. It's a pleasure to swap usually with a so exccelent collector. Greetings from Spain to all collectors in Colnect.
    joanmarpe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Quiero felicitar muy sinceramente al Señor Jorge Pablo Villegas por su constancia, dedicación y voluntad en el coleccionismo de tarjeta telefónicas. Superar las 100.000 tarjetas no es fácil. Indudablemente, es un record como coleccionista. Además, es una persona correcta, honesta y amable y contribuidor
    en la publicación de catálogos y traductor en Colnect. Deseo que Dios le permita seguir cosechando éxitos en esto que nos apasiona y nos entusiasma a muchos alrededor del mundo.
    Su amigo,
    Joffre Blanco

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations guys, you deserve a world record for a phone cards collection

    Siong Gie from Indonesia

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations Jorge!!! The best collector!!

    Fernando
    (Ecuador)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations Jorge!!!!!
    Greetings from Bulgaria Petyo Shopov (P Shopov)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Felicitaciones Maestro, vamos ahora a las 150mil, una abrazo de tu discípulo. Walter. ARGENTINA

    ReplyDelete
  9. Congratulations amigo ;)

    I have a similiar story with yours, lost my collection in earthquake in 1999 and started collecting again in 2009..!

    Greetings from Turkiye..

    Harun (eLTuRCo)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Felicitaciones...!!!!
    Admiro tu dedicación y perseverancia, compartimos la misma pasión de ser Coleccionistas, te tengo una envidia sana....
    que sigas para adelante y si en algo puedo ayudar a tu gran colección seria un placer.
    Un fuerte abrazo desde Paraguay...

    Edu.

    ReplyDelete
  11. FELICITACIONES POR TU COLECCION, Excelente coleccionista y un amigo

    ReplyDelete
  12. Amigo Jorge:

    Felicitaciones de todo corazon por estas primeras 100.000 tarjetas en tu coleccion, espero que sigas adelante en este bonito mundo del coleccionismo y que tu perseverancia, dedicacion y constancia sigan creciendo cada dia, un abrazo desde Venezuela Jorge seguimos en contacto mi pana...

    Jhonny Ortiz Lizcano.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello Jorge,

    Your collection is amazing. Congratulations!!
    Best regards from Poland :)

    Szymon Janczyk

    ReplyDelete
  14. hola nabo felicitaciones seguramente que contribui a que tu coleccion fuera en aumento pero ni nos nombrras no, avisame cuando te llegen las otras 100 que te mande para decir que ya pasaste las 100 mil con esas un abrazo y a seguir juntando Daniel

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  15. WELL DONE
    I HOPE I GET 100 000 BANKNOTES LOL
    MAYBE WHEN I AM 100. GREETINGS FROM PORTUGAL

    ReplyDelete
  16. OLÁ AMIGO JORGE! PARABÉNS POR ALCANÇAR ESTA MARCA DE *100.000* CARTÕES TELEFONICOS, SUA DECICAÇÃO MERECE RESPEITO E MUITAS GLÓRIAS, VALE APENA LEMBRAR SUA COLABORAÇÃO FUNDAMENTAL PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO DO SITE COLNECT. PORISSO MEU AMIGO MEUS ETERNOS APLAUSOS!!!
    DURVAL - BRASIL

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hola JorgePablo,
    many congratulations for your Guiness phone cards collection.
    Maurizio morriemorrie on Colnect

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hola jorge felicitaciones por tu colección 100.000, amigo es grande y cuando digo grande es por que lo es. espero algún día llegar ahí. Que Dios te Bendiga y a toda tu familia.
    Que sigas creciendo en tu colección.
    Tú fuistes mi primer intercambio en colnect.
    Gracias por no calificarme mal. Khura70

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hola JorgePablo,

    Thank you for your work here in Colnect.
    Your collection is amazing. Congratulations!!
    Best regards from Portugal!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hello Jorge,

    Congratulations on this milestone. I remember our struggle for the person with the most cards on Islands. You kept on growing and collecting and reach this beautifull number. I guess our collection is even bigger..
    I lost a little interest in phonecards but still sometimes it comes back..
    Good luck and I hope we will do a swap one more time..

    Greets Harm (Netherlands)

    ReplyDelete

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