We are Collectody

Hi there!

Since you've already found your way to the website of our little app, we'd like to briefly introduce ourselves and tell you about our passion for collecting, which is ultimately the origin of Collectody.

We are Verena and Markus, the founding couple of Collectody - both in a business and private sense. But above all, we are also one thing: passionate collectors. Our interests are very different and versatile. At Collectody, however, they all come together - how convenient! And since you have somehow found your way here, we assume that you may share our interests and that you are also a collector of certain things. So welcome to the club, you're in good company! 🙂

So what do we collect?

In Verena's family, a passion for collecting is practically born in the cradle and passed on. It started early with stamps - the classic collection, if you like. In the beginning, the focus was exclusively on current German stamps, because that's what you got when you received mail anyway. Fortunately, that was at a time when people used to write a lot more than they do today. However, this area of collecting soon became too small (and the mail from abroad too interesting), so the transition to “all of Europe” and later to “all of Europe plus various overseas territories” was quite smooth. The collection is still growing today. At this point, it should also be mentioned that this passion for collecting perfectly complements another of Verena's favorite pastimes: traveling! If possible, a quick stop at the local post office is a must on any trip. Why is that important? We'll get to that now!

Because a little later, another collection was added, which in hindsight was somehow obvious and obviously fit in seamlessly: postcards! Verena had always sent countless cards from her vacations to friends and relatives. Many also received mail at Christmas and/or for birthdays - even if these were initially exclusively greetings cards and not postcards. And then Postcrossing came into play: Verena got a hint to take a look at this project, where you send postcards to strangers all over the world and also receive cards from somewhere else. What a great idea! She was immediately enthusiastic and quickly sent out her first cards. She has now been an active postcrosser for over 15 years - sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on time and leisure. Some of you may relate to this: Some cards simply appeal to you more than others. So the inevitable happens very quickly: You start collecting and try to complete series.

Now let's get to Markus. His passion has always been music. He is particularly fond of everything in the heavy metal and progressive metal genres. Of course, in the age of music streaming, most music lovers no longer own everything they listen to on any kind of record - with the exception of their absolute favorites! And so, over time, Markus developed a passion for collecting vinyl records by his favorite artists. Yes, you read that right: Vinyl. They actually still exist and are becoming increasingly popular (again). The music industry has also recognized this and interesting collector's items are regularly released to the market. Anyone who still thinks that vinyl records are just black disks in a thin slipcase will probably rub their eyes in amazement when they see the newer editions!

As mentioned at the beginning, our interests are incredibly diverse, so now we’re moving into a completely different field: sports! Markus has been a passionate sports fan - ice hockey in particular - ever since he was a kid. Ever since his father took him to his very first game, he’s been hooked. For many years he had a season ticket, and eventually he managed to pass the hockey bug on to Verena, who, before attending her first game in 2011, was absolutely convinced that ice hockey wasn’t for her at all and that she’d much rather stick with football - a sport her grandfather had sparked her enthusiasm for at an early age. But fortunately, the heart can beat for two clubs from two different sports, right?

From then on, both hockey and football became a regular part of Markus and Verena’s lives - and still are to this day. So, what does all this have to do with collecting? Quite a lot, actually! A peek into Markus’s wardrobe reveals quite a collection of hockey jerseys: regular season jerseys, special editions for certain events, national team jerseys - the list goes on. While Verena also owns a few herself, she’s perfectly fine with just one per team for several years. Over time, however, she’s developed a real passion for collecting pucks. How exactly that happened, she honestly can’t say anymore - but with every season and every special event, more and more have found their way into her collection. And they do look pretty great in a display case, don’t they?

Last but not least, we have two collecting passions that we both indulge in: we are self-confessed bookworms and binge-watchers! After reading far too little for a long time and always missing it, we decided a while ago to read at least 10 pages a day in order to slowly get back to our “normal level”. There was still plenty of reading material available, and even if that doesn't sound like much at first, you can devour quite a few books a year with this minimum effort. Give it a try yourself if you think you're also missing out on reading! Well, and we certainly don't need to elaborate on the binge-watcher, because we probably share this passion with many, many others - maybe you're one of them? Our favorite movies and TV shows as well as the books of our favorite authors naturally end up as physical copies in our cupboards - and before you know it, you're once again dealing with two more collections.

So that's us and our passions for collecting... or at least a few of them. 😉 You can probably already imagine how and why Collectody came to life. You'll learn more about this in our next blog post The origins of Collectody.