his name is Chester and unfortunately (or fortunately) he's too friendly to stay a stray. Pretty soon he's gonna get taken to the pound to get a home :)
he will walk right up to you and will ask for pets and is suuuper sweet.
he has a few friends but I don't know their names yet. A black and white "penis face" tuxedo cat, and a long hair calico, along with a few shyer ones who prefer to only come out at night.
edit: talked to my sister and "penis face" is apparently named archie
The issue with collars is that most responsible cat owners are using breakaways so that their cat doesn't accidentally strangle itself to death the first time it tries to squeeze through a tight space (as they are wont to do). I've had a lot of experience with cats getting out of their collars by getting it snagged on something (either accidentally or on purpose), causing it to break away.
These days, microchips are really the only way to be sure if an outdoor cat is already being looked after or if it's a legitimate stray.
I've never even seen a cat with a collar here in germany, standard procedure afaik is just to get them chipped and that's that.