Latest Insights in the Evolving Digital World

Magnets Make An Attractive Display

When I was younger I participated in the local county fair. For such a small town, our fair was pretty large in scale, and they had a section for animals, as well as a section for plants, crafts, paintings and collections displays. My collection was key chains, and man did I have a lot of them. My dad made this custom cork board for me and we hung all of my key chains on that for a pretty cool display. I do remember feeling pretty envious of the boy that had a collection display next to me, however. His collection was magnets, and he had a very impressive collection. What made me the most jealous however was that they had brought in a pair of fridge doors to display the magnets on. Those fridge doors made my cork board displays look like a dollar store craft project. Needless to say,

I shouldn’t feel too bad though, because that young boy, as impressive as that collection once seemed to me, had nowhere near the collection that graces the world record books. The woman with the largest refrigerator magnet collection is Louise J. Greenfarb, who owns a whopping 29,000 magnets as of 2002. Some of her magnets have been in display at various museums around the world.

Magnets that adorn the fridge are used as reminders of important events, as advertisements for various pizza places and other businesses, are displayed as souvenirs, and are also used to hold important pieces of paper and magazine clippings. The magnets that are used for the fridge are derived from sheet magnets, which are a fairly flexible material that can vary in width, size and thickness, making them a good choice for the fridge magnet industry. This type of magnet material allows print to be applied, can be cut into custom shapes and come in a large variety of colors.

Sometimes I wonder if that boy (who is most likely a man now) still collects magnets. Maybe he has displays of fridge doors on every wall in his home. Even if he has been collecting this whole time, I doubt he has enough to even slightly intimidate Louise J. Greenfarb. But what do I know? I collected key chains.