The Catalog Collection is a great idea! I'm glad I saved the old ones. (They're selling them on ebay?!) It's only the more recent ones that have been tossed.
At this point, with so much interest in JCrew's past catalogs, they need to issue a Catalog Collection book. All the catalogs, minus print (well I wouldn't mind product names), in chronological order, in one 'collection'. I'm sure they'd sell out. Better they profit instead of resellers ($14 and up on eBay lately).
Yes! The styling in the older catalogs is timeless! I bought some of the old catalogs on eBay a while back and I am always combing through them for ideas.