Organizing My Jigsaw Puzzle Collection & Stats Behind the Puzzles
Since writing a story on a variety of puzzle gift ideas back in November of 2021, my puzzle collection has grown by 80%! Collecting puzzles from a variety of brands as well as vintage puzzles is a huge passion of mine. After receiving puzzles for Christmas gifts and birthday presents, it’s now time for me to reorganize my puzzle collection and see the fun stats and data surrounding all of my puzzles!
Doing jigsaw puzzles helps me to decompress and relax — whether it’s just sorting the pieces into different groups (color, pattern, etc.), or assembling the puzzle, it’s just a great experience overall to focus, sit back, and unwind.
Tracking My Puzzle Collection
I love data. I love puzzles — now it is time to bring it all together! I made a spreadsheet to track my growing puzzle collection, track which puzzles I complete each year, and a place to keep a list of wish list puzzles. I created a spreadsheet that lists the puzzle name, brand, piece count, puzzle artist/illustrator/photographer, puzzle shape, release date, and when that puzzle was completed.
Thank you to Karen Puzzles for inspiring me to organize my puzzle collection and see the data behind my puzzles!
Total Number of Puzzles (for now)
After sorting and categorizing all my puzzles, I determined that I have 144 puzzles with 113,037 puzzle pieces! I am always on the hunt for vintage puzzles or new puzzle releases so every once in a while I purchase a few new puzzles. How many puzzles do you think I will have by the end of December?
Why don’t Jigsaw Puzzles have the correct number of pieces?
The number of pieces is just an estimate, not every box of puzzles contains an exact number of pieces. For your normal jigsaw puzzle, the pieces are arranged in a grid — the number of pieces along a side has to be a divisor of the total number of pieces. There are only so many aspect ratios so it’s nearly impossible to design a puzzle with exactly 1000 or 500 pieces without having an awkward aspect ratio.
I’ve completed 2 different puzzles over the last week. One puzzle was a Rifle Paper Co., Maps Puzzle, and the other was a Four Point Puzzles, Several Found Things. The Rifle Paper Co. puzzle called for 500 pieces, after counting a row of pieces from each side, it was 25x20, which is the correct amount of 500 pieces. On the other hand, the Four Point Puzzles puzzle was 32x32 which is actually 1024 pieces. Every puzzle is different! The next time you do a puzzle, see how many pieces it actually has! It’s better to have more pieces than what’s advertised on the box.
I had no idea about this puzzle piece conspiracy until I stumbled on this video by Stand Up Maths! They even developed a program called “Jig” that guesses the number of pieces in a puzzle based on the data input.
Brands/Companies in My Puzzle Collection
My puzzle collection features over 30 different brands — some brands I have as many as 20 puzzles and other brands might only have 1 or 2. Some of my favorite puzzle brands are Piecework, eeBoo, Ravensburger, Springbok, Rifle Paper Co., Wentworth Puzzles, Blue Kazoo, and White Mountain.
From looking at the data, a majority of my puzzles are Springbok (14%), eeBoo (13%), Ravensburger (11%), Piecework (11%), Rifle Paper Co. (6%), and Bits and Pieces (5%). I am looking to add more Piecework puzzles, Areaware, Galison, Le Puzz, and Wentworth Puzzles to my collection.
In the other category (15%) are several puzzle brands that I only have 2 or fewer of; Briarpatch, Buffalo Games, Cardinal, Cavallini & Co, Cloudberries, Funwares, Heye, Master Pieces, Paladone, Peanuts, Piatnik, Q&K Puzzle (wood puzzle brand), Re-marks, Smith Street Gift, and Squishable!
Piece Counts in My Puzzle Collection
I have a variety of different puzzle piece counts in my collection, with the majority of those being 1,000 (49%) and 500 (33%) puzzle pieces. All of the puzzle piece counts as specified on the puzzle boxes is; 100, 120, 169, 240, 250, 300, 500, 550, 631, 750, 1000, 1008, 1500, and 2000.
I love having a variety of puzzle piece counts—anything smaller than 500 puzzle pieces is perfect if you have 2–4 hours in a day to work on a puzzle. Anything larger than 500 pieces such as 750, 1000, 1500, or 2000+, is great to work on a puzzle within a span of a few days. What’s your favorite piece count?
Fun fact! Ravensburger is one of the few brands that actually lists the real number of pieces on the side of the box.
I am hoping to expand on the larger count puzzles — for now, I mostly have a handful of 1500 and 2000-piece puzzles. Larger puzzles are more difficult to complete since I need a lot more room for those—my current puzzle board only fits up to most 1500-piece puzzles.
I plan to DIY a “bigger puzzle area” with multiple foam core board pieces to complete larger puzzles. Karen Puzzles made a larger piece of foam core board to complete a 24,000-piece puzzle!
Did you know that the largest jigsaw puzzle in the world currently is a puzzle from Kodak Premium Puzzles totaling 51,300 pieces (27 Wonders from Around The World)?!
Puzzle Shapes in My Puzzle Collection
I thought it would be fun to analyze all of the different puzzle shapes in all of my puzzles! The puzzle shapes in my collection are; rectangular (69%), square (17%), round (9%), shaped (4%), and octagon (1%). Most of the shaped puzzles in my collection are mostly holiday shapes, I am looking forward to expanding those in the future. If you are looking for some shaped puzzles, check out Galison, Bits and Pieces, and Wentworth Puzzles.
Some of the rarest puzzles in the world are Sprinkbok’s round puzzles! I love the vintage Springbok puzzles because of the super thick puzzle pieces. I have started to collect some rare round puzzles from eBay. One of the rarest puzzles is Springbok’s Little Boy Blue Comes Home which was released in 1965. Learn more about this rare puzzle in a video by Karen Puzzles!
Fun fact! Jigsaw puzzles used to be known as “Dissected Maps”. The first puzzle was used to teach geography to children. In 1760, John Spilsbury glued maps onto wood and cut them into pieces.
New vs. Vintage Puzzles
Throughout the past couple of years, my passion has grown for vintage puzzles. For the most part, all of my vintage puzzles ranging from 1966 to 1999 are Springbok puzzles. Some of my favorite Springbok vintage puzzles in my collection are, Butterflies, Mushroom, Stuck on Stickers, PRISMAGIC, and A Space Odyssey. As it turns out, 15% of my puzzles are vintage and 85% are newer puzzles.
If you have some Springbok puzzles and they don’t have a copyright date, download this PDF, Springbok Jigsaw Puzzle List. It’s an incomplete list but it helped me determine to see how old some of my puzzles are.
As far as new puzzles, recently I have purchased; Manatee Moments by Ravensburger, “C’est Cheese” by Piecework (a limited edition release from Crate&Barrel, currently in clearance for $19.97!!), The Trippy Twosome Bundle by Piecework (Psychedelicatessen & Bread Head puzzles for $60), Buildings by Cloudberries, Alchemist’s Cabine by eeBoo (Amazon Prime Day sale for $14.99), and American Road Trip by Rifle Paper Co.
Another great puzzle brand, Le Puzz, is often inspired by vintage puzzles — most of them being 70s and 80s Eaton and Springboks. Le Puzz’s Juicy was inspired by “giant piles of fruit” and specifically the Crazy Crop puzzle by Springbok. Crazy Crop is one of the puzzles in my vintage collection and I can’t wait to complete that puzzle!
Did you know why we call puzzles a “jigsaw puzzle”? In 1909, puzzle makers used a mechanical saw to cut curves and patterns into wood and other various matierals. The word “jigsaw” described the process of how it worked! The word “jig” describes the up and down motion as the saw cuts into the wood into pieces!
All of My Puzzles are Organized!
Every once in a while my puzzle shelves need reorganizing, it’s always a “puzzle” trying to get everything organized and sorted. I kept my favorite puzzle brands closer to the bottom shelves; Ravensburger, eeBoo, Piecework, Blue Kazoo, Rifle Paper Co., Le Puzz, Four Point Puzzles, etc.! On a separate shelf away from the sun, I have a little spot for all my vintage puzzles.
My absolute favorite part of my puzzle shelves is the Piecework section — it’s such a beautiful rainbow of colors. I am just so impressed by the quality and the professional designs of the Piecework puzzles. I couldn’t recommend them enough—be sure to check out their newest Piecework Post mini puzzles and the Astrological Sign mini puzzles. It would make a great gift idea for a birthday gift — you could get the Piecework Post birthday puzzle and their astrological sign — it’s just so fun!
That’s all the puzzle data for now! Don’t forget to check out my 8 Expert-Level Tips for Efficiently Completing a Jigsaw Puzzle article as well. It’s all the information you need to assemble a puzzle like a pro!
