Well obviously there are companies who LOVE to send us catalogs of useless nick-nacks and gizmos that 95% hit the round recycle can without so much as a thumb through glance.
And like Allan M., I save my printed train related catalogs no matter the age as such, because its so much faster than waiting while...the....company....catalog... loads...then...takes..forever...to...turn... the page. ( but to be fair, I am on a slow 2mB DSL line so that probably accounts for the slowness.) And then there is the wait factor, a print I can grab and find while I have to wait for computer startup then loading then thumbing through unless catalog has a search function (which often isn't very good if looking for a specific product or manufacturer ie it ain't Google search engine powered)