For me, there's a clear distinction between a safe queen and a collector item. A safe queen is something that's outside of my budget for easy replacement, and that has a build or craftsmanship that is superior to my everyday tools. A safe queen can be replaced with an identical or similar item. It would just be expensive or difficult to do so.

A collector item of mine has a value immeasurable in monetary terms, is a one-of-a-kind, and is irreplaceable. For example, something that "dad gave me" is a collector item and possibly an heirloom. A knife I successfully used to save my life from a bear attack is a collector item. I would buy an equivalent knife to use, but I would retire that particular knife without cleaning it. A rusted knife from the Titanic is a collector item.

Having said that, I do have a few collector items, which I don't even consider as being tools or as subject matter for discussion on this site. However, I don't have any safe queens. I do have some knives and guns that I have not gotten around to using yet. They're brand new, but they're still just tools that I can replace without tapping into my kid's college fund. Also, if my house is burning down, these brand new tools will be low on the priority list of things to save.