Many thanks to Kurt Auffenberg and Aydin Orstan for their rapid, full, and
positive responses to my questions.

It seems to me that children who are interested in collecting seashells, but
live far from the coast, might be steered instead to collecting (dead)
shells of land snails. It might be a good idea to ask on Conch-L whether
there are any species that are illegal to collect, e.g., the tree snails of
southern Florida.

As to more serious collecting, virtually anyone reading this can collect
land snails near their homes! For most areas, no one knows what species can
be found there, so it should be possible to become the local expert on the
subject, and to greatly increase the local species list. Malacological
museums that might say, "Ho hum, another Strombus," might take a different
tone altogether with a unique collection of land snails from a Georgia
county.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama