This article reports on an exploratory study designed to investigate the reasoning behind algebraists' selection of examples. Variation theory provided a lens to analyze their collections of examples. Our findings include the classes of examples of groups and rings that algebraists believe to be most pedagogically useful. Chief among their selection criteria was that these examples illustrate not only the concept at hand but also lay the foundation for more abstract constructions. Additionally, we found that the algebraists, tending to think in terms of classes of examples, used a relatively small number in their own teaching and research.