The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating,
acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining
whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. The scope of
collecting is unlimited, which is expressed in the hyperbolic expression:
"If something exists, somebody somewhere collects them."[citation
needed]
The most obvious way to categorise collections is by the
type of objects collected. Most collections are of manufactured commercial
items, but natural objects such as birds' eggs, butterflies, rocks, and seashells
can also be the subject of a collection. Some collectors may collect not a
specific type of object, but instead objects with specific properties; for
example, some people collect items that once belonged to famous people. Among
collections of manufactured items, the objects may be antique, or simply
collectible. Antiques are collectible items at least 100 years old, while
collectibles can be arbitrarily recent. Collectors and dealers may use the word
vintage to describe older collectibles. Items which were once everyday objects
but may now be collectible since almost all those once produced have been
destroyed or discarded are called ephemera. Philately, phillumeny, and
deltiology (collecting postage stamps, matchboxes, and postcards) are forms of
collecting which can be undertaken at minimal expense.
Some collectors are generalists with very broad criteria for
inclusion, while others focus on a subtopic within their area of interest. Some
collectors accumulate arbitrarily many objects that meet the thematic and
quality requirements of their collection, others—called completists or
completionists—aim to acquire all items in a well-defined set that can in
principle be completed, and others seek a limited number of items per category
(e.g. one representative item per year of manufacture or place of purchase).
The monetary value of objects is important to some collectors but irrelevant to
others. Some collectors maintain objects in pristine condition, while others
use the items they collect.
Collecting is for some people a childhood hobby, but for
others a lifelong pursuit or one that begins in adulthood. Collectors who begin
early in life often modify their aims when they get older. Some novice
collectors start purchasing items that appeal to them then slowly work at
learning how to build a collection, while others prefer to develop some
background in the field before starting to buy items.
The emergence of the internet as a global forum for
different collectors has resulted in many isolated enthusiasts finding each
other.
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| Collecting stamps |
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| Collecting world coins |
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| Collecting buttons |
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| Collecting beer cans |
