As long as people have existed, they have collected different items. Years ago, they would only purchased food and other necessities needed for survival. Now, people collect different things that seem to give them pleasure or joy like sewing machines or train horns or what thigns they think will earn them a profit in the future like expensive pieces of art. Being a collector of something is a small hobby to some or an all encompassing career to others. There are all different types and levels of collectors. in rare cases collectors become obsessed and this turns into the illness of a hoarder.

There are many ways to be a collector and some people begin when they are only little children. If you ask any man in his 40’s or 50’s if he collected baseball cards as a young boy, a big percentage will probably say yes. Many times kids get involved in a phase or something that is fun or popular at the time and this turns into having a collection. Another example of kids collecting trendy things or toys are the beanie babies or the Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh cards. These were the things for kids to have at one point and many kids became collectors of them until the trend faded away.

Because so many children get interested in having a little collection of something at a certain point, this creates an activity for others to do as adults. For the majority of those kids, their collections fade away as they grow and mature but for others, collecting becomes something they love to do. People usually collect things that they are passionate about, whether it is sports memorabilia of their hometown team or pieces of art by a certain artist.

What bagan as a hobby for many people, can also turn into a lucrative career too. The people that are very into collecting things, do everything they can to learn about that particular collectible. This can be a valuable resource for businesses that deal in collectibles by hiring a person that is so well education on a particular item. This can result on being hired by a big auction company like Sotheby’s or by starting their own business purchasing and selling certain collectibles or antiques, for example.

For some people, collecting and holding onto things become a dysfunctional illness called hoarding. People that hoard have to constatnly collect things whether it is by shopping or even sorting through others trash. It may be clothes or it can even be food but the main problem of a hoarder is that they can not part with anything and have an emotional attachment to all of the things that they bring into their home. Eventually the home is overflowing from floor to ceiling with stuff that they can not control. A mental health professional is the only person who can assist a hoarder to reclaim a normal life again where they are not filling an emotional hole in their life with stuff.