Why Do We Collect? by Nitricboy
Collecting is not something you just do. It takes time and, most importantly effort. The first law of collecting states that accumulation can only occur through the expenditure of great amounts of energy, and there is absolutely no exception to this. You could stumble upon a recently widowed pensioner who (confused in her grief, bless her) is willing to part with here deceased husband's collection of priceless jazz records for twenty quid but this does not make you a jazz collector, it just makes you a very lucky (and possibly marked) individual.
The Vinyl God only dishes out breaks like these to those people who truly deserve his blessings. Only they whose fingertips carry rough calluses and whose lungs are filled with the dust of a thousand record stores will ever experience something like this. As a novice you will have to start slow and steady. You will have to exist on the peripheries on your chosen community sucking up the wisdom of others like a crazed dust buster. You will have to remember names and terms that are unfamiliar to your uneducated tongue. And you will become mute for fear of saying something daft.
(Reasons 1 and 2: the desire for education and initiation)
Once the initial novice-stage has been surpassed then most collectors find themselves spending more-than-sensible amounts of money on their chosen subject. Purchases can always be justified with a delicate balancing act of skewed common sense ("Well, if I didn't spend £85 on this 1980s football shirt then I'd just waste it on food or something"); misplaced paranoia ("If I don't spend £130 pounds on this signed Fugazi 12" then the bloke hovering behind me with the tattoos might get it and he looks like a wanker."); and insane guilt (If I don't spend £269.99 on this limited edition scale model of Thunderbird 2 then all that effort Gerry Anderson put in will be to nought.")
As convincing as these arguments seem at the time you know, deep down, that they are bollocks. The real logic behind these erratic financial activities probably has more to do with the fact that when most people hit the early to mid-twenties stage (the age that most people start seriously collecting anything) they usually also start earning a respectable (and very disposable) income which they don't know how to spend.
No family, no family-carrier car, no family-sized house (complete with family-size mortgage)…a complete lack of any real financial responsibility means that (for a few years at least) a person can devote themselves (and their credit card) to their chosen passion.
N.B. There is an argument that more men collect things than women and that one reason is that men have nothing to spend their money on (as opposed to women who have a myriad of consumer trinkets on which to blow their wages)…but that's not my argument so I'm not going to get into it here for fear of being lynched by my girlfriend.
(Reason 3: disposable income + lack of responsibility + desire to consume)
Collecting is a passion constructed by Satan himself to trap the unwary into a lifetime of torture, disappointment and financial ruin. Once you start collecting it is impossible to stop. First there is the need to 'know', to research your subject, to become familiar with your prey. Then there is the first experience of finding something you know is 'much sought after' - once that happens you're hooked for life. The adrenaline rush of walking out of the shop (or whatever) with that highly-prized I (and most likely valuable) item tucked under your arm is a habit forming experience and, juts like any habit-forming substance) when you've done it once, you know that next time it's got to be bigger and better.
However good I may feel to feel that rush though, we can't forget that quality and quantity are inseparable when it comes to collecting. It's inherently 'wrong' go out and just look for the good stuff while ignoring those items that form the foundation of your chosen 'genre'. To do so belies an ignorance and greed that any 'real' collector will smell on you the moment you enter a room. Likewise bulk-buying mountains of crap to make your collection 'bigger than everyone else's' is also misguided and, ultimately, superficial (people w ill also presume that you have a very small penis).
In the end it all comes back down to the Buddhists and that fact that "balance is only obtainable through perseverance".
(Reasons 4 and 5: Addictive nature of 'the find' and the quest for perfection.)