Collectors and Collecting

Abstract

By one estimate, one out of every three Americans collects something (O'Brien 1981). Collecting is a common, intensely involving form of consumption. Yet it has been the subject of almost no prior work in the field of consumer research. This paper defines collecting and presents some initial findings from qualitative research on collectors. Propositions are derived for further investigation conceming the appeal and nature of collecting in contemporary American society. Acquiring, Possessing, Hoarding, and Collecting Distinctions are necessary between collecting and several related, but distinct consumption processes, including accumulation, possession, and hoarding. We reject, for example, the suggestion that collections are necessarily intentional (Duroust 1932) or must involve series-completion (Rigby and Rigby 1949), but accept these as characteristics of some important types of collections. Kron (1983) suggests that collectors are more selective (and classificatory) than indiscriminate accumulators. Belk (1982), Kron (1983) and Danet and Katriel (1986) all specify that collecting involves acquiring an interrelated set of possessions. Duroust (1932) specifies that objects (or ideas) in a collection must be valued for more than their utilitarian or even their aesthetic qualities. While items collected may have utilitarian or aesthetic appeals, they must have additional significance to the collector due to their importance in contributing to the "set" of items that comprise the collection. Although both coin collectors and misers accumulate money, the criterion of selectivity suggests that the miser is not a collector because he/she views money as a commodity (Simmel 1971/orig. 1907). We would further suggest that collected items take on a nonutilitarian "sacred" status, as discussed below. Items in a collection, as we construe it, may be material objects, ideas, or experiences (e.g., travel, restaurant, or concert experiences, either with or without tangible manifestations of these experiences). For the sake of brevity we will not focus on the possessionrelated activities of caring for, cataloging, or displaying a collection. These we label the curatorial aspects of collecting and differ from the acquisistive aspects of collecting per se. This distinguishes the collector from the possessor of a collection assembled by someone else (although the acquirer of several such previously assembled collections would be a collector of these collections). A similar distinction might be drawn between two types of non-collectors: the accumulator (who is acquisitive, but lacks selectivity) and the hoarder (who is possessive, but views the items possessed—e.g., food, toilet paper; McKinnon, Smith, and Hunt 1985primarily as utilitarian commodities rather than extrautilitarian sacred items). The acquisitive activities of both collectors and hoarders can become obsessive and compulsive (Jensen 1963). Indeed at least some degree of obsession is required to distinguish the hoarder and the collector from the mere possessor of items.