"Some people are true "collectors" (they have to have every single piece), while others are more of an "accumulator" (they pick up pieces casually and ignore the holes in their collection)."
I must, respectfully, disagree with your definitions of "collector" vs. "accumulator".
You have defined a "collector" as someone who has to have every single piece. I consider myself a collector of Nevada Casino items. I don't have to have every piece...but that doesn't make me less of a collector. My husband and I have spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars on our collection. We have close to 1000 ashtrays (at a cost of 50¢ to $700 each), we have close to 1000 chips (at a cost of 50¢ to ?$200 each), we have ?1000? postcards, hundreds of swizzle sticks, several hundred dice (singles, pairs and sticks), we have menus, restaurant china, stationary, a few hundred decks of cards, ?1000? matchbooks/matchbook covers, and other things too numerous to mention. We do not have "every single piece" of anything, nor will we ever. We do not feel obligated to try to get one of everything. There are holes in our collection that will never be filled, some of those holes are there because we choose not to fill them. By your definition, that makes us "accumulators".
To me, an "accumulator" is someone who "collects" without caring about the collection. I accumulated the first 2 sets of McDonald's Teeny Beanie Babies. I got every piece of each set....not because I cared, but because "everyone" was doing it.
Our Nevada collection is one that we care very much about. We buy what we like and what interests us. We research the history behind our collection, we spend time, energy, and love on the collection. To me, that's what makes a collection, instead of an accumulation.
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