Our passion is to hold a piece of history and to share it with the people around us. Furthermore, humans are hardwired to like objects of value, to be pleased with them, and to impress others (whether or not they know it).
Collecting something serious usually involves having an idea of what you want your collections to be when it comes time to sell or hand them down. The aspect of collecting that draws us into the “sport” aspect is that there are always elusive but possible additions to our collections, but they may be too expensive or difficult to obtain. Despite this, eBay demonstrates that this is one of the most rewarding aspects of collecting.
Collecting is a common practice. Among the few collectible items, trading cards were designed for collecting! Their photos, dates, and other information make them easy to catalog; they have a provenance built in.