Do you remember forming a collection when you were a kid? Do you still have your collected treasures?  Have you ever really thought about why you’re collecting what you collect?

Doing a little research, we find  some of the most popular items collected: baseball cards, coins, dolls, seashells, knives, antiques, key chains, stamps, fossils and model cars. Some of the more "odd" items included fragments from accident sites, bugs, fingernails and hair. 

Just imagine:  "Hey guys! Come check out my fingernail collection!" Gross!

Hair or cars — the whole thing is a little off.  Why do people invest so much time and money in something in which other people would pay not to have?  Here are five likely reasons:

1. Boredom. The person seeks a hobby on which they can spend as much time as they desire.

2. Investing. It’s going to be worth something someday, right?

3. History.  Something to remember the past by.

4. They had two of something and decided to keep going with it.

5. To fulfill their "pack rat" needs.  Their mobility may be limited due to the clutter, but hoarding has become a compulsive need.

As a kid, I collected pencils — the No. 2, fun, decorative, need-a-pencil-sharpener-every-three-words pencils.  There were two requirements to make it into my collection.  First, the pencil had to be colored, glittery or have something fun on it — no plain orange ones allowed. Second, used pencils were not allowed — the pencil had to be unsharpened. 

Now my bucket filled with over 100 girly, unused pencils has gathered a rather extensive collection itself — dust.  I haven’t touched my pail o’ pencils for at least six years.  If I made practical use of it, I would never again have to purchase another writing utensil.  Too bad I now hate pencils.

So what happens when you decide you no longer want to spend time searching eBay for dead spiders and eraser dust?  How will you rid yourself of the 230 teddy bears occupying your bedroom closet?

Donate it? Stash it away to show your kids or grandchildren some day?  Give your collection, one piece at a time, as birthday and Christmas gifts for the next ten years?

You could sell it to another collector, but that doesn’t seem like much fun for them.  One purchase and they would instantly have an extensive collection.  Where’s the fun in that?  After all, the majority of the fun comes from the thrill of the chase — seeking out and setting aside the different things that meet your criteria to qualify for the collection, right?

Then again, you could view selling or donating your collected goods as a "passing of the torch." Think about it — by "passing the torch" to another collector, the collection will continue to be, well… collected!

Since collecting is such a unique hobby, maybe you shouldn’t worry about what you’re going to do with all the "stuff" you’ve accumulated.  Surely, there will come a time when you need to "collect your thoughts" on the collection’s purpose, but until then, "collect on," collective collectors!

Shootin’ the Wit is a weekly column about everyday life that should never, ever be taken too seriously.