Imagine you are going to dinner at your friend's house for the first time. You pull into their driveway lined with white picket fences and realize that their white house is pretty with its blue shutters and bright red front door. Smelling their fresh flowers outside, you can only imagine how charming the inside of their home is. You walk through the front door and are immediately greeted by a wall covered in antique placemats. You think it's strange but continue to walk into their living room anyway, which is also covered in placemats. It's not just a few placemats here and there; the walls are covered from top to bottom with placemats. What is this strange material on their sofas? - Placemats! Small placemats, large placemats, carpet placemats and lampshade covered placemats everywhere. What have you gotten yourself into? Your friend comes in and starts telling you about her “collection”. We wonder how this could be a collection when it has taken over his entire house. At this point you think she's more of a doily hoarder than a hoarder. When is having a collection something more serious than being a collector? Why do people start collecting things and what makes something collectible? These are just some of the questions I will analyze in this article. Before going further, it is appropriate to discuss the definition of the subject to understand the problems. The meaning may be obvious to most people, but when looking at it in the dictionary, many flaws appear. A collection refers to the act or process of collecting; a group of objects or works to be viewed or kept together (“American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2003”). The definition is problematic because I...... middle of article ...... from Mental Health and Addiction (2014) ProQuest. April 26, 2014. Maycroft, Neil. “Not getting things done: hoarding, clutter and other ambiguous issues.” Journal of Consumer Behavior 8.6 (2009): 354-64. ProQuest. April 28, 2014. Anderson, S, H Damasio and A Damasio. “A neural basis for collecting behavior in humans.” Brain: A Journal of Neurology. 128.1 (2005): 201-212. Print.Belk, Russell W. “Collecting as Luxury Consumption: Effects on Individuals and Households.” » Journal of Economic Psychology 16.3 (1995): 477-90. ProQuest. April 26, 2014. Feller, Ray. Collecting their suffering: Meaningful hobbies and processing traumatic experience. Order No. 3493085 Antioch University New England, 2011 Ann ArborProQuest. April 29, 2014. Lehman, H and P Witty. “The Current State of the Collecting and Hoarding Trend.” Psychological review. 31.1 (1927): 48-56. Print.