How many decks before you are considered a collector?

Hello everyone,

My mom and I were talking yesterday and she asked how many decks do you have to own before you are considered a collector?

So I thought I would pose the question to the forum. I told her that her and I are collectors as we have over 5 decks in our collection.



Thanks

kaleanna

Hi,

I have 20 something, but I am not a collector. Atleast I do not consider myself one, and am not planning on becoming one either.
I think it's more of a personal thing, when one considers themselves a collector, or not.

I think that the term 'collector' applies as much as anything to the "Why?" of doing it rather than precisely how many.

any that you don't use would be considered a collection to me. So it could be as low as one.

I've heard that if you have three or more of anything, you have a collection.
K

I think like AJ, if you have some you bought only to 'have' for their beauty or importance, you are a collector.

Miss Divine said:

I have 20 something, but I am not a collector.

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Andy Muirhead, compere of "The Collectors", considers a collector to be anybody who has three or more of a given category of object. His rationale is that you can have one, and you can buy a second to go with the first, but there's never any excuse for buying the third one. With the third one, whatever it is, you have tipped over the line into collection territory. And he should kn ow - he has considerable expertise in the area of collections, having several of his own, and collectibles generally.

Stuart Kaplan, Demigod of Tarot, stated a few years ago in writing: "...an avid collector of Tarot might sometimes have as many as twenty decks". So by his rationale, and he should know, you're a collector well before twenty decks, and an avid collector once you have hit twenty whether you like it or not, Miss Divine! Welcome to the glorious world of collecting.

AJ said:

it could be as low as one.

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By definition, collecting implies gathering items together in a group. So technically one deck doesn't qualify as a collection. It's just another unused item in the house. It can be part of a collection of something, like unused junk. But one deck can't be classified specifically as a tarot collection. You can't say "I have a collection of tarot deck."

To be a tarot deck "collector", you would have to "collect" tarot decks, which doesn't have a special number attached to it (as long as it's not one). I view a "collector" as one who enjoys not only the items he/she collects, but also the process of "collecting"... the actual acquiring of items to add to the collection. And since collecting is a verb, "collector" implies one who participates in collecting as an ongoing process.

You don't have to have 1,000 decks to be a collector, you just have to enjoy collecting tarot decks.

Ever write a word so much that it starts to look weird? Guess what word that is for me right now.

pippi said:

Ever write a word so much that it starts to look weird? Guess what word that is for me right now.

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<grin>

Only for me it's stripped of meaning when that happens, not weird in and of itself. Just blanked-out.

I don't think it is a question of whether one IS considered a collector, but rather one when considers ONESELF a collector.

In other words, intention.