El coleccionismo es una afición que consiste en la agrupación y organización de objetos de una determinada categoría. Como el coleccionismo depende de los gustos de cada una de las personas, algunos se centran en un aspecto particular de un área más amplia (como las monedas de oro españolas), mientras que otros buscan una mayor amplitud (como las monedas de todos los países). Algunas colecciones se pueden completar, al menos en el sentido de tener una muestra de cada uno de los artículos de la colección (como puede ser una copia de cada uno de los libros que ha escrito Agatha Christie). Los coleccionistas que intentan completar las colecciones como se acaba de explicar a veces se conocen como "completistas". Tras completar una colección, pueden abandonar el coleccionismo, expandir la colección para incluir artículos relacionados o comenzar otra colección que a lo mejor no tiene nada que ver con la completada.

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The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. The scope of collecting is unlimited: "If something exists, somebody somewhere collects them." The most obvious way to categorise collections is by the type of objects collected. Most collections are of manufactured commercial items, but natural objects such as birds' eggs, butterflies, rocks, and seashells can also be the subject of a collection. Among collections of manufactured items, the objects may be antique, or simply collectible. Antiques are collectible items at least 100 years old, while collectibles can be arbitrarily recent. Collectors and dealers may use the word vintage to describe older collectibles. Items which were once everyday objects but may now be collectible since almost all those once produced have been destroyed or discarded are called Ephemera. Philately, phillumeny, and deltiology (collecting postage stamps, matchboxes and postcards) are forms of collecting which can be undertaken at minimal expense. Some collectors are generalists with very broad criteria for inclusion, while others focus on a subtopic within their area of interest. Some collectors accumulate arbitrarily many objects that meet the thematic and quality requirements of their collection, others—called completists—aim to acquire all items in a well-defined set that can in principle be completed, and others seek a limited number of items per category (e.g. one representative item per year of manufacture or place of purchase). The monetary value of objects is important to some collectors but irrelevant to others. Some collectors maintain objects in pristine condition, while others use the items they collect, and still others collect items that once belonged to famous people. Collecting is for some people a childhood hobby, but for others a lifelong pursuit or one that begins in adulthood. Collectors who begin early in life often modify their aims when they get older. Some novice collectors start purchasing items that appeal to them then slowly work at learning how to build a collection, while others prefer to develop some background in the field before starting to buy items. The emergence of the internet as a global forum for different collectors has resulted in many isolated enthusiasts finding each other.

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