Since the beginning of time, it has been in man's nature to "collect" things. I am not sure any of us truly understand why, but we do it anyway. This is easy to see in real life, just look in any average families garage, shed, basement, and any nook or cranny available to stuff something into. In fact, a player in my guild explained it nicely the other day with the comment "when you run out of space you either build a bigger garage, or move to a bigger house". To ensure that I am not being sexist, the phenomenon happens with women too, just check the cupboards to count how many doilies, photo albums, unused patio place settings, spare material, etc that can be found. Maybe a better way of saying it would be to say it's human nature to be a pack rat at some level.
So, what happens when you give people virtual space in addition to physical space? Well, they cram it full of stuff, of course. In the World of Warcraft these items tend to be either something of significance to the player, something hard to get, or something unique to separate them from other players.
Why People Collect (simplified)
Without getting into a psycho analysis of why people collect things, lets look at the simple reasons. Players tend to collect things to show uniqueness, accomplishments or ability. Just as in real life the reasons vary from person to person. Some people collect comic books written by a certain writer or drawn by a certain illustrator, while others collect them to have a set of a certain title. Some collect for the enjoyment or having them and reading them, while others do it simply to say they have a set of "x title". It's all person specific.
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Some people collect just to match things
Many people collect something just for the challenge of collecting it and the sense of accomplishment they gain when they add to that collection. Getting that item that everyone wants but no one can find brings a big rush to collectors.This sense of accomplishment is further heightened in WoW by the methods that are needed to collect some of the items. Some items require long grinds of killing things to get an item to drop or to farm the materials required to make it. Some items are only gained through limited means, such as buying a collectors edition, CCG codes or holiday events. Yet others are only available by complete difficult quests or raiding in hardcore dungeons.
The difficulty involved in getting the items you collect, bring additional feelings of reward for having accomplished it.
One big reason people collect items is to show them off. Depending on your server this could be a fun community event, or just for personal enjoyment. One server that I am on, has monthly pet walks, where everyone gets out a pet and parades around Ironforge. While not common off of role playing servers, this can be done to involve everyone in community building. On role playing servers it happens far more often as people try to find items to bring a story line into their play time.
What People Collect
There are many items that players collect, supplied is just a brief listing. Keep in mind that some items cross boundaries and may be collected by one person for a specific reason, but by another for a completely different reason.
Dungeon Sets, Raid Tier Sets and PVP Season Sets
Armor sets are one of the first things players started collecting and saving. While initially they serve as a status symbol to show what you have accomplished (and allow you to progress further), as soon as the next level of set is attained the previous has no intrinsic value. Yet, for some reason many players continue to hold on to the items.
A case in point in the many players (myself included) that still have full Tier 1 Raiding sets from the Molten Core sitting around in their banks. They will never be used again other than to show that yes you did MC, yet for some reason many players can not force them selves to get rid of them. While they have no practical use, the sense of nostalgia and the memories they bring back are what players hold on to by keeping the items.
Role Playing Items
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An item that is both for role playing and an exclusive, the Blizzcon Costume
Items that can be used for role playing are huge among, you guessed it, role players. However they are also huge among collectors. Many players collect these items just to have them so they can do quirky little things, like having a picnic in Stormwind Park, that other players can not do.
Items included here are specialty clothing items such as tuxedos, wedding dresses and holiday clothing, holiday or specialty items, and scenery items.
CCG and other Exclusive Items
These items are some of the hardest to get as they require you to either attend something in real life or purchase something in real life. Players tend to covet the Blizzcon and Invitational items as in game status symbols and mementos from the event. Similarly items gained from the Collectable Card Game (CCG) are highly sought over as they are extremely rare and will always start conversations.
Mini Pets
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Some mini pets go for huge gold!
The last item in our list, and the most collected, are mini pets. Mini pets are collected by huge numbers of players for the simple fact that they are cute, different and add some flare to your character. Add to that the fact that it doesn't matter if you are level 1 or 70 they still do the same thing, they are something for everyone.
Blizzard has done a very good job with mini pets to ensure that there really is something for everyone. There are what seems like hundreds of mini pets out there, so there is one to suit almost any taste. They also range in difficulty to obtain from simply buying them from a vendor, to quest rewards, to hours of farming, to CCG / event / collectors edition rewards. Some are available year round, others are one time only and yet others are gained only on holiday events.
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