Some people collect things out of intellectual interest. Other people don't. I'd be willing to concede that academically inclined people are more likely to collect certain types of things (rare maps, rare books, etc.) than those people who are not academically inclined. But I don't think this is something inherent in what is being collected. Plenty of people collect rare books entirely for their monetary value.

---

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic