Today, we're going to focus on one of the oldest and most popular of hobbies: collecting. The idea of amassing items just for the enjoyment of it started as far back as 4,000 B.C., when primitive men created collections of non-functional stone tools. When civilization progressed, collecting became a hobby almost exclusively of the rich. They'd spend thousands of dollars on art and other unique, high-value items, even sending agents in their place instead of doing the work themselves. For this reason, collecting didn't really take hold as a recognized hobby of the common man until the mid-1800s or so. From that point until the early 1900s, however, collecting actually became synonymous with the word "hobby." It was truly an everyman's pastime; the rich would collect art and furniture, while poor kids would follow cigar-smoking men down the street to collect discarded cigar bands..