WOW, some very interesting answers. This subject has been debated on this and other forums for years. I call myself a collector and as my header shows, I am a life member of the Smith & Wesson Collectors Association.
I fell into a small gun collection when my grandfather passed. He had a few hunting guns and since my parents had no interest, they became mine when I left home. My dad had a couple of WW2 bring backs and his fathers gun when he owned a store, so he added those to my small collection when I left. I had shown an early interest in guns and shot on the NJ State Champion Smallbore Rifle Team in 1963 IIRC.
After moving to MA, I met a guy that was into guns, gun shows and S&W's in particular and that started me down the slippery slope. Initially I collected about anything that I could afford and at some point after a few years began to focus on S&W.
Although, I strive to purchase the best condition examples that I can find, many in my collection do not have boxes, tools etc., and have varying degrees of finish wear. I do have one that has provenance attached to a former S&W employee as well as one that was awarded as a trophy at a shoot held at the Springfield Revolver Club. Those I consider the lynch pins of my modest collection.
Although my collection has no real focus other than S&W now, I really do prefer 6" blued revolvers without model marks. I just find the quality of these older guns to be far superior to what they are building today. But I mean no offense to those that collect Scandium, Tandium or Candium guns. To each his own.
So all that said, I don't think that you can lump humans into any one category any more than you can lump collectors into one definition. There are more sub categories of "collector" than S&W has models. The main thing is that we are all firearm enthusiasts and we share in one of the greatest hobbies that there is. IMHO.