[Fezzik]

A bit of a tangent… but we are rather dumb animals. If you watch an animal like a Bowerbird, that expends oodles of energy to stack petals in color-coordinated piles to attract a mate, and really think hard about all the stupid stuff we do, and what the underlying impulses are that cause us to act as we do, for the most part we are not much farther ahead of a Bowerbird intellectually. We just have flowery language to express our experiences.

Collecting antique crap falls in to that type of category, I think, no matter how much people try to gussy-up the behavior.

Edit, to add: there seems to be something more attractive about truly old things vs copies, just like certain petals are more enchanting to a Bower Bird. Why this is such a strong impulse I have no idea.