By the broad definition all collecting is technically hoarding but I think we are certainly different than the typical idea of a hoarder like the show hoarders depicts
The terms are very similar but a collector is slightly different than a hoarder imo and here is how I differentiate.
The big difference between a collector and a hoarder in my opinion is organization and the curation with the intent to actually categorize or catelog their items.
For example, if I guy just has random piles of trash in a huge pile in the garage that he has saved from years of flea marketing, without any rhyme or reason. He's a hoarder. But if he has shelving and has his junk cleaned, displayed as relics even if it's baby diapers, he'd be a baby diaper collector.
I think the organization and pride in it, and most especially the sanitation and the curating and keeping a catelog of your collecting. Is what seperates the two.
Hoarders kinda just hoard things, with no intent to keep track or have a curated library of their goods while collectors are like curators of a library. Cateloging each entry in databases like this big digital database that wouldn't exist without passionate collectors.
Like if you're weeding through a garage and your knee deep in dirty trash, bags of nothing, junk, wierd items and nothing is organized or their really isn't any reason behind him having it other than wanting it at the time than that's a hoarder. But if you enter a garage and find giant shelf networks like a library but you look at each shelf and it's complete garbage. But the garbage is clean, labeled, organized, and he knows what he has and why he has it than I think that's a collector even though you don't understand his collectibles.
I've actually found gamers before that i'd consider hoarders and not collectors. Just because they have everything they buy just on the floor, on tables, in huge stacks, scattered, random console lots every which way. You can tell he was just hoarding it and not "collecting it"
. I think with collecting it's more of a active intent to bring things together in a collection of that similar item. And not just random tossings.