I find myself asking this question often, among some in the comic book community depending on your reason places you in two categories .People are differentiated as being speculators or collectors.Though i feel most fall somewhere in the middle for several reasons i'll mention but before that lets define both terms in context to our current discussion.
A speculator is someone whom invest in a tangible property ,good or asset with the intent of making a property.When it comes to being a speculator in the comic book community it is sometimes frowned upon due to how the comic book industry behaves to please these particular customers.An example would be the 90's speculator bubble that almost destroyed the comic book industry.
The next category would be a collector , which is a person whom collects specific things professionally or as a hobby.Collecting comics as a hobby (Collectors) is the most common category people fall in to.If people didn't place emotional value on the hero's they adored and seek out their comic appearances & story lines the comic industry could die entirely.
Most people are both in my opinion because one cannot exist without the other.Collector are speculators & speculator are collectors.Whether your collecting comics to pass them off to your family or investing to profit it the a couple decades .Both will result in profit & most of all the enjoyment of collecting/profiting. Lets face it our kid's may not value our collection as much as we do.Instead of dwelling on where you fall between the two just enjoy the excitement of reading a book with intrinsic & monetary value.