There are two questions I have been asked more than any other in my 30 years of collecting:

The first is, "what do you plan on doing with your collection" and the second is, "why do you need so many signatures from the same artists"?  I'll explore this second question as to how it relates to my collection with respect to "racking" or "hoarding" or whatever name its given when a collector obtains or builds a mountain of multiple signatures from a certain artist or on a certain product.

The Eagles have, depending on how I am counting, 11 or so official album releases. Since I am a fan of the Eagles (I am using them as the example; as the example easily could be any band), its as hard for me to have decided which album I rather have signed in full, since with so many lineup changes and popularity of the band and their library being so diverse, I can make a case for having each album in my collection. Eventually, I did. 

For example, when I think of the band Eagles, the obvious album that comes to mind is "Hotel California", as it probably should. Its one of the most popular and best selling albums of any band. As a collector of the group, how can I not want THAT fully signed LP in my collection?

However for me, it's their album "One Of These Nights" that I feel is their best piece of music and has always been my favorite album ever since I first heard the title cut back in 1975.  Thus, I gotta have THAT fully signed LP in my collection?

Factoring in the difficulty and reluctance at signing by some members of the band, their debut album, "Eagles", then becomes as well is a real collectable. After all, its a debut album. However much more, there were only 4 members in the band at the time of it's release and 4 signatures is much easier to obtain than 5 signatures (that the band would eventually grow too on future albums). Plus, that album has a very soft blue sky cover which is excellent for signing. Thus, I gotta have THAT fully signed LP in my collection?

I also really can connect with the album, "The Long Run". It was their final album for over 25 years and received so much radio airplay. Though the album does have a difficult pitch black cover, signed in silver paint pen if done so carefully, can and does look killer! Its a beautiful display piece. Thus, I gotta have THAT fully signed LP in my collection?

Then there are song books, tour books and programs, drum heads and guitars (for the more advanced and very luck autograph collectors) as well as posters and just about everything and anything else that the Eagles and every other band has put out there in record stores and in concert halls to sell and make a fortune off of you and I, Joe Consumer, the LP and ticket purchasing fanatic.

There are two factors that I can see from where I sit.

If an artist is available and willing to sign his or her signature, I then can make an easy argument for getting as much signed on as many different "products" that these artists career has generated, and build until either I get tired of asking or they get tired of signing. Other collections, non related to R&R, have "sets" or a "series" or a group of items all connected to each other. Collecting R&R memorabilia, easy to see, simply does too. It's called an artists catalog and their career. Pick a few or pick it all.  The limits have always been somewhere between my efforts and hard work and an artists generosity and willingness.

So please, quit asking me why I collect so many signatures from the same artists. Its much like asking an artists why they need so many released albums, or why they tour so many shows, or why they sell so many T-Shirts and programs or why (oh you get the idea): Simply because.