I think of a lot of thoughts I read here are similar to mine.
To me, when it comes to what I collect, there is another component. Rosanna also mentioned some of this.

I like to research beads. I generally collect the beads that have some relation with my research at the time. I have a large collection of Prosser beads. They do not really qualify as collectible for most people. They were made in bulk, they are not rare, they are not sought after very much and let's face it.....most of them are pretty ugly.
But when you have been at the factory where they used to be made, read the back story, dug through the trash to get to them, they became fascinating nevertheless.

This year, at the Tucson show, I hardly bought any beads. Partly to do with the flu, but mainly because I was in between research projects. I did not have a focus.