When I found myself with 30 pipes, briars, meerschaums and cobs, I realized I only smoked about half of them. 15, from one danish house constituting a legitimate collection, are smoked regularly; the other 15 are a mish mosh, few of which I use. So I am barely a pipe collector and I learned a few lessons about buying right and buying wrong along the way. You know, I have these lovely pipes but, right now (real time) I'm smoking an old go-to corn cob pipe cause it's practically perfect.
I approached straights this way. Intending to be neither razor collector nor historian I selected razors dispassionatey, exclusively for shaving. When I hit 12, more than enough to satisfy my curiousity about how various razor types performed, that was it. Two were semi-junk for honing practice (money badly spent - I can practice on good razors just as easily and save my stones) and the rest are a range of blade widths, points, grinds, lengths and metals (one Friodur stainless). I could say I really liked a wedge and buy five more looking for better but, seriously, one is enough. Same with the Friodur - one good stainless blade told the story. Small blade or sought-after brand? One Dubl Duck Dwarf covered both.
Unexpectedly at Christmas a kind friend sent me an old Boker King Cutter and a sweet little Heljestrand MK-30, both near flawless. How nice a guy is that?! That's two more I almost forgot about. I'll put four on ebay this month. 10 razors for the rest of my life is still five too many to keep up with. I better give a couple of them to my son and call it done. :D