Now that's what I call a camera collection!!!!

I haven't done a count, but I too have a very, very, long way to go before I hit 3000 or 2000 or maybe even 1000 pieces of major gear. Although, I don't end up with "a case load of cameras" on a regular basis, so my buying habits don't end up as sheer quantity shopping sprees. Multiple shelves of Kodak Instamatics and a few multiple more for Brownies...? Nope.

There are a lot of reasons that people collect anything, and I can't fault anyone that does it for a different reason than mine. I would rather concentrate on the end results, anyway. If you've ever been to an art museum filled with a few billion dollars worth of art, there are usually people sitting for hours and marveling at one piece of work as they sit on the bench in front of it. What if the collector who found it, bought it, and presented for others to admire, hadn't taken any notice of it and passed it by for it to be forgotten and lost and no viewers would sit on a bench to study it? The world wouldn't collapse, but it would have a lot less to celebrate for human creativity and ingenuity.

A camera may be a tool, but so is a Ming vase, or an Aztecan jug, or a Rolls Royce Phantom, and I'm glad somebody collected a few of all of those. I hardly think any of us would begrudge someone who spent tens or hundreds of millions on a Rembrandt or DaVinci, nor should they feel guilty when they do, and then put them on display. A Yashica or Contax is as much of a marvel as a piece of good art as it is a competent tool, and you don't have to pay $1 Million to own one, or even charge people money to share it in one way or another.