Collecting: What’s your plan/goal?

I buy what strikes me at the time, no real plan. Most tend to be users, but I have some very fancy ones that are meant to be fondled rather than used. Knives come and go all the time, but there is a core group that has passed the use or fondling test and will never go away.
 
Like others have said, I buy what I like and can afford. I am way more of a collector than a user. Have over 100 knives, and only a few that get carried/used. But I have gotten to the point that as I buy new ones, especially more expensive ones, I'll sell others to make room.
 
I’m a gatherer, nor a collector, so I wouldn’t know what to respond. To collect you have to be very specific and limited, or very rich. For instance, Buck fixed blades from 1987. Or Randall #1 in all configurations since the model was launched (which would include future modifications).
 
For the last couple of years I've used mostly 110/112 daily.
My basic goal now is to use more of my collection.
 
No real collection goals for myself, but I do try to avoid any repetition. I'm at the point where I am more than satisfied with what I have, but something new always pops up that I need to check out.
 
Every once in a while, I'll line up all the knives I have (from $8 to well over $200) and give each one a loving fondle (sheesh, how pitiful sounding) and notice that most I really don't carry, let alone use. However, I bought them all (for one reason or another) and have no plans on letting any go. But at the end of the day, I really could get by quite easily with only 3 or 4 knives (maybe even less), but what would be the fun in that?

However, now that I'm on a retirement pension, I won't be going on any buying spree anytime soon, so the knives I never carry will be like discovering a new knife all over again.
 
Dadpool said:
My snap reaction is that I don't have one. :D

But that's not entirely true. My baseline is always what I like, what speaks to me -- whether or not it fits my tastes, past or present (surprises are fun). But I do take into account whether a knife fills an unfilled niche, directly steps on the specs of another knife, or otherwise overlaps too much with my collection.

Because if two knives are too similar (by whatever nebulous definition I'm using at the time), one of them probably won't get carried. (This tends to keep me from buying doubles of knives I like, too.) I carry and use all of my knives, so that's kind of my soft "cap" on just indefinitely expanding my collection.

Or at least that's the theory. ;)
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Dadpool pretty much said it. I don't have a plan, but I do have a list of go/no-go questions I ask when I like a knife.
 
plan: buying knives I like to own, use, admire
goal: be happy with what I got, not buying things I don't really want or need because of some hype
 
Well..... I only buy users and folding knives. I buy knives of different styles for different tasks.
I stay at a price limit of about $200 and most of my knives cost $75 to $100. Just bought a Ontario RAT I AUS 8 as a beater knife at the price you can't go wrong
Loved the RAT 2 in D2, love the feel of the knife.
 
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