Need & want are two different things lol. However, from a personal perspective, I have to admit that most prospective purchases are blocked by the marital control valve and shared PayPay account.
Yes, I think I managed to stop collecting around 400 or so. I think I might still have around 300 at a rough guess. Then there's the stoves, blowlamps and other vaguely related stuff...
Need? Basic needs? I'd say about the same amount of lamps that work for an average person for all his/her activities during an average 24hr period. Ok, the mileages certainly vary greatly.
Well an "average person" needs probably only one lantern - or, in the 21st century, none. Proper lamp and lantern collectors on the other hand...
@paparazi you need your own pp account. Definitely. based on separate bank account. which occasionally refilled. @David Shouksmith 300 might not be necessary, but half a dozen might be handy. one might need fettle, one might have damaged mantle , just when you want to use it. so I always take 2 with me, when I am certain, I might need 1. redundancy. but being a collector, my stock is low level 3 digit. meanwhile slowing down the ramp-up.
I had a dream, probably a nightmare or sort of. In the surreality of it, I was on my way to replenish my stock of kerosene that ran out the night before. At my usual stop, I was told by the shopkeeper that it has not been available for years and naturally I had none. I was puzzled and questioned him without avail on things like: how come you had drums of it just last week and none at all now? I was later made known by someone(I've seen this guy before somewhere) that: all fuels made from petroleum(including propane and LPG) are no longer sold to the public since the War. I was like: what??? Which War?? The rest are pretty blurry by the time I woke up. As I re-visit this thread again, I'd say, if the future ever turns out to be apocalyptic, our pressure lamps are probably not the way to go. You'd have problems fuelling them. So how many of them would you really need as collectors,?.. now that you're completely deprived from lighting them the usual way. No more 'money shots' that is. Either shelf queens or junks?
The thought of dwindling stocks of oil has also crossed my mind. I am sure most lamps could be modified to run on alcohol. At least that should always be possible to produce. As far as the number of lamps in a collection goes, there is no one answer. I probably have several hundred. but am now trying to downsize by getting rid of duplicates. A very slow process though.
