You have owned 3,500+ knives?? My goodness, congratulations!
No, I've OWNED over 5,000.
I currently HAVE over 3,500. Probably closer to 3,600. Haven't made a hard count in over a year.
I will buy "lots" of knives to get 1 or 2 out of the mix and then pass the rest on.
The "most extreme instance" I ever did was buy a box of 60+ knives for less than $60, shipping included, because in the pictures I could see 1 that I wanted for my collection. Got the box in, took "my" knife out and started looking the rest over to see what else was there. Mainly China, Pakistan, India junk, but there were some nice Bucks in the mix as well. Then way down in the bottom of the box were a couple of old straight razors. I don't collect those either. I ended up selling the 2 straight razors for about $200 (seems they were kinda hard to come by) and the rest for $3 to $12 @. Ended up making over $350 AND I had the knife I wanted.
I still have a tub full of knives that need to go to new homes, but I haven't gotten around to getting rid of them. Taking the pictures, boxing them up, advertising them, and then selling/shipping them takes time. My mother (82) had a stroke in one of her eyes and has required multiple trips per month over the last 2 years to the doctor (vision is back up to 20/30) for injections of clot buster drugs into her eyeball as well as other medical issue appointments, and then 2 months ago she broke a bone in her foot. Those 2 scenarios have put a damper on A LOT of tasks. Between doctor's appointments, weed pulling, grass mowing, house and barn painting, garden planting, etc., I almost don't have time for work
much less anything fun.