.They were also buying a fair number of cheap-but-perfectly roadworthy ones and breaking them too.
Grr
Quite so. I recall seeing ones like that on eBay (these being the times when bidder identities were mostly clear and plain to see).
In those cases, whatever the sentiment, what can be done if no-one else cares to buy or take on? Personal circumstances play a big part in the purchase, upkeep and continued viability of a CX, and I'm sure you'd agree that taking one on is not a trivial thing.
I'm not sure that even a lottery-winner's buy-up wouldn't end up like the Dutch government's artworks purchase scheme of yesteryear in a grand sell-off and dispersion. Wasn't there the case of a little while back of the serial vintage-metal-collecter who died leaving a substantial collection (including the proverbial barn-full) in a state ranging from "sore-neglected-but-savable" to "a tree grows through it"...
