Size of the HP Community

[vaklaff]

(08-29-2022 04:40 PM)johnb Wrote:  Wow. I knew who Karel Čapek was (his play R.U.R. is where the term "robot" was born), but I had no idea he was such a good writer!

He was. Unfortunately, outside Czechoslovakia he is known - if at all - just as a not especially good sci-fi author, the inventor of the "robot" word. In reality, sci-fi was not in his focus and IMHO he was best at short humorous stories, making observation about human nature (see The Record or A Lyrical Thief in the book I linked earlier or my absolute favorite The man who knew how to fly).

Back to your original question. My guess is there are some hundreds of HP calculators collectors worldwide, at least half of them in North America, another large group in Western Europe, the rest of the world being pretty sparse. By the collectors I mean

• self-identified ones, or
• those who'd be declared collectors (or "hoarders" etc.) by their spouses if asked
  

Can I back the guess in any way? No. Worse, I am essentially a newcomer so I am probably very, very off. But no one wants to come forward with any estimate therefore mine is the best you can have :-)