Quoted from Tommy-dog:The magic number is 20+ if you want to have a good selection of games (older, newer, different eras, manufacturers, etc).
Agreed. I hover right around 24 the last 5 years or so, with a couple of those being restores/projects.
I kinda did same as the op - I didn't give EMs much attention until we played nothing but them on league night once, and before I knew it I had a few. Then I started rediscovering some of the classic Bally and Williams games from my childhood in the 70s, and have a half dozen of those now. The rest are classic 90s games pretty much.