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I never forget that I'm just another guy (nothing special) over compensating for growing up relatively poor. Year after year as Christmas came and went there was never any chance a HeathKit, EICO, etc., oscilloscope kit would be under the tree.
All of that changed as a result of a wonderful job I got after finishing my sophomore year in college. I was able to save $2,000 to buy a 453 50MHz portable. That was the most incredible investment I ever made in myself. 7 years later I sold it for $2000 (it was in mint condition) and with the help of a friend we bought a 7704 and 3 plugins for $6,000. The empty 4th slot irritated me for years to come.
But my many random career(s) took me in totally different directions after that and it wasn't until 20 years later that I discovered eBay in 2000. At last I could afford some of the broken plugins listed there. Since I was pretty good at troubleshooting, fixing them was easy. The first plugin I could afford was the lowly 7M13 Readout Unit which nobody wants (so the price was cheap). I'm very fond of it since I often use it for documenting CRT photos I take. At last I had a few different plugins to fill the empty 7704 slot and a way to get more of them.
Around 13 years ago I realized I had most of the 7000 plugins. At that point it became a challenge to find the missing ones - the very expensive Spectrum Analyzers. It took years to find those at prices I could afford, in working condition, since they are not something I can repair or troubleshoot.
Along the way I found several non-Tek plugins or modified plugins Tek made on eBay and added them to my collection out of curiosity.
Lastly, the ex-Tek friends I made over the years occasionally tipped me off to one of a kind prototypes designed and built but never released as a catalog product. I have been given a few of those by the engineers who designed them. Those are the ones I value the most because I learn some of the history of their creation.
In retrospect it is easy to see that each plugin affords me a way to satisfy my insatiable curiosity and learn more about electronics and that is why I wanted to own them. Nothing can match the staggering flexibility and capability of the 7000 series. I am incredibly fortunate to have this capability. My goal was always to use these plugins, and not to collect them. The only ones I have not used are the 7K11 CATV Preamplifier and the 7F10 Optical to Electrical Converter.
June 1 through September 30 is a spectacular time for a visit to the Pacific Northwest US.

Dennis