I’m sure someone will take the zaltos off your hands
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however many friends you could theoretically have over for a big dinner x3
This guy in NYC says oenophiles only need 1 glass; he tests 5 or 6 to prove this
Only if they drink alone. We used over 100 the last time I had a bunch of you guys at my house.
I had enough so that I could do tastings with 12 people, each having 12 glasses. That way you can taste 12 wines and you don’t have to drink them in flights or sequentially. And then I had a bunch of other glasses for whatever. Over the years and a few moves we’ve lost some, and I gave some away, but we probably still have 200 or so. We really only use a few though, as all the rest are boxed up.
We found pre-Covid that we need at least four dozen…split between white and red (having transitioned into serving Champagne in white wine glasses.)
12 x 12 - a gross of wine glasses! I like that. 
leaving one each for everyone else!
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Oy vey.
Let’s see:
6 Art Deco colored glass/chrome stems for martinis
4 1950s martini glasses left from my mom’s original set
6 1940s champagne coupes from my great-aunt
Service for 12 crystal: water, wine, coupe. Totally “wrong” shapes, I should consign but they’re my mom’s
4 crappy pale green flutes from when I was poor
6 better flutes
One standard etched wine glass from college
24 okbutmeh everyday wine glasses (closeout sale)
6 better white wine style (more from TJM. Hey, I’m cheap, um “frugal”)
6 better everyday red wine style (see above) Still getting used to the size difference from my earlier everydays: I tend to overserve myself with these 
Just counted: 67 guess I’m a slacker.
The correct number is n-1, where n is the number that causes your SO/spouse to leave you.
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Was going to post: n + 8 (where n is current number)
she already left 4.5 years ago. Perhaps that’s why I have over 100 more since
Assuming no need to have backups for breakage, my answer is either 24 or 32. The gatherings we host tend to top-out at 8 people. So this depends on whether I feel we “need” three or four different stems, and it’s a hard choice for me to make.
I bought six Zalto Bordeaux stems for professional tastings several years ago. I review everything for the magazine in one shape. After spending two decades as a retail wine buyer, cycling through dozens of wines from reps throughout the week I appreciated that there wasn’t any real need to have specific stemware for wine. Others may think differently. Eliminating variables in my tasting environment simplifies the work flow. If I’m opening wine for pleasure, chances are it goes in a rocks glass.
Anywhere from 2 to 6 each of GGG, Zalto Bordeaux, Zalto Universal, Grassl 1855, Glasvin Universal, and Sophienwald burgundy. I should probably stop before I run out of places to hide them.
I started my wine life in the early part of 1980s. We were using small ( around 6 inches tall ) glasses. My best friend was the owner and ( now retired ) in the Restaurant business ( owner of a few high-class restaurants in Montreal, Quebec, Canada ). He helped me to get wines glasses.
Needless to say that nowadays…we have not been using small glasses but bigger and taller wine glasses. So I do not know what to do with all the small wines glasses (despite I gave away many boxes to my new wine-sharing friends ). I still have many of them.
So here is my inventory :
HK Hip : By Lucaris
Wines glass - HK Hip : By Lucaris - one bag of 4 boxes - each with 4 glasses - for a total of 16 - plus replacement pf a total 9 - 5 used + 4 brand new in one box - for a total of 25 - Amazon does not know and if stock will be available. 122 mm; and 251 mm. capacity 0.95 l
Spiegelau- Salute Verre a Bourgogne Copa de Borgona - Bowring - Burgundy Balloon - Very tall glasses - one bag of 4 boxes - each with 4 glasses - for a total of 16 plus replacement : 3 used ( marked thick ) for a sub-total : 19 + 7 brand new in 2 boxes - for a Grand total of 26.
Burgundy Balloon - normal & wide glasses ( including :Tokyo Temptation - by Lucaris : capacity .074 l. $69.99 reduced to $29.99 for a box of 4.) - 1 bag of 16 glasses - each with 4 glasses plus - replacement : 10 used - for a Grand total of 26. Broke one on 2021/09/03.
Burgundy Balloon - normal & slim glasses - 1 bag of 4 boxes - each with 4 glasses for a total of 16 plus replacement : 10 brand new in 3 boxes - for a Grant total of 26.
Bordeaux Long - Very tall glasses - 4 boxes each with 4 glasses for a total 16 plus replacement : 2 used - for a sub-total : 18 + 3 brand new in a box - for a Grand total of 21.
Bordeaux Long - tall glasses - a bag of 2 boxes - with 8 glasses in each - for a total of 16 - replacement - short - 1 box of 8 glasses - for a total of 24.
Small wine glasses : around 30 boxes of 6 glasses in each box.
Six Gabriel Glass, six Riedel Vinum Bordeaux, two Riedel Vinum Burgundy, two Riedel Veritas Riesling. All I need.
It depends on how big you like doing slights at gatherings and how much you can live with the “wrong” glass and then the number of unique glasses you want of this.
I’ll live with flights of 3 for groups of 8 so 24 a stem type.
I can live 5 stem types so I guess ~ 125ish plus non wine stuff/ odd balls.
Need? As many as the largest number of people who might drink wine at your house on any one occasion. If I had to stick to this, then I’d have no issues drinking any wine out of one of the ‘universal’ style glasses - and indeed whilst champagne flutes are meant to preserve the fizz better, for pure enjoyment, we will tend to use a white wine / universal glass instead. The flutes come out as much because of expectation / occasion.
Next step along, might be to have a set of flutes, a set of good all-rounder ‘red’ wine glasses and ditto for ‘white’ (in inverted commas because that doesn’t stop us switching it around if we think it would work better in the other glass)
From there, I’d say having a separate glass set for Burg/Nebbiolo style wines and another set for Syrah/Bdx style wines, plus some of the lesser seen these days ISOs which are a nice size for dessert wines / port / sherry.
There’s much further we could go. In the above paragraph we have varying numbers (and breakages over the years have also varied the numbers. We started with ISOs for tasting and riedels (off the back of being shocked by tasting the difference between wine in an old paris goblets and in a cheap commercial wine glass). More Riedels got added over time, along with some spiegelau grappa glasses that were very cheap in a department store sale (and I love their look). We also later added some of the ‘John Jenkins’ oversized glasses flagged up on wine pages. These are notable in that after a lovely holiday that included walking through the vineyards of Barolo and Barbaresco, we got some of them engraved with the names of vineyards we’d walked through, as a way of reminding us of those lovely walks. We also have some branded glasses (a few of the ISOs are, bought from tasting rooms in Margaret River and Martinborough), including two Barolo glasses from a festival in the region, two Cloudy Bay glasses, as we wanted two for a couple, one of whom adored Cloudy Bay SB, and they came in a box of 4. Finally a Ch. Fuisse glass from a visit to them a decade ago.
What would I do if starting now? Probably 8-10 Zalto universals, some decent but inexpensive flutes (probably similar number). Then I’d focus on any more that really leaned towards my tastes, so probably a set of bigger bowled wines for nebbiolo etc.