Bit -
You make good points but...I already own Ivory II, Superior Drummer/EZ with about 14 kits, 3 Scarbee basses, Vintage Organs etc. So I'm in good shape for my particular needs in that regard.
Having said that, I typically record mostly audio with samples being used when a client is on a budget. I can provide drums, bass etc. and bill the client a little less than they would pay a player. And especially in the case of drums/bass, I usually can build more interesting/appropriate tracks than a mid-priced player would produce. However, if live drums are called for I will certainly beef up a typically bad sounding kit with samples.
So, the particular samples I was wanting to purchase is Celtic Instruments from Big Fish Audio. I bought these samples about 7-8 years ago when I had an early version of Gigastudio. And they sound great. However, I've since lost the disk, there's no record of my purchase (yes I bought them) with Big Fish. And they weren't really very customer friendly when I contacted them about this.
A current client is doing some stuff that some of these instruments would fit in really nicely. Celtic was on sale this weekend and although I vowed to never buy it again, at the sale price I decided I had made Big Fish suffer long enough. :)
I don't record myself although I've been playing for about 47 years. I just don't find any "fun" in that anymore. So, while I like to play around with electronic sounds, the synths included with SONAR do more than I need.
Whatever I purchase a specialty product, I try to build that purchase into billing. Buying Kontact just for Celtic would be a bit much in this case. Make sense?
Sorry for the long response.
Earl