Back when I started collecting - I'd go to look at a machine, and my husband would start making snide comments about "she's just going to take it home and store it" to the seller, or anyone else if the subject came up. He thought he was being funny - and I was getting rather upset with him.
So we had a talk - and I told him that he was really undermining me with sellers - and that even though I probably would not sew on the machine, they still held an important place with my collection - since it has a reason and I was selecting specific machines. And I pulled out my "ace" card - if he was going to insist I owned no machines I wasn't using, then he should also insist I owned no firearms I wasn't using. And since I have a really nice collection of Marlin lever guns that I never "use" - that put a stop to that real quick.