I average 180ish, and I'm hooked in buying bowling balls, for me it is like collecting stamps, or Air Joadans.  However as my bank balance's getting lower and lower, I think I've finally relaised that buying all these bowling balls will never get my average up to 220.  So let's be honest, if your average is below 185, how many bowling balls do you really need?

My arsenal:
one for heavy oil  (Swamp Monster, I use it no more than ten times a year)
one pearl to go long  (X factor, bit strong yes, but PDW got one..... yes yes  before you start, I know I know, he's PAID to use one.....)
one for reading the lane  (Inferno, first ball out of bag)
one for dry  (Power Groove reactive, though this ball does hook a lot if you have hand)
and a spare ball

I've just ordered a Prime Time (cos Tommy Jones got one!) and a Track RevMaster(always wanted it), am I just being silly?  

If I choose to play the Walter Ray line, a bit down and in, or the Norm Duke line, the 3rd board, I don't really need that many balls, do I?

I watched PBA-on-demand, and on ESPN, and it seems that all Walter Ray used last season, was the Phenom Unleashed, and maybe the Phenom, and the Phenom Unleashed, and the Phenom Unleashed.

Average 185 is nothing to shout about these days, and to think that I averaged 170 with a 12lb house ball just 3 years ago?!?  Am I wasting my money?
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Homer Simpson is a better bowler than me!

What he said!!

just think. if you took some lessons with all that extra cash. throw in some practice and I bet you would be over 200.

I would bet a tweak or 2 to some physical aspect, a good spare shooting system, and proper fitting and drilling, along with lane play schooling it would be no problem to get to a 200 on a THS next year.

Unless of course you have ungodly mechanics, even then dedication and trust in your insrtuctor and you should avg a 200.

It's always the bowler not the ball. a ball can help, shoes can help, wrist braces can help but they don't elevate your game. they just maxmize what your are doing. That can be good or Bad.

if you want to elevate then knowledge is the baest way. that way when the shot is goofy on any given night. you can grind it out and make avg and not have to say If I had such and such ball....

Equipment adjustments are best left for when you get to 220 and an extra strike a game matters.

becuse one thing is for sure. lanes will be oiled different or breakdown in more ways that you can have Blass for the solutions.

at some point, knowing adjustments and being able to go through the progression of them for any given situation is what will really seperate you from the THB.
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"deserves got nothing to do with it."
-- William Munny

If you are buying balls in hopes that it will improve your average--it probably won't.  It hasn't helped me. But if you just like to get new balls--let your wallet be your guide.  I love getting new bolwing balls.  One of these days I'll stop--is there a Bowling Balls Anonymous?  I bowl in multiple houses(four leagues with one being a travel league).  I never know what the lane conditions will be at three of the houses, so I take a particle, an agressive reactive, a non-agressive reactive and a plastic.  The rest sit in my basement(probably about 75).  I might build a fence with them someday.