I think it depends what kinda Star Trek fan you are. Some people may watch all (or most of) the shows/movies, enjoy them, probably seen a fair few more than once. And are a fan of them. But that's basically it.
Then there's people like me who do the above, but also collected all 300+ issues of the Star Trek Fact Files back in the day for example. And think of all those years spent pouring over those ship layout and pictures. People who buy the encyclopaedias, novels, tie in guide books, video games, comics, etc. Look at websites like Memory Alpha and Ex Astris Scientia and can't get enough of ship charts, size comparisons, articles about the making of the Wolf 359 aftermath scene, the DS9 Frankenstein fleet, looking at pictures of how the models were put together.
I haven't even read any of the Titan or Aventine books, but still know what those ships are and look like and wanted the models of them.
So I see fans like the former commenting sometimes on the Facebook group- "oh what the hell is this ship, apparently it was in one episode for 4 seconds, I don't care about this. Oh what's the other ugly mess, it's Ship X with bits from Ship Y, I don't even know what episode/series this was in."
Then there's people like me who are like "The USS Curry, awesome! The Centaur is the coolest thing ever!" And think it's so cool to actually hold a ship like the Kyushu or the Cheyenne Class in your hand and look at it from angles you've never seen before. A ship you've only ever seen in partially blurry photos and you certainly never thought you would own yourself.
I remember the Fact Files did a file on the Freedom Class in probably 1998, but it was only profile views (side, front, back, top, bottom) no 3D perspective. I'd never even heard of the ship before that, so I remember at 13 years old being fascinated by it. Now to think 20 years later at 33 years of age I actually have a model of it on my desk.. is almost surreal.
So yeah, for me I'm a fan of them. I mean I still pick and choose which ships I buy, as I have from the beginning. Working it out of the 122 models so far in the regular line I have 75 of them. I can't really even describe my rule, basically it's if I like the look of it I'll get it. VOY: Scorpion is one of my favourite Trek episodes, and I love Species 8472, but the model of their bioship just never really grabbed me so I gave that one a miss. Other like the Klingon Raptor I can barely even remember the episode ENT: Sleeping Dogs, but I simply like the design of it. And so that's the way I still do it when each issue comes out.
I am finding now I do buy the "alien issues" less and less, but when they're often things like cargo ships and freighters now (I mean was
anyone really wanting that ENT Ferengi ship?) or something dull like the Sulliban Cell Ship, I'm not that surprised Eaglemoss admit the Federation ships sell better. But hey it saves me space and money to skip an issue or two so no biggie
