Yes I am buying fonts. But in a smart way. A lot of the essential software includes a bunch of quality fonts. Many Adobe fonts were included in PageMaker, CS suite and the like. An extensive set of mainly URW typefaces was part of the Macromedia collections. And I started off with Corel Mega Gallery, with an impressive set of 500 Bitstream typefaces (many fine families included), for a mere $ 100.-. Those who posted in this thread that they could not afford to buy typefaces could certainly spend an amount like this!
Buying (typo-) graphic magazines had expanded my font collection as well. And occasionally, I use free type from relevant websites (think Ray Larabie).
The one typeface I bought for the normal price was Gill Sans Bold Extra Condensed, because I liked it so much and used it for several jobs. And I bought a Serials typecollection that I ever used since with pride. A great many of well-known types, redesigned in a variety of up to seven weights.

[vbm] - Nov 28, 2009 04:38am

I buy fonts. Then I share them to people like Craig Silva & HyperCreative on Piratebay. lol. I also don’t buy fonts and download them. I’m not a starving student, and I don’t have a clientele to pawn the price off on. I’m just a bastard. A Font Pirate-ing bastard. And I know there’s professional Fontographers within Typedia’s walls who will cry about it. How they spent a whole 3 days stealing- I mean scanning 100yr old, public domain books and artwork, and pasting them into Fontlab. Then spending months trying to figure out how to use Fontlab’s kerning window. All to take credit and make a huge profit from someone else s original work. P22 comes to mind. And I know a lot of you guys do it.

So put me down for a yes & no.  :D

I have registered on this site only only to lough at this post publicly…HAHAHAHA
Also, it IS the truth and this also includes those ‘experts’ or ‘holier than pope’ font makers who cry when someone takes their $30 font without paying for it.

General issue with mockups and clients is that…hell for me to photoshop a mockup using watermarked font takes longer than torrenting the font - only to have the client reject it in 2 seconds time. And no, clients do not have an imagination to imagine their website content and logos of some alphabet of letters.
If you get lucky and get a client that can make up their mind, then ..well yeah spending $30-$50 is not a big deal at all.

Besides, torrent is very efficient protocol why let it die?
:P