I was following the āuse it till you lose itā approach, but I recently realized that new picks - at least the orange Tortex that I use - are more grippy than older ones that I seem to have rubbed smooth.
Is this a thing, or am I just experiencing some new kind of GAS or rabbit hole syndrome? 
Edit: I meant how often do you replace a pick with an identical new one.
I donāt see the grippy feel on the old ones (even the unused ones), but I do see it on the new ones. Design change? Hmmā¦
Howeverā¦ I donāt think I have ever retired a pick from wear. I tend to take mine out to the garage and sand/grind them into shape again. Even after working on the riff from Barracuda, I can still put the point back on a pick pretty quickly.
I also have been progressing to harder picks. This helps. The hardest pick I have is the Dunlop Flow Gloss. Very stiff, very slippery, and doesnāt wear down. This doesnāt strum all that comfortably, but does single and double string picking well.
I may use 4 picks a year and thatās from losing them
I frequently change my picks but only because each pick gives me a different sound.
I use the black Jazz IIIs , like them very pointed, and have 2 on the go each week. I change them out after a week, put the āoldā ones in a bag, and sharpen them all up at once after I have about 10 of them.
Every once in a while, Iāll buy another 10 or so.
I still have a few from the 80s lol
I have 3 0.60mm nylon picks that Iāve been using since I started playing a couple of years ago. I see no reason to replace them
I didnāt pay too much attention on pick wear until I recently got aware, that obviously, Iām literally playing the tips off my Jazz III. Iām currently practicing a few harder riffs and power chord songs and realized that the tip of my main pick got less pointed, even flat 
.
I like the Jazz III and always only bought one or two at a time due to loss, but now I guess I should buy bigger packs 
!
Right. Same hereā¦ I currently use four, from 0.71 through 1.4; also made of different materials and with different textures. For soloing I always pick the strings with the side edge of a pick, not the pointed end.
My lost picks are normally inside my acoustic. I recently devised a method to get them out. Shake the guitar until the pick is visible through the sound hole. Then stick a small piece of blu-tac onto the end of a pencil and insert the pencil between the strings and onto the pick. Lift outā¦job done. 
ā¦ whenever I lose one ā¦ which is with embarrassing frequency these days, 
ā¦ but they often turn up where I didnāt leave them.
Mainly use dāAddario Black Ice: 0.8 and 1.2.
I realise Iām setting myself up for a fail here, but Iāve still never dropped a pick inside my guitar! In fact I donāt recall when I last dropped a pick at all 
Youāre gripping too hard 
ā¦ I lost a pencil doing that ā¦ 
Youād think so, but my grip is relaxed. I tend to think that dropping picks is actually more likely with a death grip on them as unintuitive as that seems
This photo has been posted before but even John Lennon had the problem.
I usually fish all the picks out of my acoustic when Iām changing the strings 
Iāve tried several picks from several manufacturers, but since i found ātheā pick for me, i donāt change them ever.
Losing one is a different thing ofcourse, but that doesnāt happen all that oftenā¦
ā¦ the story I heard was that someone with the initials L.S.D told him there was an effigy of Saraswati playing her tanpura in the woodgrain on the inside-back of his guitar.
However, I much prefer your suggestion ā¦ far more believable ā¦ 
That could well be it. I see a difference between my old unused and new unused orange tortex picks.
