Does seem pretty unfair to anyone who has spent 100+ bil (2 tril in in some cases) on a limited issue ship if CCP is just going to change their minds and release more on a whim.

They should absolutely do the gold magnate thing and then give out state ravens for christmas

Just to make nerds mad about pixels on the internet.

Not really in-context for long time owners.

The last sale price of a Silver magnate I've found was ~600 B

An approximate 350% increase in what I paid for mine.

What can I afford to lose?

The limited vs special distinction is something introduced a very long time after the release of those ships, and at the time they were handed out with the implication that if they were gone, they would be gone forever.

There's probably some CCP posts floating around in the old forums archive saying something to that extent.

As a ship collector after this move, the ishukone scorp becoming just a skin where the rattlesnake victory stays as a ship (yes it matters) and the release of ishukone scorps to blink. I have now reached my limit and will not be collecting 'special' ships anymore. I have lost enough isk thanks. Another part of eve has been ruined for me.

How many silver magnates have they released? 6 factions, 4 teams each of 4? 96 Silver Magnates? I know of 6 Silver Magnates ingame currently. We are not talking about 1-100b loss for investors but about hundreds of billions! Its a lame move to pull. You could have probably got a silver Magnate for 800b before the announcement. Now as there will be 102 ingame, you can probably pick one up for 20b or less. (especially as collectors will have no faith in it holding its value, the next emperor/empress could die the next day)

For some the problem is the isk, for the rest the issue is the history. There is no need to soil the history of these ships, the biggest strength of eve is that when its gone, its gone. If something is released on the pretense that that they are a unique collection, they they should stay that way. Players can remember them being destroyed (or returned to the state), they can aspire to own a piece of that history, some would even go balls to the wall and pvp with these ships. It doesn't matter so long as the history of the ships is written and preserved.

The cost of man hours to skin a different Amarrian frigate vs the loss of eve history and the disregard of the core principle of once its gone its gone .......

That isn't an argument we should be having, preserve the history of eve ships!