“ this changing of sock style from year to year even within the same brand, is maddening.”
Yes!
So ideally get 100 pairs, and keep 80 in the package and open over time as needed.
I did this about 2010, but should have gone even bigger, maybe 200 sock pairs. The cotton percentage content and quality control of hanes just kept going down.
And Wigwam kept the quality up but changed the little logo slightly for no good reason.