For today, I wanted to share something with you, the cost of the hobby, quantified. I often hear on forums, blogs, groups etc., people complaining about the cost of this or the cost of that; often comparing the cost to play one game versus another.
I don't think I've seen anyone actually reference what their true costs were. Well, I've been tracking mine for about 8 or 10 years on an excel sheet (sorry I didn't date the entries).
Since I started playing Warhammer 40k about a decade ago, I've spent approximately $11,200 Canadian (and for arguments sake, this included both when the CAD/USD exchange was positive and negative). That's huge! I started tracking it when I moved on to my 2nd army and then went back and appraised what I'd spent on the first one since I still owned it. I've now gone on to paint 11 armies (I think), including: Necrons, Orks, Imperial Guard x2, Space Wolves, Space Marines x3, Tau, Khorne Daemonkin, and Nurgle CSM.
Now over $11,000 is pretty ridiculous, that's more than $1,000 a year. I know a lot of people have compulsion to buy games/models, but I think $1,000 is above average; and I actually paint the vast majority of the things I've bought. Can I justify this to myself? Sort of; the key is in how much money I've made reselling things. When I get bored of an army (which sadly in many cases is after 1-2 games due to the infrequency I was playing), I would sell them on local swap sites, and in some cases mail them out when people from abroad found the listings. Ultimately, I've sold my tired old armies for about $13,500. Considering though, this ~$2,300 "profit" includes north of 1,000 models, which took about 2 hours per to paint, I made a "solid" 2 bucks an hour. Nothing to retire on. Though I still own the majority of my terrain, game board, Emerald Fist marines and the Khorne Daemonkin armies so this number would go up slightly.
I'm also not counting in the above tally how much has been spent on paint, glue, styrene, putty etc., which in a gross estimate is somewhere between $800 and $1,000.
Anyway I hope you found this interesting to see the costs associated with painting a unit/model every couple weeks for 10 years. I've been lucky that the majority of my painted stuff has been able to be sold for slightly more than retail.
I don't think I've seen anyone actually reference what their true costs were. Well, I've been tracking mine for about 8 or 10 years on an excel sheet (sorry I didn't date the entries).
Since I started playing Warhammer 40k about a decade ago, I've spent approximately $11,200 Canadian (and for arguments sake, this included both when the CAD/USD exchange was positive and negative). That's huge! I started tracking it when I moved on to my 2nd army and then went back and appraised what I'd spent on the first one since I still owned it. I've now gone on to paint 11 armies (I think), including: Necrons, Orks, Imperial Guard x2, Space Wolves, Space Marines x3, Tau, Khorne Daemonkin, and Nurgle CSM.
Now over $11,000 is pretty ridiculous, that's more than $1,000 a year. I know a lot of people have compulsion to buy games/models, but I think $1,000 is above average; and I actually paint the vast majority of the things I've bought. Can I justify this to myself? Sort of; the key is in how much money I've made reselling things. When I get bored of an army (which sadly in many cases is after 1-2 games due to the infrequency I was playing), I would sell them on local swap sites, and in some cases mail them out when people from abroad found the listings. Ultimately, I've sold my tired old armies for about $13,500. Considering though, this ~$2,300 "profit" includes north of 1,000 models, which took about 2 hours per to paint, I made a "solid" 2 bucks an hour. Nothing to retire on. Though I still own the majority of my terrain, game board, Emerald Fist marines and the Khorne Daemonkin armies so this number would go up slightly.
I'm also not counting in the above tally how much has been spent on paint, glue, styrene, putty etc., which in a gross estimate is somewhere between $800 and $1,000.
Anyway I hope you found this interesting to see the costs associated with painting a unit/model every couple weeks for 10 years. I've been lucky that the majority of my painted stuff has been able to be sold for slightly more than retail.
I don't want to think about my other two hobbies...steam games and automobiles. Mini's seem cheap by comparison! :)
ReplyDeleteLike PC games? I only ever buy games on there when they're on massive sales and under 10 bucks with tons of hours of promise to them. Factorio (was slightly more expensive), Kerbal Space Program and Payday 2 for example, I've spent 100s of hours on. I like to over commit to games instead of buying a new one all of the time.
DeleteI definitely don't drive the newest vehicle so my costs are only in maintenance repairs :)
All "disposable income", right? Crazy how much we spend, but if we couldn't, most wouldn't.
ReplyDeleteStill though, I think you win when totals are tallied. :)
You're right, hobby things get cut first. I did sell a tank once to pay a speeding ticket haha.
DeleteI chose 40k since it's the only thing I'd kept track of but there are tons of dollars on board games missing from that list. Kingdom Death obvious is one of them:)
600-1000 dollars is a pretty reasonable estimate for anyone who is an active purchaser. Low end is like one 50 dollar box a month. Generally be buy more stuff than we can actually play with so people can keep it much lower than that. The hobby gets knock on cost not really because of the overall cost but that it is essential premium priced plastic toys.
ReplyDeleteWith all of the kickstarters and other companies out there pumping out various games and game systems, the price always seems to be comparable between game systems, and adjusted based on quality. I've never found any one system drastically overpriced when everything is taken into consideration, compared to another system that is.
DeleteAs a comparison, I've not spent that about the same dollar value (minus gas) on vehicles in the same period of time :)