# How expensive is your hobby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139 "2025-12-29T12:55:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/141 "2025-12-30T19:42:40Z")
I have no external antennas, the 20m dipole is in the attic. I also have 2m and 70cm j poles in the attic. I have considered adding 6m antenna of some sort as that band fascinates me. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/142 "2025-12-30T19:56:26Z")
It was the [eighth wonder of the world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDM-EbDCiQg)! [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VDM-EbDCiQg/hqdefault.jpg "Linotype: The Film - In Search of the Eighth Wonder of the World (2020) | Full Movie | Doc Movie") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDM-EbDCiQg) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/143 "2025-12-30T20:04:35Z")
> [@robby](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > For those who may not know, there are large Lego sets that are basically for adults or older kids and may contain well over a thousand specialized pieces. > > The set my son built last year was a [Lego model of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris](https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/notre-dame-de-paris-21061). It had **4,383 pieces**. An aftermarket light set was sold separately. The biggest set I have, **Rivendell** , has over 6000 pieces. A friend of mine has the **Titanic** , which is 9000 pieces. They need a lot of space for display, otherwise I would look into getting as many of them as possible. They really are very satisfying sets to build. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/144 "2025-12-30T20:14:38Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > The biggest set I have, **Rivendell** , has over 6000 pieces. Nice! ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/145 "2025-12-30T20:21:18Z")
I’m getting Lego envy. I’d love a massive set (Saturn V), but I don’t think I could justify the price. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/146 "2025-12-30T20:28:18Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > > [@scabpicker](#): > > > > $2K Rickenbacker bass, > > How do you like it? I read so many conflicting reviews. I love mine, but I can see why it’d be a bit of a polarizing instrument. The back of the neck is a bit flat, and the fretboard radius is flatter than a precision. I associate that style of neck with the Univox guitars from the 60s that I own, so some people may think it feels cheap. The scale is odd at 33.25". The old ones also had an odd bridge that was difficult to intonate and set the action on. The modern ones like mine have a set of Fender-ish bridge saddles, which are simple to adjust. In general, it’s an odd enough bass that I would suggest playing one before buying one. I borrowed one and played it before I bought mine and have no regrets whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/147 "2025-12-30T20:43:49Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > This is what got me off the Warhammer treadmill. I felt like GW was taking ever opportunity to nickle & dime me with the frequent rules changes. I’ve got plenty of money to spend on GW products, but I felt like I had to make it a full time job just to keep up and I don’t have that kind of time. Good points. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Not as much as I’d like. It overheats if I drive it too far in the summer. Next spring or summer’s project will be to get it running better and stop it from overheating (hopefully). I have a friend who is a “shade-tree” British car mechanic, or at least was. he claimed the idea behind the MG was to drive it to the train station M-F, then have a blast driving it around on Saturdays, then spend Sundays working on it. He has a sing “the parts falling off this car are of the finest british manufacture.”. But I admit they are a blast to drive. > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I have that nerdiest of hobbies, coin collecting. My Dad and i did this back in the middle 1950s when you could still commonly find rare coins in your pocket change. But they everyone just on the bandwagon. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/148 "2025-12-30T21:18:36Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I would suggest playing one before buying one. I would say that goes for any $2K instrument. Thanks for the review. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/149 "2025-12-31T00:52:52Z")
Heheh, I generally would too. But I’m also the same person who paid $3k for that Gretsch without playing it. I could have made the 3 hour or so trip from Dallas to Houston to play it beforehand. But I also generally know how a modern Gretsch played, and expected the reputable shop who was selling it to fix anything that was wrong on a $3K gutiar. The shop is Fuller’s, as far as I can tell they do special orders of the Jupiter Thunderbird in custom finishes and hardware, 16 in each run. They seem to have gone up in price. [https://reverb.com/shop/fullers-guitar?make=gretsch&condition=new](https://reverb.com/shop/fullers-guitar?make=gretsch&condition=new) ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/150 "2025-12-31T04:38:25Z")
I’ve always kind of thought of living by myself as an expensive hobby. Boy, if I would have shown more willingness to put up with roommates over the years, I would be … well, maybe not rolling in the bucks, but I’d have a bank account that’d be considerably less laughable. Alas, being in charge of my living space is pretty damned addictive, I have to say, so I’m almost certainly going to be indulging for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/151 "2025-12-31T05:26:08Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Those old model airplane or whatever strike me at needing more skill because of the painting If skill is how you get satisfaction from your hobby, then Lego is not the way. But if instead it’s the fun of it, and the display value, and of course the playability too, then Lego is a reliable option. I do make my own MOCs with Lego too, so I get my creativity fix that way. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/152 "2025-12-31T09:19:24Z")
I have a problem with those Lego super sets. When I was a little boy I played a lot with Lego. The pieces were mostly square (I guess **[rectangular cuboid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectangular_cuboid)** is the precise term, for nitpickers) and some had an angled surface, for making roofs, for instance. There were no round pieces, no gears, no rods, or pieces that already looked like what you wanted to make: you had to make it with the pieces you had, and the limit was the resolution that those relatively big pieces set. You can still do amazing things with that elementary building blocks, even if for detail you may have to go big: [![](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2JMCX0F/giraffe-made-of-lego-bricks-in-front-of-the-entrance-to-legoland-at-the-sony-center-potsdamer-platz-berlin-germany-2JMCX0F.jpg) ](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2JMCX0F/giraffe-made-of-lego-bricks-in-front-of-the-entrance-to-legoland-at-the-sony-center-potsdamer-platz-berlin-germany-2JMCX0F.jpg) And so it comes that those expensive sets with lots of special pieces for complex little details feel like cheating to me. I don’t see it as Lego, but rather as a dumbed down **[Fischer Technik](https://www.fischertechnik.de/en)**. My problem, I know. And a very convenient one if you want to save money and time. But I had to say it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/153 "2025-12-31T10:10:18Z")
My only real hobbies would be reading and video games. The former isn’t very expensive, as I like to re-read books and there’s lots of free fiction online anyway. Video games cost more, but not that much since I don’t play the sort that require subscriptions or encourage you to spend real money in-game. It’s not an _ongoing_ cost, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![sb1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/154 "2025-12-31T13:43:56Z")
I switched from Corvairs to a ‘66 Mustang. I retired recently so this is the last old car. Corvairs are the cheapest model of collector car BTW. They also are fun and well supported by vendors. You must accept the occasional valve-seat drop however ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/155 "2025-12-31T16:37:44Z")
I craft and shoot bows and arrows made out of natural materials. This can be a really inexpensive hobby, especially after initial purchase of a few must-have tools and materials. Hand tools are very durable: most of my go-to-tools are app. 20 - 30 years old, and still going strong, with occasional sharpening / blade replacement. Even cabinet scrapers last and last and last. As far as materials go, I have a supply of bowstaves and arrow shafts to sustain me for a decade or two, and I have spent little money on them to begin with. Mostly I use self-harvested “trash” wood that comes from small trees and bushes that have zero commercial value (if not in fact invasive species that _need_ to be culled), but yield beautiful, high-strength, high-elasticity wood. You could spend a lot more, fitting a modern powered-up woodworking shop to do your gear, ordering select high-dollar bowstaves from overseas etc., but that would miss the point IMO, and it’s definitely not needed. I routinely take game animals from grouse to deer with my shed-made archery equipment. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/156 "2026-01-03T00:41:36Z")
I believe @HoneyBadgerDC is in an adjacent bow-making hobby. Several folks have mentioned having the tools & accessories collecting gene. My ex-wife always said “Collecting the tools & supplies is a separate equally valid hobby from the hobby of using them to do the hobby.” She was a far more avid collector of stuff than user of the stuff. She was skilled when she did, but mostly she didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/157 "2026-01-03T01:03:42Z")
Beekeeping in my first year, it seems like I’m dropping $2-300 every time I turn around. Founding nucleus was about $300, starter hive about the same, then buying a few honey supers, next it’s time for mite treatments but my problem is resistant to 2 of the popular ones, now I’m building syrup and pollen feeders to take advantage of our (mostly) mild winter to build up population in time for spring. We were too small last year to get much out of the spring nectar flow. It would be nice to sell some honey and recoup costs, but I wouldn’t break even if I sold it at $20 a pint. That’s even before thinking about doing our first hive split in March, so that’ll be $300 for a new hive, and then hopefully no other significant purchases for a while, so maybe the costs will amortize out after the 3rd-4th year. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/158 "2026-01-03T01:26:42Z")
My two main hobbies are skiing and pottery. Skiing gear is expensive, but I only get new skis boots every 6-8 years now. It use to be more frequent, and I have a small quiver of skis (4-5 pairs) for various types of skiing. At this point only my alpine gear is on a replacement cycle, at a cost of about $1000 a pop. Lift tickets are actually the cheapest part of my costs since I now get a free Indy pass for having a vanity plate (cost $70/year). Hotels are the biggest expense, probably a few thousand a year for the two of us. Pottery costs about $900/semester and I do two of them each year. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/159 "2026-01-03T02:11:17Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Only if they also consider **you** a hobby. Back in the days when I was single and also young enough to not be an embarrassment to be seen in the scene, women and men definitely considered each other as hobbies. The quote is attributed to different people, I spent so much on wine and women and the rest I wasted. Last year, I bought an old home and am remodeling it. It’s fun to work with my hand and accomplish something. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139/160 "2026-01-03T10:08:31Z")
Yeah, I online-know him well from other parts of the internet, for over 20 years now. Was quite surprised to see him here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-expensive-is-your-hobby/1026139.md?page=9)