I took a beginning knitting class with my mom. I really, really wanted to like it. I had visions of knitting beautiful hats and scarves for all my friends. But I loathed every second of it. Everyone else picked it up right away and when I didn’t, I just felt stupid. I am crap at sewing too.
I’m one of the many, many, many guys out there who was the right age for the baseball card boom. And my story is fairly typical. Stage 1: Good fun Stage 2: Upper Deck comes along in 1989 and cards grow more expensive. No longer as fun. Stage 3: In 1991 or so there are suddenly like 20 different series of cards out there, mostly expensive and glossy and where’s the fun? Stage 4: The strike came in 1994 and that was it.
I feel embarrassed that I stuck with it through my teen years instead of dropping it at 14, but I suppose I had few other ways to occupy my time, living out in the country. I put so much time and mental energy into it.
Amateur radio: a few years ago I got an amateur radio license and bought a cheap ($25) radio. I talked to the guys on the local repeater a bit, but realized that I didn’t care a thing about it. I sold the radio mainly as a way to mentally declutter my interests, and haven’t looked back. I’m glad I have the license, and the monetary loss was minimal (<$20).
Drones: After watching a ton of youtube videos, I decided to build my own tricopter. The building aspect was a lot of fun, but once it was built, I lost interest. The flight controller I used took a fair amount of work to set up, and I couldn’t get motivated to do it. This drone had 10 inch props and powerful motors, and I was worried about the damage I could inflict with it. I flew it twice, then gutted it and ebayed most of the parts. This cost me a few hundred bucks, but it was fun.
CNC: Several years back I bought a tiny milling machine and converted it to CNC. It was great fun, but after I got the thing working, I rarely use it. I did buy a larger milling machine and a used lathe, which I really enjoy. I guess this isn’t really a hobby that I disliked; more like one that I got into and then shifted focus.
I thought it would be fun to Geocash, so I bought a GPS and did it a few time. I thought it was something my kid would enjoy (He did not), kind of like a “treasure hunt”, except there really isn’t any hunting and certainly no treasure. What an utter waste of time.
The originality of the “cashers” was unfailingly depressing. A stupid ammo box on the top of every tiny little hill. I live in the middle of damn nowhere, and there are hundreds around, all on the* top of a fucking little hill.* Boring on wheels! It is, however, a good source of free ammo cans. 
Hunting. I was enthusiastic about it for almost 30 years. Then decided I didn’t like getting up at 4:00 am to shiver on a deer stand and that, frankly, I’d rather have a hamburger than venison.
I told my wife if they discover a tasty animal that doesn’t get up 'till 10:00 am, I might start again.
I think you would have enjoyed the 1960’s era. All of our cards game from bubble gum. I think we had two manufacturers but one was the big one.
Guitar.
I have spent over 20 years in the futile pursuit of jazz guitar, and I have all of the instruments to prove it.
The problem is, for me playing jazz guitar is a Sisyphean task: as soon as I get good at one standard, the other one fades, and the one I was learning last month is long gone.
I didn’t fully realize how much I dislike guitar until I started playing bass last year–the light went on when I found I was finally playing an instrument I love (bass) rather than one I wanted to love (guitar).
The guitars are all still there. I have a beautiful Gibson L4 sitting in its case waiting for who knows what. I did give a strat and an amp to a friend’s kid, and I imagine he is doing far better things with it than I ever did.
SCUBA.
Got trained/certified in '01, and in the process enjoyed a nice vacation with my brother and a friend. The rented gear was adequate, but left me inspired to buy some good equipment. I bought an expensive regulator set, high-dollar fins, mask, dive computer, and 3-mm wetsuit. Memory is hazy on the exact figure, but I’m sure I spent well over $1K on that stuff.
Went on one dive trip to the Cayman Islands several months later. It was a nice vacation overall, but I started to realize SCUBA wasn’t for me. I didn’t like breathing ultra-dry air, the regulator mouthpiece made my jaw ache (in spite of the customized mouthpiece and regulator hose swivel joint), and after half an hour under water my lower back hurt like a motherfucker (something about the buoyancy changing the loading on your spine, I think; I understand astronauts have similar problems). On top of it all, SCUBA was this big thing that required a lot of planning and expense in order to go somewhere with interesting diving.
I did one more dive a few years later in a fresh-water quarry, which confirmed all that I disliked about the sport; a few months later I sold all my gear on craigslist.
Former home brewer here. I pursued this hobby for several years and during that time I don’t think I spent more than $200 on equipment, so it wasn’t really the cost that turned me off so much as how it didn’t fare well over time when viewed under the lens of a cost-benefit analysis. Any money saved brewing 5 gallons of your own brew was lost in all the associated labor - mainly all the cleaning and sanitizing of the equipment. And heaven help you if you didn’t perfectly sanitize everything. Can’t tell you how many batches ended up down the drain thanks to this.
While it was nice to have some measure of control over how one’s beer tastes, the finished product never seemed to quite equal what you can buy at the store. In the end I figured it saved time and was ultimately more satisfying simply buying beer made by professional brewers.
I’m with you. I’m 42 now. I tried seriously to get into guitar at 36, having not played any instruments in my youth. I’ve always loved music though, so that seemed like a huge oversight on my part, and one I was going to fix. I figured once I got good enough to play some songs, I’d never put the thing down.
For years, I had myself convinced that I liked it. I “upgraded” my equipment several times, and spent a few thousand on it before I came to terms with the fact that it just wasn’t doing anything for me. I think the main issue for me was that I’ll be playing these riffs that sound completely badass when amplified, but what I’m actually doing physically is weak little “plink plink plink” moves on the strings. Even if I’m strumming as hard as possible I don’t feel badass. I may sound badass, but I don’t feel it. Total disconnect for me.
I picked up a great used set of drums about a year ago, I’m getting pretty good and I’m liking that a lot more. Definitely more of a badass thing all the way around, even if I’m just cross-sticking or whatever. I’m much more into it. Although recently I’ve been trying to learn to play jazz and my suckitude is soul-crushing. It’s hard!
Shooting and golf are probably the two hobbies that I don’t see myself rotating back through anytime soon.
Up through about 2010-2011, I did a lot of pistol/rifle shooting (1997-2003), or a lot of skeet/sporting clays (2003-2011), and was passably good. I basically slowed way down on the pistol/rifle shooting when I moved to Dallas, and mostly had indoor ranges nearby that I didn’t like, or that were too expensive. Switched to shotgun sports, and had a blast until about 2011, when my first son was born, and didn’t have much time left to go blow a morning shooting sporting clays.
Then the ammo price hikes started, and the hobby just got too expensive to really continue- it was one thing back when a 500 round brick of .22LR cost under $10, but another entirely when it costs upwards of $40-50. And centerfire is even more expensive- upwards of a quarter per round for the super-cheap stuff, which was half that when I started.
I used to play golf in college- the campus course was inexpensive to start with, and they had twilight and super-twilight fees in the spring/summer/fall that were really reasonable. Great fun was had by all. Then I graduated, and the price of green fees went WAY up, and the tolerance for not taking it seriously and not playing fast was much less. It quit being fun almost instantly, when everyone was bugging you to play through or wanting you to dress a certain way, or whatever. I gave my (inherited) clubs away and haven’t ever had any urge to get them back or buy other ones since.
For me two things stand out:
GeoCaching: A friend of mine was really into it and when he upgraded his GPS he sold me his old one. I did it for about 8 months and then just lost interest. I still use the GPS I bought from him, though, as a speedometer for my bike.
Web Page Design: For about 5 years or so, I did web page design on the side. At the end it was just getting way to tedious to do, plus some of the clients I had were not all that great to work with, so I stopped.
Most of the failed hobbies I can think of were things I got into as a kid with my father and brothers. Model rockets and RC cars were both very similar in that you got a lot of joy out of the first twenty hours or so and then the enjoyment factor dropped off rapidly. (For all of us, it seemed). Meeting other enthusiasts was also fun for a while, but they always seemed just a little off, and there were not a lot of kids involved in the clubs and events we found.
I did Warhammer 40k for a while, but I could not afford to buy huge armies, keep up with new releases, or even find enough time to paint all of the figures I did have. I wasn’t half bad at the painting and kind of enjoyed it. It wasn’t long before mainstream players said “First generation space marines? Hah! Nobody uses those anymore. You need to buy the mark-whatever kit and start over.” For years after I dropped collecting figures, I would play the game with a few friends, using numbered pieces of paper to represent units. Given enough money, I would probably have stayed in this one, but I’d have to be Bill-Gates-rich before I’d consider it a worthwhile use of the money.
For the first 28 years of our marriage, we were sailors. Over those years we owned 3 trailered sailboats, 3 cruisers, and a Hobie cat. Then right before I retired, we did the math and decided we’d rather do something else with our limited retirement funds. We got lucky and sold the boat right away for almost what we paid for it. And neither of us miss having one. Oh, there are nice days when we might enjoy a day on the water, but mostly we don’t even think about it.
My husband set up a large saltwater aquarium system, complete with the tank upstairs and everything else in the basement. He ran pipes and wires thru the floor. He built a reverse osmosis system to purify our well water. He had it set up so a water change took about 30 minutes total. It was a thing of beauty, and a gigantic power suck. Plus something weird started happening, and the livestock started dying off. We sold it all, patched the holes. and put my piano where the aquarium was. Our monthly electric bills have halved on average. Honestly, I think he got more pleasure out of building the system than he ever did from the fish and corals.
A couple of different times, I’ve wanted to try painting, but I flat-out suck at it, so I quit. Fortunately, I didn’t invest a whole lot - I had bought a starter acrylic painting kit that I couldn’t lay my hands on today if my life depended on it. I may have thrown it away.
I do have a pottery studio and I go thru periods when I don’t touch clay for months. Currently, I have several pieces in process. We’ll see how long I stay interested.
“Crafting.” Making decorations and jewelry out of stuff. Until I realized that I am nowhere near talented or creative enough, can’t be arsed anymore and all this “stuff” is just clutter.
Collecting bottle caps became really boring After I filled the first box.
Golf, quilting, home brewing, painting – even though I have a BFA in painting – I’ve experimented with all of them. I like the idea of golf: a nice walk in a beautiful setting, hitting a little ball, but, my God, how frustrating! I still have my clubs, gathering dust in the corner. I enjoyed home brewing because I enjoyed the chemistry but then the novelty wore off. Quilting is just to fiddly; getting every cut perfect, every seam perfect. Aaargh! I spent far more time ripping seams out than I did sewing anything together.
The only hobby I’ve never tired of – and on which I have spent, literally, tens of thousands of dollars – is my horses. They are worth every cent to me.
As a kid I used to collect beer cans. This was probably the mid 70’s. I told myself I would never pay for a can and never did. I traded for cans or went foraging in fields that had abandoned cars {trunks were very good places to find old cans in excellent condition} I ended up amassing quite a collection. I felt the bottom was gonna drop out of the market {and besides girls had become a more rewarding hobby}, so I sold my entire collection for $75. Six months later nobody was collecting and all the beer-can publications were gone…
I used to collect coins as well. I recently received two, yes two mercury dimes in change from a machine at work! Also, my sister used to be a head cashier at a grocery store and at the end of each day I’d have her sort out any silver dimes or quarters for me. Nowadays, I would not go near a coin shop as the Chinese have flooded the market with all types counterfeit coins that are aged/antiqued and you have to be pretty savvy to spot the fakes. My collection of Morgan dollars, silver coins and various other coins now sit in my safety deposit box and get perused every few years…
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I bought a $100 metal detector ten years ago, still haven’t opened the box.
The rototiller I bought 7 years ago has 0.1 hour on the engine.
About $250 in a Commander Deck for Magic the Gathering, maybe played three games with it.
I’d say just about everything else are hobbies I do return to every few years, I don’t think those count.
Origami.
I wanted to fold stuff. I find handling paper, even just writing on it, relaxing. But I can’t fold worth a darn.
Instead I took up gregg shorthand. Paper’s still involved and I get to use a pen. Someday they’ll find practice notebooks I never got around to throwing away filled with mysterious symbols.