Paying $10,000 for a gaming table

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Last year a friend of mine went to PAX Prime and returned, excitedly talking about the gaming table he had bought. Him and I had been discussing the idea of having a table we could play tabletop games on, with drawers, modular sections, and various fun doodads. However, I was thinking in terms of a pie-in-the-sky DIY project, not something I’d actually pay money for.

Here’s how the dialogue went:

Friend: So at PAX I ordered a gaming table!

Me: Awesome! When will it arrive?

Friend: I don’t know. They’re swamped with orders, so I’ve been put in a queue. But when I get it its gonna be awesome! :smiley:

Me: :dubious: You dont even know when it will arrive? How much did it cost?

Friend: Only $10,000!

Me: :eek: Ten grand…for a TABLE?!

Friend: Yeah, well, its an investment. See, I can use it as a regular table too, and its a beautiful table. Plus, I got a 5k bonus last year/this year, so its extra money I had sitting around anyway.

There’s more, but its more of us going back and forth debating the value of spending ten thousand dollars on a gaming table that has yet to materialize in his living room (the last time I asked recently he said they just started assembling it ). Now, he can spend money on whatever he wants, he’s an adult, I understand that. But still, ten grand seems rediculous to me, even for a nice dining room table! Another friend put it best when he said, “For a mere $1,000, I’ll MAKE you a gaming table myself over a weekend” :stuck_out_tongue:

If you’re curious on a what a 10,000 dollar gaming table looks like, you can see it here

2

For all my problems and issues, at least I can say two things. One, I am not pregnant, and Two, I am not the type of clown who would buy something like that.

3

Wow it must be nice to have the kind of money it takes to fritter away on something like that.

Bri2k

4

They were the next booth over from me at PAX Boston. I will say they do make good quality stuff.

I worked at a cabinet shop for a year making high end furniture. $10,000 for a well made cherry table isn’t unreasonable. Geek Chic does charge a premium kinda because they kinda have to to make money at shows that they pay 2K+to be at and might only sell 2 pieces, but they are not unreasonable. If your friend was more frugal he probably could have saved 2k having a similar table made at a local shop, assuming they don’t hit him with a unique design fee that could easily capture that 2k.

If your other friend thinks he could make similar for 1K he should go into business for himself and make a fortune. I doubt he could even purchase the lumber involved for that. A shop like Geek Chic will have well over a 100k in equipment they don’t just pull prices out of their ass there are real expenses that need to be covered.

Me, I’d rent time at a shop to make my own long before I’d dish out 10 grand for a table. More because I like the sense of accomplishment in crafting things rather then trying to save money.

5

My best guess (since I had neither the time/money to attend PAX last year…or THIS year for that matter) is that he got sucked into some slick sales pitch for a product he was already desperate to have. I mean for ten grand the damn thing should have a holographic display that can digitally scan all your little model spacemen, render them in hologram, hire lawyers to pay for all the copyright violation lawsuits, etc. But he paid $10,000 for something that…

-Required a $3500 deposit just to wait in line to get it built
-Took nearly a year to actually get
-Doesn’t seem all that particularly fancy in ‘normal table’ mode
-Has a probably hefty shipping cost since they ship it themselves and install it

There must’ve been a lot of nerds at PAX with money to blow because apparently the orders far outstripped the companies ability to make them.

6

They have more reasonable models: http://www.geekchichq.com/furniture/emissary/

Ok – not cheap, but for semi-custom furniture, fathomable

Brian

7

Oh you’re definitely right. That’s not worth anywhere near $10k. Shit, I don’t even have a workshop but for $10k I could not only build that but buy the tools I’d need to do it. Then at the end of it, I’d have a fucking workshop as well as a gaming table.

8

I’d love a great gaming table. But if I was planning on spending ten thousand dollars on gaming, I’d spend about a thousand on a great table and spend the other nine thousand on games.

9

OK, I’ll bite. What’s PAX?

10

It doesn’t look like that great a design to me. Apparently it has two “player stations” on each side and two on each end for the total of eight. But the ones on the ends are tight next to each other, so you’d be bumping elbows if you actually had people occupying all the spaces. Meanwhile the ones on the sides have a good space between them which is evidently the “center storage dice rolling bays.” I’m not sure why they need a special bay for rolling dice, what with the rail around the whole table and the player stations and all–but if they do, the guys on the ends can’t use them.

11

Like I said get at it. When you’re rolling in cash making those tables with your 10k workshop let me know cause I’d certainly be interested.

12

Basically one of the largest computer gaming conventions. As a side board games and RPG’s are pretty popular.

Pretty much any major gaming company that wants to preview their wares has a booth to show it off. Want to be see the new xbox super thing-a-ma-jig or be among the first to play the new super super mario cart, it’s the event to do that.

Tends to draw 30,000 - 50,000 people depending on location. Tickets about 60 bucks for a weekend pass.

13

You know, I honestly just might. I’ve wanted to get back into carpentry/woodworking for a long time but haven’t had easy access to a shop, being an urban apartment-dweller and all (I took woodworking all through middle and high school and worked on lots of projects in my dad’s shop for friends & family - absolutely love it). I’m moving to a new place soon so it’s a perfect opportunity to rent time at a shop (it never even occurred to me that you could do that, but someone mentioned in this thread) and build a bunch of new furniture for myself. Once I’m back into the groove of it I’d start looking into commercial prospects.

And yeah, of course $10k isn’t going to buy fully outfitted state-of-the-art shop tools, but it would be enough to get started. Though I’d rather go the rented time route in the beginning if that’s feasible.

14

I thought it would be packed with tabletop wargaming scenary, but all it appears to be is just a regular table with a few modifications

:dubious:

15

Well-made furniture is expensive, custom-made even more so. It seems more expensive than it’s worth, but after looking at the website and seeing all the doodads and thingymajiggers they put in the table, it is not too surprising.

Still, unless the OP’s friend has an amazing group of gamers who truly need all that fancy secretive stuff, then it’s probably a waste. Still, the Vizier can double as a nice dining-room table, so I might think about it if I was buying a new house or something.

16

At ten grand that table better dispense blowjobs.

17

It’s also really ugly. I’d be embarrassed to have that as a regular table even if it was cheaper.

18

Folk wisdom for the day: When someone justifies a purchase as an "investment:, it is usually the exact opposite of that.

Justifying an expensive gambling table as an investment is almost poetic in its stupidity and please tell him I said so. That is, unless he plans to run an illegal casino that caters to even more stupid people in which case he might have a point.

19

The tables (IMO) are pretty fugly in stealth dining table furniture mode, but people will spend money on their passions.

I would be curious to know is there is there any wife, anywhere, that would agree to let ‘The Sultan’ be her dining room table?

20

Given the table’s functionality, doodads and rather thin list of competitors, $10,000 is not wholly out of line, as long as it’s of high quality.

If you actually do a lot of gaming, it’d be worth it, I guess. But gosh, you’d have to do a lot of gaming that actually would require a table like that.