# Paying $10,000 for a gaming table **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 27, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246 "2011-08-27T00:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/41 "2011-08-28T17:47:35Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I’m not in the market for a $10,000 table. In fact, I’m pretty sure my wife would strangle me with my own intestines if I made such a purchase. But your statement can apply to anything that’s nice. Why spend $1,200 for a nice oak dining set when you can just spend $200 for a 6 foot plastic table and some metal folding chairs? Sure, it might not be made out of something pleasant like oak, but it will still serve its function at a fraction of the cost. Its not that I’m scoffing that its so expensive per se, its that it simply doesn’t seem like a good deal. It looks _overpriced_ for what you get. Like others have said, they could’ve gone many other ways with this- Have a huge LED flatscreen underneath an acrylic cover and programs to make your own ‘digital’ terrain with hexboards on the screen that scale with hex-based miniatures, and I could see 10,000 bucks being reasonable. Or some cool quasai-hologram effects to simulate Line-of-sight being blocked by hills/ruins. Obviously everyone has their own sense of value to things, and I dunno about other people, but ten grand is a lot of money. If he was spending it on a pre-owned car, an entire home theater system, a furniture _set_, a really nice sectional couch, the down payment on a home, or the start of his future kids’ college funds, I could see those as reasonable expendatures because you are going to get a lot of use out of them for the cost. But for the table, he’s only going to get the full value of it if he uses all the doodads pretty regularly. If he hosted stuff at his house a lot…maaaaaybe it would be worth it. But he doesn’t, its just the three of us. Hell, he doesn’t even cook or eat dinner at home, they go out all the time! so even the ‘high quality, nice dinner table’ argument is moot because he’d hardly ever use it for that! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/42 "2011-08-28T19:50:44Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > Its not that I’m scoffing that its so expensive per se, its that it simply doesn’t seem like a good deal. It looks _overpriced_ for what you get. Like others have said, they could’ve gone many other ways with this- Have a huge LED flatscreen underneath an acrylic cover and programs to make your own ‘digital’ terrain with hexboards on the screen that scale with hex-based miniatures, and I could see 10,000 bucks being reasonable. Or some cool quasai-hologram effects to simulate Line-of-sight being blocked by hills/ruins. I’m not a gamer, but are there digital versions of most of these games, or fan-made tools to simulate them? If so, I’d mount a projector on the ceiling, aiming down onto a white table. You can get a 5000 lumen projector for a couple of grand, build a computer to drive it and monitors for every position and have many thousands left over for the table. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/43 "2011-08-28T22:48:12Z")
I know very little about furniture, but it’s possible that $10,000 is a fair price for the materials and skilled labor involved. On the Geek Chic website they say that their tables are made from “solid hardwoods”, “constructed with extensive dovetail joinery”, and “will outlast you”. If all that’s true then this is going to be a better quality table than something you’d get at Wal-Mart and will accordingly have a higher price. The real question is whether the OP’s friend will be getting $10,000 worth of practical use or enjoyment out of this purchase, and it sounds like the answer is no. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/44 "2011-08-29T23:31:36Z")
I’d probably be less :dubious: if he decided to get the most affordable in the series; its less of a money sink and a better indicator of whether or not it was a good decision. I’ve been to many a sci-fi convention, and in my opinion, much of what gets sold in the dealer’s room is very overpriced. Its like one giant impulse-shopping aisle. I usually give myself a (very reasonable) budget of swag to buy, so I can still get some hokey junk but throwing down 10 grand is a little nuts. Case in point my television: I wanted a big flatscreen TV of reasonable quality, without paying an arm and a leg. But I was also paying off debts and my car was getting long in the tooth. As badly as I wanted a nice TV, there were other priorities, and I found that I kept pushing back the time that I would finally get around to buying the new tv. Eventually I got the TV I wanted for Christmas (a very generous gift) and I’m glad I didn’t get it when it cost $3,000. Not because I was expecting someone to buy it for me; that was a total surprise…but because I made other things a priority. Make no mistake, I _wanted_ it very badly, but could hold off. I guess my friend doesn’t have the same kind of impulse control- if he sees something he likes and has money burning a hole in his pocket, he gets it. If he hosted parties, had the space, owned his home, won the lottery, etc I wouldn’t bat an eyelash. But it seems a little over the top! ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/45 "2011-08-30T00:33:05Z")
OK OK, the table is a waste and your friend is a moron. What do you want somebody to say? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/46 "2011-08-30T01:08:14Z")
Man. I can understand plunking down for hobby accessories and nice furniture, and I’ll admit that’s a clever design, but it just doesn’t look $10k nice. Shoulda bought a Microsoft Surface – much cooler gaming table. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/47 "2011-08-30T02:04:50Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > His house is technically his in-laws home. Originally they were going to move and let him rent it. But the “move” has taken 2 years and counting. In my humble opinion anybody living with their parents-in-law doesn’t have an extra $10,000 to spend on a table. I don’t mean that in a judgmental way, I just can’t fathom how someone could have $10,000 and not say “you know, honey, let’s get an apartment and stop living with your parents”. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/48 "2011-08-30T02:43:00Z")
I agree with some other posters that it’s probably not an outrageous amount for a well-crafted table made of quality wood. Well-made furniture is really much more expensive than you’d think. But it’s still a foolish extravagance – you can get awfully good tables for a fraction of the cost and, sure, they’re MDF, but they’re plenty strong enough to hold your milk crate of D&D manuals. Which is why well-crafted furniture is becoming almost extinct at the middle-class level, and even somewhat above. There’s little need to spend the cost for something that will stand the test of time when you can get something that’ll last two decades for a quarter the price. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/49 "2011-08-30T09:32:18Z")
As my mother says when she sees a Ferrari, “it’s nice to know there’s people out there with that kind of money!” That particular table doesn’t look very well-finished to me, though; I have some furniture that’s oak, teak or ebony and it looks much better. It’s not knotty pine tree buttttt… not particularly good-looking either. > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I like [this do it yourself](http://www.ultimategamingtable.org/) job better. I think I’ve seen Velleda whiteboards and “sticker” rolls with the squares, wonder if they make a hex version… probably not. The carpenter who’s doing my kitchen cabinets is a childhood friend, a gamer and a puzzle-maker. He’d be a perfect candidate to build the geek table of my dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/50 "2011-08-30T14:08:45Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > Its not that I’m scoffing that its so expensive per se, its that it simply doesn’t seem like a good deal. It looks _overpriced_ for what you get. Like others have said, they could’ve gone many other ways with this- Have a huge LED flatscreen underneath an acrylic cover and programs to make your own ‘digital’ terrain with hexboards on the screen that scale with hex-based miniatures, and I could see 10,000 bucks being reasonable. This is not very far off. Microsoft already sells its Surface product, mostly for business use. And the iPad is a small version of this. So at some point, I expect to be able to buy a multi-touch tabletop computer for the home, and for a reasonable amount (certainly under $5,000 but eventually much less). Perhaps you could combine game elements that exist only on the screen and real three-dimensional ones. The real ones (say the Monopoly game pieces or the armies from Risk) could have some electronics so that the computer can tell their position and orientation at any time. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/51 "2011-08-30T14:25:16Z")
If this is true, your buddy got a _bargain_: [QUOTE=secret drawer description] Like doors to another dimension, they seem to be bigger on the inside than they should be. [/QUOTE] :eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/52 "2011-08-30T15:19:19Z")
That table seems… small… for some of the table top games I have. (_Deluxe World in Flames_, for example.) Does he only RPG? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/53 "2011-08-30T21:18:23Z")
Subjective value differs from person to person. I personally wouldn’t pay 10 grand for this table, as I wouldn’t get the same value from it as their target customers. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246/54 "2011-09-01T01:38:02Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > That table seems… small… for some of the table top games I have. (_Deluxe World in Flames_, for example.) > > Does he only RPG? There’s multiple sizes available. One is 4x6, which is pretty much standard for most tabletop wargames. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-10-000-for-a-gaming-table/594246.md?page=2)