Seemingly straightforward hobbies that, in reality, are complex/expensive/involving

[Projammer]

@Alastair_Moonsong

Model railroading and any collectible trading-card game (I’m looking at you, Magic: The Gathering!) fit this category.

Card games was the second thing that came to mind. Sure, you can buy packs of cards for a couple of bucks, but that one card you need to complete your deck can only be found on collector sites or ebay for $150. Oh, you’ll need 4 of em. And different ‘key’ cards for each of the 10 decks you’ll want to try out. Sell them when they don’t work out? Burn the heretic! I might come up with a different configuration they’ll work in.

It was second only because I have it by word of mouth, never been far down that road. The first I thought of was miniature tabletop gaming. First there’s the miniatures and sourcebooks. Then you have hours painting them. Then you really need to build a terrain table to play on (think model railroad for different geeks). And display cases for when you’re not playing them. wimper.

@Little_Nemo

Money’s one thing. But I started reading as a hobby. Now it’s decades later and my brain’s all full of words.

Get thee behind me!! Local bookstores have called me when they need to make payroll.

[Mama_Tiger]

There’s knitting, and then there’s sock knitting. For some reason it raises the entire knitting addiction (and expense) to a whole new level. Yeah, yeah, you only need one skein of yarn for a pair of socks. But there are so many gorgeous sock yarns out there, and of course most of them are one-of-a-kinds so they have to be purchased or there will never be another chance.

I think I now have as much sock yarn as all my other yarn put together, and that’s saying something.

And I haven’t even made a trip to Rhinebeck or Maryland Sheep & Wool yet. Although I’m going to MS&W this year – prepared, with only as much cash as I’m willing to spend, no credit cards, no ATM card, just good ol’ cash. I’ve not heard of anyone escaping there yet without spending a whole lot more than they wanted to once they actually started feeling the yarn.

That’s the ultimate seduction of knitting for me, the feeling of wonderful yarns. In fact, I finally purchased a teensy hank of qiviut (just a few yards) just to keep and pet. It does save me buying a lot of other yarn by remembering that no yarn ever, anywhere, can possibly be as soft as that qiviut!

[FordTaurusSHO94]

Speaking of bikes, about $500 worth of parts should arrive tomorrow. I also just ordered a set of wheels that that cost me $250 shipped to my door. I’ll still need tires, tubes, disc brake calipers, brake levers, cables, shifters, derailleurs, chain, cassette, crankset, pedals, and probably shoes…

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@JR_Brown

Reading. Particularly if you want things that aren’t likely to be in the local library. I’ve spent ~$300 on books in the last three weeks and could easily double that (yes, I read them all). Plus the cost of bookshelves to keep them on, a larger apartment to put the bookshelves in, etc.

I tend to re-read my books, but yeah, I spend a bundle on reading. And I could very easily spend more.

[dynamitedave]

Gah, keeping an almost classic vehicle going. I’ve got a Yamaha from the early 80’s. There’s always something that needs work. I haven’t even ridden it since November as the brakes need work.

Got to get most parts in from either the US or Europe. We’re 2:1 to the US$ currently so US$50 is NZ$100. Then there’s shipping. It’s bad enough in US$, then you realise it’s double. Buying stuff in Euros is worse, though keep away from gear priced in £!

I’ve got a “hobby” tractor. Had to buy 4 new tyres in September. NZ$5500 fitted. Not as bad as one of the other tractors though, just 2 new rears was NZ$9000. Though that doesn’t count here as that particular machine isn’t someone’s hobby. Show what I could of spent though :eek:

[si_blakely]

@WordMan

Oh yeah - weight reduction brings out The Ridiculous in many hobbies. Witness thisfrom guitar land: a high-end maker of Stratocaster-style guitars will let you buy a titanium tremolo block for $360 (a tremolo block is a hunk o’ metal that Strats have as part of their whammy bar assembly - normally made of base metal and you can pick one up used for, oh, nuthin’)…GAS indeed…

Yeah, but you can make faster dives, and the tone is subtly better. :dubious:

I like my brothers advice on sailing:

Take a months salary in small notes. Stand naked in a cold shower, and slowly tear all the notes into little pieces. Repeat every weekend.
This is what sailing is like.

My wife got into cardmaking and scrapbooking. You know, paper, scissors and a bit of glue. How bad can it be.

Paper - normal/acid free, textured/rolled/smooth, lightweight/heavyweight, piles just-in-case.
Scissors/Stencils/Punches/Cutters/Computer controlled cutting system
Binding equipment
Mats
Books/kits/demos/selection packs/brads…

Si

[badbadrubberpiggy]

@Mama_Tiger

There’s knitting, and then there’s sock knitting. For some reason it raises the entire knitting addiction (and expense) to a whole new level. Yeah, yeah, you only need one skein of yarn for a pair of socks. But there are so many gorgeous sock yarns out there, and of course most of them are one-of-a-kinds so they have to be purchased or there will never be another chance.

I don’t even like to knit socks (I’m a sweater gal) and I still have to pry myself away from the sock yarns.

And I still find myself buying it sometimes. Just in case I feel like making socks in the future

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@Sage_Rat

I’m still working on making a semi-decent baguette. So far, while edible, none of them have quite come up to the quality of “bread” let alone a proper baguette.

It might just be a matter of my condo being too cold, but I’m not sure how one gets around that.

Have you checked out the process (outlined in great detail) that Julia Child & Simone Beck use in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 2? My understanding, backed up by James Beard, is that it is the best recipe available for use by a home cook. The results are supposedly perfect.

[shiftless]

Beekeeping. You get a box and put some bees in it, right? Then, sometimes you go out and get some honey for your biscuit? Turns out it’s like having any other hungry, stinging pet. They need a lot of equipment and a lot of attention.

I have to go with the Bike as the worst though. I looked for the little plastic plugs that go in the end of the handlebars (required for triathlons). The first store only had them in carbon fiber - 10 bucks! Normal bike stores will just hand you a pair of plastic ones for nothing. Just the existence of $10 carbon fiber handlebar plugs makes me wonder about the sport.

[CutterJohn]

You want what?
*
A new monitor!*

Whats wrong with the 22 inch monitors? They work fine.

Yeah, sure but we could be playing Crysis on a 28 inch monitor at 1920 x 1200!

Well, ok, thats a reason for one… Why the second?

Because it will look silly just having one… they have to match or it will drive us nuts.

Um… I dunno…

Dude, they’re on sale right now! 28 inchers for 320 a pop… thats downright cheap!

Well, fine, but the graphics card is getting kinda long in the tooth. I doubt if it would handle resolutions that high.

Which is why I took the liberty of sorting through the latest graphics card options.

You what? When?

Last night… Heres the new nvidia card… pretty, isn’t it.

Yes, and $550!

Which means its only $1100 for two of them!

$1100… wait what?! two of them? For one, that price is outrageous… You know as well as I that in 6 months they will cost half of that. Secondly, this motherboard doesn’t even support SLI.

Ermm… I also took the liberty there… New Gigabyte mobo, heres a link(note that it supports DDR3…). Secondly, we could be playing Crysis on a 28 inch monitor at 1920x 1200 resolution in a week! Not six months!

Sigh. You win. Heres the credit card

[rainy]

@shiftless

Beekeeping. You get a box and put some bees in it, right? Then, sometimes you go out and get some honey for your biscuit? Turns out it’s like having any other hungry, stinging pet. They need a lot of equipment and a lot of attention.

This.

Pet? I wouldn’t have a pet this labor intensive. Turns you into a hobby farmer / hobby vet / hobby chemist … and then they die for Who-Knows-Why. And people keep calling you (once they know) to come get the swarm that landed in their yard. Sure, a free swarm right? More honey right? Right…after you buy more equipment, spend more time tending them, plus all the time RIGHT NOW you have to spend to drop everything and go get the swarm before they leave.

By my calculations, every teaspoon of honey I consume costs me around $100.

[tdn]

Pretty much every hobby that I have. Model trains, model rockets, cooking, painting, gaming, brewing, porn… It goes on and on.

It should come as no surprise that home mutli-track recording gets mighty pricey. But involved? You have no idea. When one has to belabor every single note and its placement in the aural spectrum, so that mixing a 2-minute song becomes a 6+ hour ordeal, well… Maybe knitting is the hobby for me.

[TroubleAgain]

ALL of my hobbies…

Photography–already covered quite well
Gardening–soil, amendments, seeds, plants, equipment, books, time, sweat, sweat, sweat
Beading–OMG–findings, wire, ooh, pretty oh, gotta have that, beads, more cordage, time, time, time
Crochet–yarns, patterns, hooks, time, time, time

And I guess you could consider having pets to be a hobby? Ha! I have 3 cats, a dog, and a lovebird. I don’t even want to get into it.

And don’t get me started on the husband’s hobbies–fishing, hunting, powerlifting*and golf. Guh.

*Cheap, right? Yeah. Dietary supplements, bench shirts, squat suits, deadlift suits, belts, wrist wraps, deadlift shoes, competition entry fees…

[FalconFinder]

I’ll second the beading thing!

It practically takes over your life!!

I went to the Bead Show in Milwaukee last year for the first time. Thank goodness I had no money on me. I would have been broke by the time I left!!! Talk about being a kid in a candy store!!!

[Annie-Xmas]

Collecting foreign language cast recordings of musicals.

You either have to buy imports, on-line or on ebay. Often they are only sold in the theatre. Most of them have very limited releases and are only in the stores a short time.

A successful show that translates (plays well in non-English countries) can have more than a dozen releases to track down. Some of them are so rare as to be non-existant. Me & my cronies spent years looking for the double LP of CATS. Finally someone paid $7 for a copy in a used LP shop!

[Lumpy]

My current [del]obsession[/del] hobby, shooting, adds up to some serious expense not even counting the gun itself:[ul][li]ammo. Kee-Ryst on a crutch, ammo has gotten expensive. I budget $20 a week for ammo and wish I could afford more.[]range fees. A suprisingly complex decision to make here: Pay at the door for each visit, buy range passes that give you a discount, or invest in one of three different grades of yearly membership. A calculation based on cost vs. how often I’m going to commit to going to the range.[]ancillary equipment. Ear protection, eye protection, a gun safe, cleaning supplies, etc.education. Beginner and intermediate training courses, books and manuals, etc.[/ul][/li]
And I’m basically just a gun owner, I hardly even qualify as true hobbyist.

[Freddy_the_Pig]

Not expensive, but ridiculously time-consuming: Chess. It takes insane amounts of time to get any good.

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread. I feel less bad about all the things I don’t do and have never tried.

[tr0psn4j]

My hobby is fishing. Sounds fairly cheap right? All you need is a rod, reel.

It is so much more complicated than that though. Rods and reels cost up to 500+ each and to be thorough, you need way more than one or two pairs. Then theirs various types of lines and a HUGE variety of lures. You have to drive to the lake or ocean too. Then you can buy boat, kayak, float tube etc.

For something that can be done with about $50, you can easily spend up to $100,000 to get started.

[cwthree]

@TroubleAgain

Beading–OMG–findings, wire, ooh, pretty oh, gotta have that, beads, more cordage, time, time, time

@FalconFinder

I went to the Bead Show in Milwaukee last year for the first time. Thank goodness I had no money on me. I would have been broke by the time I left!!! Talk about being a kid in a candy store!!!

Polymer clay beading is as bad as glass beading in this regard:

@Duck Duck Goose

You’ve got a dresser that belonged to a polymer clay freak, not a drug maven…
This is not a hobby that your wife wants to get involved with, Zut. Trust me. That way lies madness. Those teeny millefiori canes are expensive, man. And so adorable. And so cute. And there are so many different ones. Before you know it, you’ll have knick-knacks with itty-bitty pieces of Sculpey glued onto them all over your house, and Sculpey bead necklaces out the wazoo, and she’ll be down at Hobby Lobby at all hours of the day or night, prowling up and down the polymer clay aisle, waiting for new shipments. You’ll wish she’d gone in for drugs.

[MeanOldLady]

Surfing. The good news is once you buy one good surfboard, a roof rack and two wetsuits, you’re done spending money. In hindsight, it’s actually not a terribly expensive hobby at all(you’ll spend less than $1,000), but when I was 21, it seemed like the most expensive thing in the world.