Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough.
Also I love how you talk about your hobby as some addicts.
keyboards, F-ing keyboards
If GMK and such could stop taking nearly a year for keycaps, it would be nice
The turnaround time for a gmk set is much faster now. And a lot of set is in stock right, ready for you to grab.
Collecting military surplus/old random military shit. Helmets, great coats, radios, a field phone, ww2 machete. Ya get the idea.
That’s cool! Where do you get these?
Sometimes military surplus stores, sometimes random vendors at a place near me, sometimes at estate sales, sometimes at yard sales.
what do you do with it though? Just have your own small museum?
Basically, if its either broken but good enough condition I may restore it and find a niche use for it. The helmets are mostly used for gags with my friends and the great coat is new enough that I may actually use it if its windy enough.
Check out the Discovery Channel tv show, Combat Dealers. I’m guessing basically that – learning old history, topping one’s collection with the most obscurest\rarest item, etc.
Film photography. Holy shit did that add up.
It’s funny because you can go buy an old rugged K-1000 with a basic 50mm prime lens for under $100, a couple rolls of film for less than $20, and the developing costs you can put off until later. That’s still about a tenth of the cost of a good new digital camera and this thing is built like a tank and forces you to learn the fundamentals. Very quickly, you’ll discover that your film and developing costs will quickly outpace the initial investment on a digital camera. Moreover, you’ve discovered that finding good glass to match you camera is no cheaper and a lot more difficult than finding lens for that sexy new digital camera that was outside your budget initially.
I ended up having a lot of GAS. So I now have tons of bodies and lenses in 35mm and 120… I’ve spent more obsessing over film stuff than I ever could have with digital.
oh, I haven’t tried this developer on this film yet. Guess I have to go shoot a $10 roll. 😅
It does make you think twice before hitting that shutter. Lots of life lessons when shooting film, such as learning to appreciate a lot less instant gratification.
ITT: Everybody’s current/longest hobby.
Mine is boardgames. You start free by playing somebody else’s collection, then you get the urge to start your own…
With time I’ve learned that video games are probably the cheapest hobby I have. I literally had a minor crisis when my computer died and I started crunching numbers on switching hobbies temporarily and found the cost of a new computer was cheaper especially once I took into account the already sunk cost of my game library
Buy used.
The disk-less “cheaper” PS5 is 100% the more expensive option.
Also, if you buy a new game you’ll have the option to sell it on, recovering some of your initial investment.
Scale modeling – you can pick up a cheap kit at a big box craft store with some paint and glue for $40. Before you know it, you’re importing specialty kits from Japan, rigging up a spray booth in your basement for your airbrush, and taking trips to air museums to get reference photos of the zinc chromate primer for a cockpit interior.
Only because no one has said it yet, headphones. You can get a really great set of headphones for $200 or so, but if you want it to sound a little better you’re looking at $500-$700. But music can sound a bit better if you get better equipment for around $1200. Then you hear a $2000 set-up, and you chase that, until you hear a $5000 kit. And it just keeps going.
Espresso.
It started with a second hand cheap machine from my grandmother as a gift for Christmas.
Then I bought a delonghi grinder for £50 and a used delonghi dedica for £60.
Then I upgraded the grinder to a baratza sette for £300.
Then I upgraded the espresso machine to a Lelit Bianca for £2000
Then I bought an EG-1 grinder for £3000
Now I’m looking to upgrade my machine soon.
Also I bought acaia scales and a puqpress and various coffee related things along the way, as well as spending essentially £10 a week on beans
I decided buy once cry once, and bought a used Simonelli Musica and Mazzer grinder. No temptation for upgrades for years to come.
Mr. Hoffman it’s a pleasure to meet you.
We’ll this is bad news. I’m looking to start this journey but was hoping to save the $4-5 per cappuccino.
The initial investment for espresso is pretty steep, but I think it’s well worth it. There’s something so satisfying about making your own coffee drinks yourself. And if you think about it, you’ll probably drink coffee for the rest of your life, so you’ll end up breaking even eventually.
You are right, I’ll break even eventually :)
Running as soon as I discovered the Runningshowgeeks subreddit.
How is it expensive? What kind of gear?
A good pair of running shoes will cost you between £100 and £200. You might decide to get a rotation of shoes for different types of run. Maybe a race day shoe, a fast training shoe, and a slower recovery show. So that could set you back a few hundred.
I’ve been pretty good to be honest. I’ve got 2 active pairs both of which I got on sale for £80.
I’m on week 5 of doing couch to 5k, but using a pair of generic trainers I bought years ago. How much of a difference does a pair of running trainers make?
Having shoes designed for running will make a big difference. You don’t need to spend a lot to get some half decent ones, but they make running a much more pleasant experience.
Just to reinforce your point, the difference between a cheap running shoe and an expensive running shoe is incredible. When I first started running a few years ago, I was using a very old pair of running shoes I’ve had for a long time. I’ve since been sticking with the New Balance Fresh Foam X 880s (because I have very wide feet and NB seems like the only brand that actually makes their best running shoes in 4E) and it’s like running on a cloud.
And then there’s also the Garmin watch that cost $300 (that I’m now stupidly considering upgrading to the new $600 Forerunner 965), the $120 HRM Pro chest strap, the $3000 Nordic Track x22i for indoor runs I got lightly used on Craigslist for a steal at $900, etc.
And then there’s the races where you’re spending $40, $50, $100+ depending on whether it’s a 5K or 10K or half-marathon. And good running clothes are pricey too.
Cycling. I started with a bike that was given to me by my uncle. Now I have a road bike, full equipment x3, a direct drive trainer for the rainy days and a subscription to use that.
Don’t say that, I am now making my bike.
Have a few components but it will be gravel/touring bike.
It’s a great hobby, you’ll get healthier and have lot’s of fun. Good luck with your new bike!
I know, I have basic aluminium frame tracking bike but I am upgrading to steel frame gravel.
When I look back the frame was probably more expensive than my current bike ;-)
Fishing. Who would have thought it was so easy to get addicted to buying various baits and lures.
When you’re ready to really spend, get into fly fishing.
But yes, I was coming here to say fishing too.
I think audio, headphones, amps, all this stuff. Microphones, recorders, physical mixing gear. If I would go in that direction, I would need a seperate room and loots of money
I just wanted a nice set of headphones to listen to stuff.
Then I learned my lack of a DAC was bottlenecking the setup.
Then I learned me not having gold plated braided and custom made cables was bottlenecking the setup.
Then I learned I can’t hear a damn difference lmao
Hahaha btw what headphones you got?
I have some Sennheiser ones and my goto 1more pistonfit in ear with cable and a nice button and even mic, great for 17€
Oh boy, where do I even start. I guess we should first have a minute of silence for my wallet…
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Fixing old computers In high school, I agreed to take the decommisioned PCs home. They were in various states of not working, I diagnosed the problems, bought parts, upgraded and fixed them all. I now had a ton of relatively old but reliable computers. What’s the logical next step?
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Home server room (homelab). I live in a flat with a giant basement, so it’s full of these old PCs and servers. I needed a server rack, switches, cabling, the whole nine yards.
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Photography New lenses and filters constantly bought. Sometimes a new camera body. This is my most expensive hobby by far, but I take care of the lenses so they at least hold value, unlike the PCs :)
+1 for photography it’s addicting to buy new gear lol
I started with a relatively cheap Lumix g95 ($700) m43 camera thinking it would have everything I need. But for video I wanted slow mo. It had slow mo but the bit rate was horrendous. At the time I had no idea and none of the information online told you this at all. It was just a check mark ✓ High Frame rate and I had no idea how important bit rate was. Bought better lenses (approx 1200$) because I wanted depth of field and lower light performance. Which m43 just couldn’t provide, but I really wouldn’t have known how much it couldn’t provide it. I trudged on.
Upgraded to GH5 (800$ on offer up), same lenses but much better sensor, higher frame rates, 4k support, better video codex’s. Still had issues with low light and depth of field. Oh yeah and to top it off all Lumix cameras have terrible auto focus. Which is only amplified by my yearning to have lower depth of field, cause more of the picture is out of focus. Now I want to pull the cord and buy a full frame sony camera (2500$ + another $2500 in lenses). I still think GH5 is a great camera and got good use out of it
I have a collection of various Zeiss lenses, because my proffesional photographer friend told me he enjoys them. They’re amazing, but I refuse to even share how much I paid for them, since I’d probably cry :D I also have a few from various brands like Canon, Sigma, etc.
In terms of cameras, I always bought a new one, used it for a while, sold it and bought a new one. I settled on the Canon 1DX Mark III in the end, I think I’ll use this one until it dies.
That basement full of old pcs and servers… Checked some models against ebay?
I bought a pallet of “computers” from a local agricultural auction for £1 based on nothing but that one word description. Turns out one was a fully working PS/2 with monitor and keyboard. The keyboard alone sold for £80, and I made over £200 on the lot and got some great messages from the buyers who were really pleased to find one.
I never did, really. I don’t have anything special in there, just some Dell Optiplexes and HP stuff… I wanted to sell them but once I found out I’d maybe get 20€ a piece, I decided to keep them and try out new software on them, use them for parts, etc.
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Getting back into PC gaming after buying my friends old 300 euro gaming PC. I’m looking to upgrade and every little bit faster is only a little bit extra, so a 100 euro upgrade turned to a 120 euro upgrade, then a 150 euro upgrade to… i don’t want to say how much i spent…
2k for a GPU?
No, I ended up updating the whole system.
Arduino and hobby electronics. It started out as a continuous loop pad dye machine to save me having to dye fabric by hand, strictly mechanical, but then I wanted to automate adding the chemicals at the right times. Then it was keeping the dye liquor a consistent temperature. Then it was draining the trough automatically. Then I figured out I could design my own PCBs and have them fabricated. It just keeps going…
Guy is speed-running IT employment 😭
I’d like to know more about this. I’m trying to get into electronics and hardware automation but feel overwhelmed since I don’t have any idea about electrical engineering
Honestly my recommendation would be to start off with some microcontrollers/Raspberry Pi and some breadboards and go from there. That way you can uhhh trial and error your way to something that works and worry about the “engineering” part later, when you have gotten your feet wet :D There are some simple Arduino starter kits for example that give you the basic things + a bunch of sensors and motors to play with. I got started myself with the Elegoo Arduino Starter Kit (~50€). Along the way it’s probably going to be helpful to look up some course on electronics basics, specifically digital circuits and then analog circuits if you’re feeling adventurous.
Best piece of advice I can give about learning anything (that doesn’t involve risk of injury): don’t try to learn everything there is to learn. Decide what you want to do and learn what you need to do that. Tell me something you’d be interested in doing…
