The high cost of doing business

Don't know if anybody saw Brent/Strictly Average's article on BOLS about cost of armies and how its affecting the way people collect, etc.

I was surprised becasue I though his estimate of $600US for an army was high. Then I ran my current 2000 pt Ulramarines thru it...

$718.60US/$852.31CDN. Retail. Before taxes/shipping/etc. I was floored. The list i was playing before was $600/$725 and would politely be called a "White Dwarf" list.

Sometimes, I worry that one day my wife will go into the basement with a calculator. Then I'm screwed.

When she does that, just go into her closet and start counting shoes and purses, and lacy bras she never actually wears.

Average pair of shoes she wore to a single Christmas party $125
Average cost for a single Purse (not purchased at walmart) $140
Average cost for lacy bra thats "too uncomfortable and i cant return it" $60
Not having her bitch at you about your plastic toy soldiers? Priceless.

You bought it ALL off Ebay at a greatly reduced price......and try to look as innocent as possible....

Nah with my wife I can't use clothes. It's Barbies, and Lalaloopseys and Paris related crap.

And I did get most of it on the cheap, alot was bought in the States (when I lived there) @ 20-30% off. Still, 80% of $700 is still $560.

I guess what I'm getting at, IS $600-750 normal for a 200 pt army? If there were a fire and you had to walk into the Den and replace everything in your current army, how much would you be out?

I believe the joke is,

Why is it called Warhammer 40K?

A: Because that how much you'll sepend on it yearly.

in all seriousness. it IS expensive. but not more so that a lot of other hobbies. And cheaper than most.

When i played Magic i had to buy at least a box of boosters every three months. Your talking $100+ dollars, every 3 months, to stay competitive.
When i drank alot, a cheap friday night was over $100.
When i did cocaine... okay i never did cocaine.
My kid's Tae Kwon Do costs over $1400 a year.
My cable bill is $160 per month and i spend more time with my models than i do in front of the TV.

I dunno, for a hobby that you spend so much time on, i don't consider $700 to be outrageous. Some of the gouging GW does is a little over the top. ($60 for 5 plastic termies?) but overall, meh.
Besides, of all the things you own, as long as you don't paint like me, your models can actually be resold. the secondary market for GW stuff is big business.

A hobby is as much as you want it to be. Warhammer might be priced out of some people's range but then again so might a car be etc. I strongly dislike when people complain or argue that this game is expensive. Everything costs money. An army that might cost $800 bucks doesn't have to be bought all at once. If the amount of "fun" needed to be priced out over the hours spent assembly, painting, and gaming with those mini's I think it's easily on par with most hobbies I can think of. Unless you call hiking a hobby, which is lame as shit.

I spend $700 a year curling, not counting equipment (shoes, pants, broom, gloves, etc...).

I spent... ~$700 ish on my Necron army so far. (which has been my 40k expenses of the year)

I expect to spend about 300 ish on 40k next year, depending on how awesome the Tau book is.

everyone knows that to do somehting one likes costs money. I look at my models and go wow Ihave spent a lot of money on this. I think my IG Vehicles are around 900 worth alone. This is an army that I rarely play, but Will I get rid of them, prob not because I still get fun out just creating army lists for them, I still want a couple of super heavy tanks yet.

This is a hobby for myself that also keeps me out of trouble and at home with the family for the most part. Just because I am the worlds worst general when playing I still have fun trying new lists all the time, I rarely play the same list twice. This is all about fun for me when I can get out and play. I can not put a price on the amount of enjoyment that I get from the hobby. So the the whole article on BOLS is not really worth me to read in detail or argue over.

To be clear, it was not my intent to complain about prices or that the game is too expensive. It was more like Not realizing how much the little stuff adds to your army. More like "No way my army is over $600!" Then you remember the FW dread arms, the combi-meltas, the extra bits for your Sternguard, etc.

I've played a LOT of games, I'm still trying to figure out how to get my D&D library out here.

All in all this is actually a pretty cheap hobby. Set aside $100/month and you can do a LOT in a year.

As far as prices and price increases, I have a WD from the Ork release (2nd Ed), and not a lot has changed when you think about it.

Scott: absolutely right about the car, my brother in law raced Sprint cars for years w/o a sponsor. Makes 40K (or anything else for that matter) seem like a drop in the bucket.