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Utterly outstanding

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:

pax_imperialis wrote:

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
I normally spend around £80 a month on average. I'd probably spend more if I had the time to get down to my local GW a bit more often, but work and pirate Wednesday come first, keeping me away from my favourite little money vacuum.

You can't say "pirate wednesday" and not elaborate

Its exactly how it sounds, every Wednesday, my friends and I ditch the women of our group, dress as pirates, drink lots of rum and listen to pirate music. We have sword fights, crash parties in nearby houses and generally act like children instead of young adults.

Everything is also drank from a tankard or a cannonball.

This earned an exalt for being a singly excellent weekday activity.

As for me, I don't spend a ton. I get discounts where I can and shop on eBay more often then anywhere else. I don't really have a FLGS to shop at. I probably spend < $50 per month.

I monitor what I spend on the game closely. This includes models / rules / novels / paints / other modeling materials / computer games, along with anything else that goes into the hobby.

My rule is to spend $0 on a monthly basis. If I am going to buy something, I do it after at least a month of not buying anything. I usually buy nothing for at least 8 months of the year.

When I do buy a model or a Codex / supplement, I plan the purchase carefully. I bought the 6th edition rules, the CSM Codex, and Black Legion supplement the day they came out, but those are the only things I have picked up on impulse since 2008. Everything else has been after several months of reading the rules and monitoring what happens with the units on the forums. I talk to people at my FLGS and often make trades for things I want instead of purchasing it new. It's a lot easier on the wallet to clear a model with simple green than it is to buy things fresh out of the box. I am currently working on a trade for a Warhound Titan that is going to cost me the contents of a box of stuff I don't plan to use; we are haggling about the contents of the box in a good natured way.

When I do buy something, I usually look on eBay first and various trader forums. Most of the models in my army have been purchased for less than 50% of retail, and this includes old models. I have about 60 2nd edition Noise Marines that I dearly love and I got them all for less than $1 a model. I have about 40 2nd edition plague marines I got for the same price. I have boxes of later edition CSMs on the sprue and I have spent less than $2 a model for them. Most of my HQ units were purchased used for less than $5 a model. My Heldrakes / Forgefiends / Land Raiders / DPs / etc were all gotten for less than $35 each. They were all a pain to clean, but it was worth a couple hours of my time and a toothbrush. Also, I turn down more trades than I accept. A good deal is not as good as a great deal, so I focus on the later.

When I do buy something new, it's because I really want the models. I recently purchased a Spartan Assault Tank and a Fire Raptor new from Forgeworld because I love the models and like the rules. They were expensive, but they don't disrupt my budget over the course of a year. It will take several months to assemble them, get them painted to a high standard, base them, etc, and I won't get anything new until they are done.

That said, I spend between $450 and $700 a year on the hobby, including models, rules, novels, paints, materials, etc (about the cost of eating out at a really nice restaurant 6 months out of the year.) I feel good when I spend less than I did the year before. My painted army is quite large, around 8,000 points of CSMs that includes the entire range over multiple editions (except for Vindicators, which I just don't like.) I have a large supply of unpainted models in boxes that I often trade to get new kits, which includes models from every army I could use as allies for my CSMs (IG, Dark Angels, Daemons, Tau, and Orks, along with some Space Marines and Eldar from way back.) I have every Black Library Novel. I have 3 complete paint sets, including 2 from the previous edition. I am very satisfied with what I have and don't really feel a constant urge to spend money on getting new things.

I have my wife in on the act. She watches what I spend and keeps me honest by tracking the finances. I give her a list of the most horrible sounding things possible for Christmas and my birthday and tell her to support my dark vision of the future by telling her to call the company directly. It is hilarious listening to her answer questions about whether or not to get a butcher cannon to go with the decimator, or if she wants to consider something more horrible. I discuss purchasing options with her. If I am thinking about getting some new GW paints versus some Secret Weapon washes, we talk about prices relative to what I know I can do with them. It's actually been great practice for financial planning in other areas of our lives together. We have a new baby on the way, and are working through lists on registries to identify what we want people to buy us. We have the same conversations about what to ask for versus what to just buy.

Honestly, I don't understand constantly spending large sums on GW kits. I get where the urge comes from, but there's no one I know who could not put that money to better use. I know at least one person whose wife left him because he could not control his finances specifically around 40k. It's not worth letting things get to that point.

I don't have a spending limit based on financials. I need to stop buying until I'm caught up on painting though.

As far as GW's prices go, yea they are too high in my opinion. But I want to support them for maintaining what might be the best IP in gaming.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:

pax_imperialis wrote:

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
I normally spend around £80 a month on average. I'd probably spend more if I had the time to get down to my local GW a bit more often, but work and pirate Wednesday come first, keeping me away from my favourite little money vacuum.

You can't say "pirate wednesday" and not elaborate

Its exactly how it sounds, every Wednesday, my friends and I ditch the women of our group, dress as pirates, drink lots of rum and listen to pirate music. We have sword fights, crash parties in nearby houses and generally act like children instead of young adults.

Everything is also drank from a tankard or a cannonball.

That... actually sounds like fun.

On topic: I'll spend a lot once every two months but I'll proxy the larger or more expensive stuff (I'm not paying 110$ for a riptide)
Looks like Amazon has cheaper prices for older versions of the models so I might try there instead.

£200 a month pretty much.

I like others really depend month to month. I don't really have a set limit thanks to good jobs by the wife and myself. I might go a few months during the year without dropping a dime, then spend $500+ in a single month. As of late, I've mostly been beefing up my fantasy armies, spending about $600 in December on my Beastmen, but before then hadn't bought more than a box or two at a time throughout the year with the exception of the Tau release.

When I do buy, I pay full retail at my local shop as I want to do my best to give it as much business as possible. I know cheaper options exist, but he lets everyone from a variety of hobbies use his shop, and runs 40k and Fantasy tournaments where 100% of the tournament fee goes to the winners, keeping nothing for himself.

I spend around $1000-1500 per year on 40k. When a new army is released that interests me I tend to spend most of my budget in the span of 2-3 months. Then there is several months of downtime where I buy the odd kit/hobby supplies and not much else.

I could easily spend more, but I think long and hard on whether I went to invest in a project. I really don't want a room full of warhammer, just a few shelves

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:

pax_imperialis wrote:

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
I normally spend around £80 a month on average. I'd probably spend more if I had the time to get down to my local GW a bit more often, but work and pirate Wednesday come first, keeping me away from my favourite little money vacuum.

You can't say "pirate wednesday" and not elaborate

Its exactly how it sounds, every Wednesday, my friends and I ditch the women of our group, dress as pirates, drink lots of rum and listen to pirate music. We have sword fights, crash parties in nearby houses and generally act like children instead of young adults.

Everything is also drank from a tankard or a cannonball.

Honestly, this is more interesting than the original topic.

I'd say I've spent about $150 this year, my full price Valkyrie, a Battleforce won by auction for $80, and a couple 5-packs of guardsmen that a friend got me because it's better to actually get merchandise instead of burning $10 as a sacrifice to the god of shipping.

Martel732 wrote:
My answer to the new topic is: as little as possible.

Yes, This - I didn't mind buying models especially to fill a core army/unit but once GW started it's latest "Buy this or else!" frenzy mid-5th ed. I aquainted myself with a few choice Smooth-On brand products and haven't looked back. GW's got all the money from me they ever will.

The first models I've bought in a year was the DV boxed set and I got that off the internet and saved a tener; I was going to buy one from my local GW for the sake of convenience but when I got there the only copy they had was the shop's open box and since the staffer was showing some girl how to play I couldn't be bothered interrupting to ask if they had any out the back.

Other than that I spend, on average, ten to fifteen pounds a month on novels which I order from Amazon. Since I'm fairly up to date on the releases I don't buy books every month but maybe every two to three months. Most of my hobby purchases are books.

I suppose I'm blessed to have won a lot of what I needed for armies. I still find myself purchasing things. I'm now out of the buy everything mode though. I have enough things to proxy that I don't need to buy more than the army I want requires and can easily test things before I decide to bother dropping any cash. Basically when a new codex comes out, Im only buying a couple units to add what little i don't already have and would actually field.

But... If I were a new player, I'd be WAY passed pissed. One bad decision on unit selection (and purchase) can convince a noob that they cant AFFORD to be wrong in the future and call it a day. Theres a reason why any sane player who wants a hobby ten years from now is intentionally losing to new players: Self interest. Good plan.

A new 1500 point army, soup to nuts should probably cost no more than $350. That's in keeeping with other game companies and what they charge pretty much. It's not prohibitive over the course of say three or four months and with painting time (and costs) that pace makes a lot of sense.

Just for reference, my friend bought me a Dark Eldar force as gift and it was $1200. Through no-cost trades, i have expanded that collection to (at retail) $2,000. I'm just saying. Thats without a drop of paint on them.

My suggestion to GW: Might wanna think about what will happen when veterans drift away and newbs never come. a stagnant bottom line is hard to recover from.

I try to limit my self to about 100 a month.

Though some times i will spend a bit more on a deal i cant refuse. like some ones crazy collection for like 200$ that was well over 9 times that much (i think) i haven't even finished sorting it.

Depends really.

I spend a lot more if i'm building a new army or what have you. Typically about 50-200 most months, with the average being around 75-100 if i had to guess.

Though i have to say that'll likely be going down in the near future. My Tau are just about done. I have a couple of the new broadsides to get and i'm pretty much all done with them. My Greyknights dont have much left either.

Same is true for my dark angels. I have a couple bigger things i want to get, and then i'm pretty much done with them too.


... that said, i might start a relatively small guard detachment to ally up with inquisitors and DA / SM for a "full power and might of the imperium" kind of feel. Only if they do steel legion in plastic though !

For me it's £20-£50 a month, then every 6 months I spend £50-£80. When I start an army I spend at least £200 worth of retail priced models, which I may get from GW or maybe from other sources, it just depends. Once I got the space marine side of the old big kit, which come with the orks verse SM, which I got the SM side for £30 which saved me £70. So it just depends what's comes up. I like to wait for a bargin though so it can be 3 months before I buy something.

pax_imperialis wrote:

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
I normally spend around £80 a month on average. I'd probably spend more if I had the time to get down to my local GW a bit more often, but work and pirate Wednesday come first, keeping me away from my favourite little money vacuum.

You can't say "pirate wednesday" and not elaborate

Right? Lolz.

I spent enough after I got on disability that I went broke and couldn't buy glue one day. (as an example of my splurging, when I started my Eldar out I bought a 1500 point army at the same time I bought the Codex, and as a birthday present for my Master I bought and painted a trio of Vindicators) After that I made up a monthly budget and managed to stick to it, roughly. About 30% of my monthly disability payment goes toward helping out with household stuff, helping pay for electricity, food, Internet, probably some other stuff. I'd spend about 140 dollars on Warhammer 40,000 stuff every month, including taxes. Sometimes if I wanted something bigger than I could afford, I'd either spend the extra one month and reduce my budget the next month, or skip buying things one month and spend the extra the next month.

But since I bought an Exorcist back in 2011 right after the WD Sisters codex came out, I haven't felt much of an urge to buy things. I got it, built it, then went, "What next?" and couldn't think of anything. Since then, my purchases have focused mainly on small conversion projects like character models and squads that there aren't specific models for, like the Honor Guard (the only Honor Guard models are Ultramarines-only). But I've gone from having to resist buying more than I've budgeted for, to having to try hard to think of something that I want, don't have, and would actually use, and usually coming up with nothing. As a result, my bank balance has been steadily growing instead of staying roughly the same.