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Well instead of going on a rant, or posting a bunch of price point information, I want everybody else's opinion. Or story, or charts, or rants. How much do you, or are you willing to spend? Is there anything we can do to mitigate the costs (legally)? My local flgs gives a 15% discount on everything GW, so I feel we are lucky.

I personally spend about $300 a month. And I'm in army building mode right now so that's about as fast as I can paint. So I haven't had to impose a limit on myself because I am at least seeing completed (or near) squads before I buy more. I guess I feel if I'm not just collecting gray little dolls with guns then I'm not spending needlessly. But it is still a significant amount of money. (I own a restaraunt in a small town, I'm by no means a rich man.)

Well this is where everybody throws in there two cents.

Just to steer this in another direction, how much are you willing to spend on little plastic gun toting dolls before enough is enough?

As much as they can get, obviously. This is why I have one army I have been collecting since 1995. One and only one. And I'm getting close to sitting out until 7th at this point.

As much as they can get, indeed. They're a business. They want money.

I think you should rename the title of the thread as its misleading.

Something like "How much do you spend a month" would be more in line with what you discussed.

Heard and rectified.

 Gitsmasher wrote:
I think you should rename the title of the thread as its misleading.

Something like "How much do you spend a month" would be more in line with what you discussed.

Well it's been interesting at least to see who reads the actual post or just reads the title and posts away. *shrug*

That said, I don't work on a fixed budget for GW each month (perhaps I should!) but I buy in fits and spurts when something comes out. For example, with the new Nids coming out in Jan I will likely be dropping a few hundred dollars on those models. At that point though, each of my Codexes (Chaos Demons, Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines, Eldar and Tyranids) will now be "covered". I am looking at 30k Word Bearers at the moment however... so that is likely where most of my GW money will go over the course of 2014.

Ya I thought the title was an attention grabber but...

Imnewherewheresthebathroom wrote:
Well instead of going on a rant, or posting a bunch of price point information, I want everybody else's opinion. Or story, or charts, or rants. How much do you, or are you willing to spend? Is there anything we can do to mitigate the costs (legally)? My local flgs gives a 15% discount on everything GW, so I feel we are lucky.

I personally spend about $300 a month. And I'm in army building mode right now so that's about as fast as I can paint. So I haven't had to impose a limit on myself because I am at least seeing completed (or near) squads before I buy more. I guess I feel if I'm not just collecting gray little dolls with guns then I'm not spending needlessly. But it is still a significant amount of money. (I own a restaraunt in a small town, I'm by no means a rich man.)

Well this is where everybody throws in there two cents.

Just to steer this in another direction, how much are you willing to spend on little plastic gun toting dolls before enough is enough?

$300 is a lot depending on how you spend it. it could get you 55-60 power armour grey knights (12 boxes).

funny that it only gets you 2-3, a couple boxes of wraithknights.

the big toys are a ripoff.

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

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

That's my point exactly.

My spending varies. I try to cut corners here and there (Executioners instead of Incubi, Empire Bowmen with laspistols for Inquisitorial Henchmen psykers, etc) but I still pay GW retail as often as I'm able. No set budget. In the last quarter of '13 I dropped close to $400 bucks, but those were the only models I bought all year.

While I don't want to pay GW's prices, I also don't want to lose the phenomenal support we have from our local game store. We've got decent space, good time slots, and great terrain, especially given that the store covers all aspects of the gaming hobby. I'm not so much supporting GW as I am supporting my local games pit, which is far more important to me.

No fixed budget. I spend what I can when I want - when army building a new army that will be a fairly big investment since start up costs are larger than some other games.

One can try and avoid some costs by looking for deals - ebay has given me a few good purchases where someone is selling a part assembled or part clipped out of sprue model for less than retail - also sometimes you're just lucky and want something at a time no one else does.

If you're willing to paint strip you can also get some old metal models for cheaper prices compared to new models (A bit iffy now as many people specifically try to get metal models instead of fine cast so the prices did go up on metals).


I also try not to think of hobbies in terms of money; sure one has to consider the overall costs and if you can actually afford the hobby itself. But once that aspect is over I try to focus on the hobby side of things not the money. I find that if you think of everything in terms of money you'll go mad and soon find that money is the hobby not the hobby itself (or rather the obsession).






Also I stay sane at night knowing that no matter how much I spend on GW its NOTHING compared to some other hobbies. A beginners DSLR can cost as much as very good start up army and a good DSLR as much as a whole army - and a good wildlife lens is - about the same price (if not more) than a full Space Marine Chapter.

 Jimsolo wrote:
While I don't want to pay GW's prices, I also don't want to lose the phenomenal support we have from our local game store. We've got decent space, good time slots, and great terrain, especially given that the store covers all aspects of the gaming hobby. I'm not so much supporting GW as I am supporting my local games pit, which is far more important to me.

This keeps me spending. It's partially noble, but mostly just me enabling myself.

GW priced me out of actually buying their product years ago.
Its only eBay bitz scouting for me now.
Although with the recent increases in shipping that has also been in decline.
I don't think I spend more than $25 a month nowadays.

It varies, but the most I spend in one go is usually no more than £100ish twice a year (birthday and Christmas). The rest of the time, I'll only buy one box every couple of months. That way, I can keep ahead of the painting queue and prevent myself getting bogged down.

When I used to buy armies in one fell swoop I tended to go for the cheapest possible discounter, but these days, with my reduced purchasing rate, I'm ok with playing GW retail, especially for newer kits where the price is just about worth it (the new SM tactical box being a price rise I was more than comfortable with given the improvement in the kit). I don't tend to buy from GW themselves, though, and if there's a discount going at a local store I'll jump on it (my local newsagent just cleared out their GE stock at 50% off, so I went and bought most of an Inquisition army at around £40)

As to how much I'm willing to spend, that varies a lot too. Can it be kitbashed/scratchbuilt for cheaper? If so, I'll often go that way . Is there an alternative supplier that does similar models cheaper (Warzone and Mantic for my IG)? Then I'll buy those.

That said, I will pay for quality, so for stuff I really like and that looks great, I'll pay more for. For example, Pre-Heresy Marines (I used Anvil Industry models) where I paid more than I would have building the same army from GW.

I was spending about £200 a month for the last six months - but that was me getting back into the game after being out for a long time

I have such a backlog of models now that I'm only spending about £25 a month on unit fillers or extras for armies I've got

I buy 100% from eBay and try to keep it around $100 a month on average

I also don't play regularly right now so anything I buy is just too paint for fun. Current projects are my chaos primarchs angron and lorgar. Also in the process of finding a forgeworld bloodthirster.

I never buy anything from GW at retail unless absolutely necessary given the discounts I can find online through eBay or other discount retailers. I actually don't spend that much now for myself given that I have to actually start painting my stuff but I have recently spend a hefty amount trying to get cheap DKoK models for my friend who lacks the know-how to acquire set models without going directly to Forgeworld. Not an easy task mind you but I've managed to get him enough to get him started.

So at this point it seems roughly around 20-50 bucks a month depending if I find a good deal online but recently (with the Christmas season and all) its been more like 200-500 bucks a month.

Since I bought my IG , I have not spent any cash at the store to buy w40k stuff. I did buy some cygnar stuff , but the options were very limited , so it wasn't much . on avarge I would say I spend under 200$ this year on models , before that it was more , all 4 vendettas I had were bought at the store , so they cost a lot.

Maybe $300au a year on 40k. Which means 3-4 boxes, be they an individual monstrous creature or some smaller critters. I'll be blowing most of my load next year in Niduary, then one or two followup boxes through the year.

About a grand a year at the moment, although, mostly its just been books of late since they are coming out much faster now!

I am a hit and miss. Sometimes I will spend $100 a year for paint or a book. Sometimes nothing, then followed $300-$500.

I am mainly a DA and Tyranid player. So with them being updated every 4 or 5 years, I can take my time to buy stuff.

Much less than my friends who regularly go to strip clubs or the casino (yes, I am serious).

It depends on what is going on gaming wise, but my overall entertainment / hobby budget* is about $250.

*thats my "toys" budget - movies, board games, video games, 40k, star wars, etc. Some months GW gets it, other months other companies.

I made the most of being in the uk recently and bought up on chaos marines, gw hasnt checked the exchange rate since the 90s so we still pay 3x in nz. That was the biggest single spend up on 40k ive made, about $300 worth. That got me more or less a whole army though. Since then the most i spent was $90 on a new in box raider on ebay. Thats where i found almost all the stuff i own for 40k, however i am weighing up getting a few new boxes for kill team.

<-- see this flag . . . I don't spend money on 40K anymore, I just can't justify it.

I used to spend money on Warhammer & 40K very irregularly, usually only when something appeared that I really wanted. It would be anywhere from $10 to $80, with tipically a few months in between. I think my last major purchase was the Island of Blood, and that was mainly for the awesome gryphon.

I'm turning my generic Space Marine bikers into Ravenwing, so buying Black Knights, but that's pretty much all I want. I have piles of other models that can be used including fifty terminators.

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.

As a jobless college student....I spend about half of my money from gifts and summer jobs, so about $700 a year
Once I start my career as a computer engineer and pay off my over $100,000 of tuition debts (no I'm not exaggerating, private colleges are expensive) then my crack-plastic hobby will reach full bloom, and I'm sure ill spend somewheres around $3000 a year on it.

 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

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.