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wyomingfox wrote:
So this is really my creative outlet as well as a system of stress relief...and after a long day of dealing with employees, customers, and suppliers, I need the outlet.
I suppose there are cheaper outlets for painting that I could pursue, but I enjoy the added benefit that the strategic element of game play provides as well as the social elements.

Very nice , those 2 reasons do help justify the cost / worth.

well as far as justifying to myself I set aside a little bit of cash out of every pay check for my toys.. that might go to models, or a new video game, or movies.. if there's nothing I feel like buying, I save it so I can also afford new gadgets or whatever. As far as justifying the costs involved, I don't worry too much. To me even with the high prices I feel I still get my money's worth, if I didn't I'd stop buying it

Necros wrote:I feel I still get my money's worth, if I didn't I'd stop buying it

Wait wait , can you elaborate on that? ( i think the answer for that is what im looking for)

"I could buy miniatures or I could be spending the money drinking at the bar with my friends"

My money goes to bills first, then to entertainment.
I do not justify how I spend my entertainment money.
I do not expect people to justify their spending to me.
Maybe I'll change the second one when I have kids.

Ok, so you're asking how do we value these things...

Here's my answer:

First, I work with computers. I stare at a screen all day, and for this I get paid. (And also get to play on dakka...)

When I go home, the last thing I really want to do is spend more hours staring at screens. I don't have cable, and while I play the occasional video game on my PC, I don't do console games, and I don't spend a lot of time on PC games either.

I want my free time to be spent doing something besides staring at a screen.

During the summer, my wife and I travel on motorcycles, we do some yard work, but these things can't be done in the dark (well, not much), and they're not all that social either.

I justify buying GW figures because I've enjoyed painting miniatures for nearly twenty years now. It's creative, I enjoy the modelling, I enjoy the painting, and I enjoy gaming with my friends, with whom I get together at least twice a month, and usually more often, for a beer and some dice rolling.

I justify it because I know that I'm going to get enjoyment out of all of those phases of the hobby. I also buy miniatures from other companies which I think have quality sculpts. I have bought, and painted, at least half of the Ultraforge Demon offerings. I have a collection of Freebooter miniatures, some Reaper figs, and a number of micro-art studio's Discworld minis, plus a handful of CMON figures. And, honestly, the price difference between these and the GW models is negligible. For the models I choose to paint, it's generally $10+ for a single metal model. GW's prices are not excessive when compared to other miniature company's offerings of the same quality (in my view).

Ultraforge demons, for example, will run you somewhere in between the cost of a GW greater demon and a FW demon. They're extremely nice models, though the quality level is slightly below FWs - but so is the price. Again, GW isn't horribly overpriced in relation to these alternatives.

I know that, should I choose to sell any of my painted models, I'll make back as much as I paid for them, if not more. The few times I have ventured onto eBay to sell models that I've painted, I've come out ahead (in terms of raw material, not necessarily the time I spent).

So, how do I justify this all?

1) I'm going to enjoy putting the model together.
2) I'm going to enjoy painting the model.
3) I'm going to enjoy gaming with the model.
4) When I'm done with, it, I'll make my money back - it's a hobby that holds its value (at my painting level, anyway)

How do people justify paying for cable tv? The quality isn't there and you never get your money back... Picking minis over cable seems like a no-brainer to me.

I used to say you were paying for the enjoyment you got out of it, rather than the physical miniature, but Ive long since given up attempting to justify it, the prices are ridiculous.

Fortuantely I don't need to as shes just as likely to be looking for something for herself. Or being over critical of something in one of the cabinets.

Although we rarely buy from GW stores tbh, mostly get from discounters now.

If its something I want sooner rather than later she might throw the old joke 'how many extra RPG game sessions do I get for that' but shes not serious.

Her problem atm, is her Tyranids are poor against my CSM and Orks, so shes using Marines but not really enjoying them while waiting for Dark Eldar.

Although she has just about finished her Chaos Warriors starting force, so we might get some Warhammer next week, which would be our first fantasy battle in ages. (Well proper 1500pts one since we quite Fantasy 4yrs ago.)



To friends not in the hobby I just usually say, how much did you spend on booze last week, they'll throw back a figure in the £20-40 range, and I'll say, mine was zero. End of discussion.

I don't justify it one bit. I let my wallet do the talking, and right now it's walking away from GW.

I have more trouble justifying the time spent every Friday night, sometimes Saturday or Sunday that I spend playing. Sometimes i definitely go a little overboard, but I need the creative outlet too. It's just a matter of keeping the creative outlet to a level that it doesn't harm my responsibilities or my responsibilities don't torture me to the point of insanity.

As others have said, it's not particularly expensive compared to (a) a lot of other hobbies, (b) a lot of other model kits & miniatures (many of them not up to GW standards), or (c) a lot of other uses of one's entertainment pounds/dollars. So I don't worry too much about justification, though I am careful, these days, to make at least some attempt to avoid the "house full of impulse buys still in the packet" syndrome. Right now, I'm collecting Dark Angels and Daemonhunters, only; and I'll not be buying much more for either army till I've painted most of what I already have.

Redbeard said:$5 packs of smokes...

thats so god damn cheap..

But yeah if I can justify cigs which cost around average $12 AU and they kills you, just cause I like em and they make me feel good/relaxed.. They I can justfy GW..

plus I smoke about a pack everyday.. so thats $84 a week or $4380 a year..

So yeah GW is nothing.

It's my hobby, I'm not obsessive about it, and I do some side work that pays the majority of it these days.

I need to build something every once in a while or I will go mad.

I, like most of other posters here, don't justify GWs pricing, because it's so hilariously, un-understabable. I, too, sometimes just have to point out that my brother bought drums, which I have nothing against, that costed about 600 euros. And while playing instruments is a great hobby, I just point that out. Also pointed things are that I'm not ever gonna smoke, never gonna drink alcohol (or at least buy myself). My parents also don't see a problem with my expensive hobby, cause they don't literally support it (budjet-wise) expect sometimes buying me glues and tools, but never figures itself.
Oh, I have stopped buying from LGS, as I found www.maelstormgames.co.uk

Like many said before, you cant justify it. Telling someone who isnt addicted to the game/models what you buy the stuff for is a sure way to be classified as a nutjob. Heck, even the rest of the contaminated crowd still shakes their heads and wonder whats wrong when they hear what stuff costs these days.

Since some time back second hand is pretty much the only way I will ever buy GW stuff again.(and good counterfeits for a cheap price) With the exception of some spectacular single pice(around 1/year id say).

Kallbrand's got it in the bag with this one.

Why justify?

Just pretend it doesn't exist and nobody will ask you how much it costs!

This summer I spent under $300 and managed to buy about 1500 points of Orks, all of them secondhand and still on their sprues. This will keep my hobby hunger satisfied for a good long while, save a small expansion of my Space Wolves force come October.

I justify it by not doing what fellow college students do. I don't drink (expensive and I hate the taste) and I don't smoke (more expensive and I hate the smell) I don't buy videogames that often, I borrow movies and music from friends instead of buying them, and I just do what I can to save money.

My dad has been wargaming since the 70s or so, so he understands completely. My mom's used to it from him, so she doesn't mind me. My girlfriend is fine with it as she knows it keeps me happy and relaxed. Hell, she's even gotten me a model or two for anniversaries and the like. I justify it to myself because I enjoy it immensely, and painting figures is pretty much my only relaxing activity nowadays, since videogames are seldom relaxing and animating is more of a job than a hobby these days. Been in the miniatures wargaming hobby since I was 6 and I'm not stopping now.

What a lot of others said my hobbie is way cheaper than a lot of there vices .

I cant justify GW prices accept for they ofeer very good consistent figures and have the nicest plastics I have ever seen for any table top game , Its also the more popular one and easy to find players and tournaments .

I justify it to my wife I have a son who plays also so its double justification , I usually make the money through the hobby to pay for itself so its not to bad . Also I can sell it and make most of my money back so its never really money lost .

For me it is a nice quiet hobby that I can be creative with and develope some skills in a real environment with exant objects. In other words, I can show off my display case of models, but no one wants to see my Pokemons.
I have a handfull of other hobbies, but most require other people, being outside, lots of driving and fairly large amounts of cash as well, so modeling and 40k are a nice thing that I can do pretty much any time I want, though the 40k bit of course requires at least one person.

My wife likes the hobby since I don't get hurt (well as much as SCA fighting) and doesn't require driving all over the place, so I can sit and paint while we watch a movie or whatever. Plus she can talk to me while I do it without me getting cranky, like when she tries to chat while I am reading (HERESY!)

So I gotta have a hobby or 3, and of the three or so I have, it is a hobby that has little negative impact on the rest of my life, and while I think it should be cheaper, I can spend enough on it to keep me busy and happy without cutting into any other things that need money.

Wehrkind wrote:but no one wants to see my Pokemons.

Nor hear about your pokemons ! Naw, I am just kiddin ...Don't hurt me!

I haven't justified a wife to my collection of unpainted GW stuff.

Lets face it a wife is really expensive!

Time and money!

How do I justify it.

I buy from Maelstrom Games.

Also it is my only hobby so my wife knows what I am doing...

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:How do I justify it.

I buy from Maelstrom Games.

Also it is my only hobby so my wife knows what I am doing...

And after looking around their site, I shop there too!

"I could be going to the strip club or play golf, honey!"

How do I justify it to my wife. Well she paints the most expensive army out there SOB which she picked for me to play because she liked the models. I get away with my other two models by not complaining about her buisness of selling AVON which takes up most of my house and then she is into fitness which she spends about 100 bucks a month on that one so if I only spend 50 here and 50 there its no big deal since she spends each month to stay in shape. She looks good don't get me wrong but when it costs over 100 bucks to do it a month then she can't say much. Pluse we never are doing without so if i spend money for the models she can't complain.

40k is the cheapest hobby I have so my justification or rationalization is pretty easy.

I buy a lot of used models. I also sell a lot on ebay. I find cheap lots of stuff, keep what I need and sell the rest. In the past 6 months all of the money that I've spent has come from ebay sales. Meanwhile I've doubled the size of my orks, vampire counts and lizardmen. I've also built a bretonnian army and a space marine army from scratch.

I lie about the price, simple as that.

Its good therapy to me. When I am painting or scraping paint off models or whatever I dont really think of anything else but my little guys. Even though my painting will never go above table top standard its still a helluva lot better then other peoples I see at FLGS or the local GW place. I live with my parents and pay half the mortgage and pay all the utilitys so I dont have to justify the cost to anyone but myself.