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I just sat and, incredibly depressingly, went through my order history from Element Games, Wayland Games, DarkSphere, ForgeWorld and eBay to get a rough estimate.

I've been back in the hobby for about 2 years now, and I've managed to spend about £8000 or thereabouts. A very large proportion of this has been Horus Heresy, from looking at the numbers.

Element - 1258.44
ForgeWorld - 2174.62
Wayland - 804.51
DarkSphere - 240.38
Ebay - 3500

And this isn't including Amazon, where I've spent a few hundred no doubt on texture paints and glues and the like.

I used to have a £1000/year habit. It's down to ~£300 now, what with rules and codexes to buy.
That's been since I restarted in 2011.

I've joked that the number in the name of the game is how much i've spent on the hobby since 1994...

I've currently got about $2K in cases (the cases, not the stuff in them).

Couldn't begin to add up the cost of minis, books and terrain over the last 30 years.

I daren't think about it, my largest army is Orks with 12,650 points, with most models requiring several kits to bash out...

Well I guess I'll have to admit to $100k+.

But that's spread over a 35 year span, many different miniature wargames (not just GW stuff), supplies/misc, & 30 years of traveling around to gaming cons.
Obviously if you wanted it broken down to just GW, or just 40k, the tally would be lower.

This hobby? Less than one figure from my other hobby. lol

If I include stand alone games, like Space Hulk, Blood Bowl, etc., I've probably spent between $1000 and $1200. If I include stuff I've bought for my son, even more.

Since 1996, probably about $10,000 USD.

Currently my budget is $200 CAD a month, so it's increasing at roughly $2,000 USD per year now.

it should be ~€5.000 over a period of 20 years for me.

The largest chunk would be my 1/2400 GHQ collection, followed by GW (Terrain, Space Marines, IG, Scions and a few Kill Teams), Flames of War (Terrain, Germans, US Airborne, LW British, LW Canadian), 1/285 GHQ, Sails of Glory, X-Wing and Armada.

If I had to add my Collectibe Card Games (Star Trek, WoW) and Board Game Series (e.g. Descent 2 /w all expansions), that number would go up a bit. Travel costs/housing for tournaments or game fairs aren't included either.

It sounds like a lot of money, but in the end it comes down to ~20-30€ a month. I've spent a lot more into restoring and racing my Escort Mk.1

More for me because of my main two armies, one is FW as partially OOP, and another is FW and completely OOP.

Too. Many. Models. Need. More. Must. Resist. The. Urge!!!!

 Ashrag wrote:
Wow including Airbrush, Showing cases, Painting supplies and 17 years worth of miniatures, books, tools, etc ... not to mention especially looking for a flat with an extra room only for the hobby and furnishing it ... I'd say somewhere between 20k and 30k.

That number there scares me - please someone say that's normal ...

100 usd a month for a hoppy is really not that bad, though yeah, over time it really ads up, but so does everything, engaging in a hobby activity is a stress relief, consider how much in healthcare costs you have saved and you've actually made a profit!

Honestly, I'm not sure how much I've spent on wargaming / hobby.

At the very start, I had a "fun" budget of $100 per month, but then I tapered to <$500/year, then I went to "net zero", and most recently, I've been selling stuff. I'm going to guess that my net spend is in the $1000-$3000 range, but it could be more, it could be less.

Over the last 24 years... ~$66,000 or ~$2750/yr or ~$230/mo.

Probably slightly over $100 on 40K... Scale models on the other hand- I think I need to get another job to support this... hobby Yet I am still minor leagues compared to a lot of y'all.

I recon i've spent around $8000 since 2011 on GW and FW products.
Models mostly, some books and a few scenery items.

No idea, but I don't want to add it up.

I have over AUD1500 in untouched boxes and starter sets sitting around me. Over 100 pots of paint. At least 10 characters/limited edition models in unopened boxes...

As for painted stuff, there's a large Dark Angels army (5000+ points), a small Death Watch army (1000+), a small Thousand Sons/Tzeench Demons army half painted (1000+)...

Oh, and all the rulebooks I have bought over the years.. The datacard packs, the paints that died up and were binned..

almost 2 decades in hobby...some10-12k$ i think ...muahahaha but I want MOOOORE!

Over the last 40 years .... about $60k. Many lots....

I guess $10K+, but that's from a variety of games, hobby accoutrements, and some complete do-overs (buying stuff up that I sold previously).

Also, a lot of the money spent has been "created" by selling off prior hobby stuff, so the actual net outcome is probably less.

Been gaming for 25-30 years.

 Elbows wrote:
I guess $10K+, but that's from a variety of games, hobby accoutrements, and some complete do-overs (buying stuff up that I sold previously).

Also, a lot of the money spent has been "created" by selling off prior hobby stuff, so the actual net outcome is probably less.

Been gaming for 25-30 years.

If you've averaged less than $35 per month for more than 25 years then I applaud your discipline.

Oh I definitely have.

1) Didn't buy much in college.
2) Shortly after college had a roommate who was a GW store manager so I got everything at cost/weight (the old metal bits were available paying purely by weight)
3) I didn't game for a solid 5-6 years while serving in a desert somewhere.
4) I mainly do non-GW games, so you get far more bang for buck.
5) If we include money recouped via eBay...

Yeah I'd say $35 a month is probably close to correct. This month I've spent maybe $60-70...all of which came from eBay sales of other random gaming stuff, so my net spending is in the negative this month (still got a stash of cash in PayPal).

The only thing that might ruin it was a splurge when I was very well off, where I may have picked up $2K worth of dwarven forge dungeons...

It is difficult to calculate due to a lot of little costs which adds up over time. It is easily 400 euros, I'm including all miniature games. I will get 500 euro investment at the end of this month. I will also buy some starter pack and essential kit for my friend as a way to thank him. So far it was mostly were those big starter packs which costed me 300 euros. I'm fine in spending another five hundreds in getting all the essentials like cases, brushes, more colors, expanding my armies from starter kits into functional ones, starting to collect armies which I actually like over the ones present in bundles, etc.

When last year I started shooting a bow and was looking at what bow to buy, people at the club usually tell me "I know, archery is a quite expensive activity...". Yeah, you know nothing about miniature wargaming, right?

well lets see-

40K-armies/parts of armies/formations since 3rd edition(do not still own them all, sold off a bunch)
.salamanders(DIY successor)
.dark angels-mostly gone
.pure deathwing-reduced
.pure ravenwing -reduced
.tyranids-gone
.sisters of battle-gone
.tau-gone
.mechanicus
.imperial guard
.baneblade tank
.macharius tank

CLASSIC BATTLETECH
100+minitures

DUST
.axis
.allies
.SSU

HEAVY GEAR
.CEF force

WARMACHINE
.khador army

B5 wars
.narn fleet
.ea fleet
.shadow fleet

STAR WARS
.armada ships (for b5 wars)
.collectable minis for use in RPGs

STAR TREK
attack wing ships(for B5 wars)

FORCES OF VALOR 1/32 WWII
.german battle group
.russian battle group

VICTORY AT SEA
.japanese fleet
.british fleet

DREAMFORGE
leviathan

MONSTER APOCALYPSE
.basic starter

AT-43
kharmans

MANTIC
.forge fathers

INFINITY
.enough to build 3 sectorial and one main force for haqqislam


OTHERS-
.lots of dice, templates, measuring devices etc..
.various rulebooks and codexes
.A dozen game mats
.large amounts of terrain
.lots of pluck foam
.several transport containers
.paints,brushes, modeling tools.

It has been over 20 years so it doesn't feel like i have spent that much, and GW prices used to be alot less, but still easily in the 10K range. i guess i am sticking with gaming for now

but thats like 1/3 of what i spent importing anime(videos/goods/figures/toys/models/art books/manga etc... in the 80s and 90s-still have all that)

damn i have expensive hobbies.... and thats not counting guitars and motorcycles/cycling i used to be into.

I thought it was less, but looking over my collection so far and all the paints I bought since I startet last year it should be something slightly above 1000 $, But on the other hand looking at the many hours of fun and relaxation it brought me I would say money well spent.

Over the years I've spent a lot, but I've also sold a lot of painted models for profit, so for most of my 40K career my overall my net cost isn't too bad.

Haven't sold much in the past few years though. . . and my collection seems to keep growing. . .

It's definitely somewhere between 3k and 6k in raw value when counting supplies, but I have sold a lot of models and armies to fund new ones. I've sold my Imperial Fists and bought my Thousand Sons, I sold my Iron Hands and bought my Deathwatch, and I sold my big Tau titan to buy my Blood Angels. I also bought a lot of my stuff in lots from ebay and got a few really good deals.

Already voted on this, cant remember when or how much.
All I know its likely to be a category or two higher than last time.