How much do you spend a year?

Oh, let's not go there.     

Paging scott.smith... 

George

Yes, let's not go there!

Too much!

Neal Jeter

OK, 1st rule of the hobby is don't hit the total button.   

During the "build" years of the collection it sounds about right.  Now much less.  However, buying a few "top end" new items will get you there in a hurry.

My friend with HO says when you compare the cost per square foot,  HO and O are the same cost.   It sounds about right.

An additional thought.  This was "average" so for all those that spend less than 1K a month, there must be those spending much more than the average. 

Really depends on the year, but I'm way below "average".

I also wonder how he calculated that number, since most sales are through dealers. 

I agree with Mike, starting a new layout in 1999/2000, new Atlas O track, switches, Gargraves and Ross custom track, Trains, controllers, cars, bench work, screws, bolts, plywood, lumber, homasote, paint, scenery material, track lighting, yes, one could easily spend over $5K a year. I can remember when $12K a year was easy to spend, but at the prices today, one could spend So Much More... (average $2K per year now) We do need to watch what we say, our wives might be reading???? Remember 1998- 1999, Lionel came out with the Allegheny/Big Boy steamers, Wow, they added up quick…. Happy Railroading Everyone

Is this even a serious question?

My answer is “a lot”….a predetermined percent of my yearly disposable budget.

Donald

Lets not go there but one year many years ago I spent over $8000.00 in one year and it almost cost me my marriage. Now we just don't talk about what I spend because she spends more on her sewing and quilting.

I prefer to think of it in terms of what i save a year by deciding not to buy something...whatever the reasoning may be.  I'm always sure to tell the Mrs. "I saved $X today by not buying that box car online"...but usually dont tell her what i spent for a new engine on pre-order...

I spend around 1 to 10 hours a week in the train room... .............  daniel 

@JPS posted:

During the Train World Interview with Mike Wolf he mentioned that their average customer spent $5500 per year on train stuff/the hobby.  He did not say what year only something like 'when we last surveyed it' so not sure how recent that figure is.

That seems like a lot both because five thousand is still real money and many, like me, would not have enough room to add that much stuff a year to what is likely a full layout and train room.

Wondering what people here really spend per year on average.

I have an acquaintance who is selling the bulk of his collection as he is moving and doesn't feel like moving it nor paying for storage to house it.  He's a runner so he does use most of what he owns but there are items which have never been removed from the shipping carton.  He provided me a list of his inventory - it totaled 1.2 million dollars.  Seeing as how he and his wife are both retired, he can obviously afford it.  I have another friend in the hobby who easily has $150k of engines on the shelves on the walls of his train room.  So yes, the average of $5.5k per year is not surprising to me at all.

I am well south of that average but more power to those who's pockets are deeper than mine as I would spend more if I was in a position to do so.

-Greg

You'd have to ask the CFO of this house.  She's into the hobby, too!  OTOH, if I dread the answer, I'll ignore the question.

I thought the end of MTH, the flood-of-fantasy from Lionel, and the who-knows-what of Atlas would provide a respite for the wallet.

However...

The real answer for us in the past couple of years seems to lie somewhere in the notifications from Scott Mann.  These squeaky wheels have been well greased, thank you 3rd Rail!

A better addendum to the question, though, might be "...and are you still having FUN!?"   

Which yields a solid "YES!...YOU BET!"

IMHO, of course.

KD

WayBack in 85 I bought a huge Flyer collection and as I was unloading the fourth truckload in the basement the wife came out on the deck with her hip outta joint and said " The trains go or I go."  The trains stayed, she went.  j

I look at it this way. There's far more worse I could be spending my money and time on. So with that in mind my extremely loving and understanding wife is good with my hobby. As long as the bills are paid, there's money in savings, retirement funds, kids savings and college funds and the adulting responsibilities are handled, food on the table,etc,etc. Then whatever is left over we both should be able to enjoy what we love doing with the disposable income. And if push comes to shove ,and I really want something,i sell something I really don't want anymore at a great price to fellow forum members or the bay. I'm not even going to try to add up what I spend a year. As long as all the above is handled ,my wife (who will be up for saint hood for being married to me 😜) is happy then I'm going to continue to enjoy my post and prewar trains! Enjoy your hobby folks! It's the best and most enjoyable experience besides my family and friends whom I share the hobby with.

I don't really know and frankly, I'm not sure if I want to know.

At this point, essentially zero, except for ERR kits. Paint and such. Styrene. Goo. I have an inventory of projects.

I don't shop from home, I shop at home.

I would still spring for the right big-ticket item - like a correct L&N M-1 2-8-4.

@DanssuperO posted:

I spend around 1 to 10 hours a week in the train room... .............  daniel 

That’s OK. I spend maybe 1 to 2 hours a week in the train room, if that. ( Into other things. 😉)

I have everything I need.
so, being semi retired now, I am grateful. So being without disposable hobby income the question just doesn’t apply to me. What a relief!

https://images.app.goo.gl/gDturkimaVsmCGyb7

5500 can in the hobby be spent a lot of different ways. Two or three high end engines, layout expansion material or a roster of rolling stock. Me I probably spend triple that on all of the above and Iam living the dream!

I pretty much have what I need,late 30s to mid 50s Western Railroads so I spend about $4,000 a year.I just ordered the Lionel SP Mogul and earlier I picked up the SP Articulated Passenger Cars.

Mikey

As much as I feel like. No kids at home, no bills, time to enjoy life and if there is something I want, I buy it. Helps that wife likes the trains too. I let her pick what she wants, too, yep. She used to get the catalogs and take a marker and circle what she wanted.

Although I have bought three great conventional locos from TrainWorld on sale, I guess I am not their average customer.

I have a fairly complicated 10' x 5' layout, with 9 switches, on a very solid custom built table, with 3 conventional steam engines, and three conventional diesels, plus about 25 cars, with foam track underlay, and a Z-1000, and all told, over the past two and a half year, I have spent about $2,800.     Except for three of the locos, and the materials and paint to build the table, and the foam track underlay, and the wire, all of the rest was bought used. 

And happily, all of my trains run great.

From here on out, I will probably spend about $500 per year. Maybe $250 on my birthday and $250 at Christmas.

I am now in the "add interesting operating trackside accessories" mode, but you can find those used in VG condition for fairly cheap.  Most of my time is now spent trying to wire them up and get them operating.

I think that once somebody gets hooked on "collecting" trains, or buying totally realistic scale O, or complicated command control systems, then they are doomed to poverty!   :-)

(Not for me thanks!)

Mannyrock

My Hobby Car costs and what the wife says.  Just change train for car, it's all the same.

There were times in the distant past that I was in the $5,000 per year + range, but now more like the $500-1000 per year range.

Would say that's a misquote or wild exaggeration without some other limiting context.   Maybe that's how much an average customer would spend if they bought everything their little hearts desired until they ran out of room or money, whichever came first.

What, me worry?

When I take a break from buying trains, you can watch NASDAQ falter…..😳……god I gotta stop!……gotta run, an engine just been delivered!….

Pat

I am pleading the fifth.

And I’m pleading for more trains!  

I no longer have a wife to answer to, but I think it's still best if I plead the 5th here.

It's somewhere between $1 and $100,000 lol

-Eric Siegel

Wow, this is a hard to answer Question, earlier I said my annual spending on trains was around $2K, but, I failed to mention that I also sell some of the older trains to purchase the newer trains. So, all in all, I probably spend around $1K, give or take a few dollars. Being retired has made it a bit harder to afford the top of the line locomotives, so, I’m a player for the secondary market, it’s more affordable. One thing for sure our trains can be resold if we take care of them. Happy Railroading Everyone

If the average year ends in April, that is about right.

@JPS posted:

Wondering what people here really spend per year on average.

Please provide me with your SS #, primary bank account number, and routing number.  Give me a week and you'll know the answer to your question.

I have never, EVER tried to keep track of my hobby spending. If I did that, I might get the urge to cut back. If things are going good, I spend more. If they’re bad, I spend less.
After getting laid off, and being unemployed for 21 months, I am working again and making more than I did in my previous career. I feel a spending uptick is on the way. 😎

Err, . . . there's this ancient concept called "saving."

You may want to look into it!  :-)

Mannyrock

I don't know and don't want to know.

Not more than I can afford.  It’s purely discretionary spending after all the needs are taken care of

@JPS posted:

Mike Wolf he mentioned that their average customer spent $5500 per year on train stuff/the hobby.

That comment also grabbed my attention. (Mike's interview was a gem!) I think the average number is tilted upwards a bit factoring in that Tony Lash was buying most every MTH product as it hit the market (certainly all the engines.) Mike didn't say exactly what year(s) that average applied. Even in my heyday of building and buying (1995 - 2005) I never quite hit that average. (I made good use of the K-Line Collectors Club.)  For each York, I recall budgeting myself a max of $1000 including the the cost of donuts under the racing stands. But in the old days of York, I could see how easily someone could spend $10,000 with very little effort.

Another thought...

If your hobby spending were to include the costs of travel/meals/accommodations/fees to hobby stores, meets, shows, flea markets, etc., I would imagine that figure to be quite realistic.  I'm not sure those costs are in Mike Wolf's estimate, but I can assure you that during the past year, especially, they have become more significant to 'spending for the hobby' for us. 

We no longer have the class A diesel RV in which we traveled from Michigan to York twice a year.  Gave that beast up about 3 years ago.  But at the price of $6+ per gallon of diesel fuel we figure the fuel costs alone of that round trip would now cost $800, or $1600 for two annual meets per year.  And that's even if we returned 'empty-handed'.  (Yeah, that never happened!!) 

Our current wheels are far more fuel efficient, but we've even taken bundling of errands to heart in an effort to mitigate the $4-5/gal. fuel costs of late. 

Lots more to consider in budgeting/spending.   ...As a family, that is.  ...Not as a nation, unfortunately!   (Oops!...sorry.)

KD

@JPS posted:

During the Train World Interview with Mike Wolf he mentioned that their average customer spent $5500 per year on train stuff/the hobby...

...what people here really spend per year on average?

My old high school math teacher Sister Barbara once told us that averages can be deceiving, if you slept with your feet in an oven and your head in a freezer on average you should be quite comfortable. If you eliminate the low ends and high ends then you have a more realistic view of what the center bulk (majority) was spending, think bell curve here. If you have 6 people, one spends $100, one spends $500, two spend $1000 each, one spends $1500 and one spends $7500 that comes to $11600 total with an average cost to each of $1933.33 but just going with the center bulk $4000 split 4 ways you get a more realistic figure of $1000 each, about half the average. I know this is an over simplification but you get the gist, the overwhelming majority of us who have trains don't spend $5000 plus a year and probably never did ever. I know even back in my serious building/ going to York twice a year days $3500 a year  was tops and only once or twice did that ever happen. Now if I spend $1500 a year that is a big year for me, I usually spend about $500. So when you hear people complain that so and so only makes expensive high end stuff or low end entry level junk and not much for the regular Joe I can see where they're coming from. Maybe that's why Menards is as popular as they are, a good product for not a ton of money, Williams used to be another one, as was K-Line back in the day.

As for me the secondary market is where it's at, 99% of the time I can find things I want or like for a good price and many time less than for what they originally went for.

Jerry