Yet Another Perspective on How Much Money We Spend on Our Hobby

Makes me glad I don't live in NYC!  My Y6B set me back more than my pair of upper level Browns season tickets.  I know, I know - I'm a masochist. And playoffs?!? Don't talk about playoffs...!

Thanks Mike for reminding me of all the money I have wasted these pass couple of years on the Phillies Not including cable, MLB. Just think I'm also a flyers fan, please pray for me, lol.

Great point! 

that's a whole lot of VL Big Boys!

I don't know what season ticket prices are in Pittsburgh, but the point is well taken.  We have taken in a few Butler Blue Sox minor league games this year.  ( I am shocked you haven't heard of this team before ). LOL. To my point, in their brochure, they show the value of taking a family of four to a low, low level minor league game versus a AAA game, or a major league game.  They list average parking, snacks, and transportation costs of each.  So whatever the cost of tickets, there are other incidental costs involved in going to one game, much less season tickets.

I spoke in person to a Forum member today.  He mentioned the value of HO trains he owned in the past, then mentioned it was nothing compared to money he had in cars in the past.  I mentioned boats too.  He agreed.

I said all that to make myself feel better for spending an extra $300 recently on this great hobby of ours.  LOL

David,

How times change.  I remember the day the Pirates and Penguins couldn't touch the Phillies and Flyers, especially in Philadelphia.  They'll come back.  The Pirates did...after 20 years. 

Hey Mike - I love it that you brought this point up and a great point it is.  I'm not at all a sports fan ( but do enjoy going occassionally to Camden Yards in Baltimore for an Os game, drinking a couple of bears and eating Polish sausages and just taking in the energy of being there    Reading your post has helped melt away any guilt I've had for spending so much money on model trains.... which collectively over the last 12 years is not what season tickets would cost for most major sports teams ... and I know folks who have season tickets to not one but two major sports teams.  You really put it all into fine perspective Mike - many thanks for your insightful observations!!  AND the best thing is with trains our team always wins too!

Makes the NHL channel on cable look like a bargain. 

Thanks Mike for reminding me how much I have saved over the years by NOT attending any major sports events.  The amounts they charge even for regular games is criminal!

Or consider golf. Here in DFW, our local municipal course has tee times ranging between $45 and $60 during the week. "Club" courses are of course much higher. So, over the course of a year, you've sunk quite a bit of cash.

Or boating. Again, here in DFW many folks have boats. Which cost big bucks up front, plus all the accessories, gas, etc., that goes with a day on the lake.

It's all how you want to spend your time. Time takes money.

$16k per year and all you have to show for it is a stack of ticket stubs.

You did not include $30 to park your car, $8 for a beer and $5 for a hot dog.

Factor all that in and it makes our trains look cheap less expensive.

Yup, I can spend whatever I want on trains (if they'd make something interesting, so

I could), or other hobbies, because of all the stuff other people spend their money on,

that I don't....such as, I walked through a bourbon distillery, not too long ago...that

stuff is pricey, and it won't burn in my car, so I buy gas and chase trains.  Now, if I

had the skills, I would have been a pro athlete and cashed those checks, but PAY to

watch OTHER people buy Ferraris, and do again this weekend what they did last weekend........??? Prithee, you jest.

Since San Diego Sport team are not playoff worth teams (Padres and Chargers) many buy season tickets most people sell the tickets or give them away, you could probably be able to buy anything you want because season tickets for the Padres are very cheap, so are the Chargers.

The price of sports tickets makes me happy that I never want to go see a game.  I just don't have any interest.

Back in '68-'70 I lived near the Jersey shore, and a friend of mine and I built and raced mini-stock cars.  On a good Saturday night we could win $46 which doesn't sound like much today, but it paid for building the cars.  By the end of the '70 season, we were winning most of the feature races.  

Guys I worked with weren't interested in racing, so they went to New Hampshire to ski.  The ski weekends were fairly expensive, and there was no money to be made skiing, but these guys thought were crazy for spending all that money on racing.  The fact that they would spend several hundred dollars on a ski weekend was not considered.

Today, I own a lot of O gauge 3 rail trains and track.  But this has been accumulated over a period of 40 years, so the yearly cost isn't very high.  Tubular track, post war engines and cars don't cost too much these days.

Guys, you oughta own a 41' Viking sportfish. When you return to the dock, a successful day is that nothing broke. And that's not a knock on Vikings, it is the fun of ownership.

Fall means Virginia Tech football. Five hours one way is a lot of driving to see a loss to East Carolina. I passed up a fishing trip for this???

Trains! Now that makes sense to me.

Hi Carl.   Yes, I've heard that boat ownership is akin to continually pouring money into a bottomless vat.  I used to live in Fort Lauderdale, on the Intracoastal Waterway.  A lot of condo owners there had boat slips, and there was more than one person who told me they deliberately settled for a one bedroom condo there so they'd have more money to spend on their true passion...and in some cases the value of the boat was way more than the value of the condo.

Happiest day in a boater's life:  When he buys the boat.

2nd Happiest day in a boater's life:  When he sells the boat.

Mike,

  Same thing goes here in OH--IO for the National Champs ttickets.

But the one thing that the trains have over (most) other things we spend money on, is I can walk into the TRAIN ROOM and still see the MONEY just in a different form. And the one thing about money is, there is pleanty of it out there, the key is "HOW to get it. So if you look at you collection, or anyone else looks at theirs, you are seeing your money right in front of you. Maybe look at it like, the sports, smoking thoses types of things are MEMORY purches, intangables, the TRAINS and ect tangable things.

And in the over-all scheme of thins life is about doing what we like and can do to enjoy our average 75 years of life. So enjoy what you like to spend your money on.

Oh ya,was up in Birmingham MI a couple of weeks ago, and its still one oof the Best placces to live, IMO.

Marshall

Everybody makes choices what to do with their time and money.

Leave it at that and move on.

A thought provoker to start the day, good one Mike.

The bottom line as I see it is when the game and season are over, what you have is memories, and if you are a Rangers fan and spent that kind of money, they were not the result you had hoped for. Not even a parade for you like the Blackhawks had yesterday. Zero, nothing, empty, waste basket, etc.

Now for O-Gauge trains. Yesterday I had the opportunity to unbox the Lionel Daylight Can Forward. What a beautiful engine. I got to put it on a main line and run it for the first time. It hopefully will be around for a long time. I get to see it, hold it, enjoy it, and it is not just a faint memory. So it is with all of our train equipment.

You sure make a good point, Mike. More folks should look at it this way. And one other point you make (indirectly) What about the cost of our trains way back when and now compared to pro sports. When Shaeffer Stadium first opened in Foxboro, I had   3 seasons tickets on the 40 yard line. Total cost for pre-season and all of the regular games was $ 1,240.00. Today, my guess would be around 30K for these seats. Our trains are looking better and better my the day.

Or consider that a honeymoon that can run $15k.  Or a wedding at say $50k. Or a vacation at $6k.  Imagine if we just didn't bother with any life experiences at all how much more money we would have to sink into toy trains, sit in the basement and watch them go round and round!  

People have different interests and spend the money accordingly.  Justifying spending enormous amounts of money on trains by saying people spend more on sports tickets is giving in to the idea, erroneous in my view, that someone needs to justify how they spend their money to other people who have different priorities and values.  If you enjoy trains and your disposable income permits it, buy as much as you can afford.  If you enjoy sports and your disposable income permits it, get season tickets.  Whatever floats your boat. 

My wife is amazed at my thought process with regard to buying trains.

To me it's simple.

Asparagus, more than $3.99/lb.?  Pass

Vision Big Boy at York a bit less than $2,000? Wrap it up, Vince

Where's the mystery?

The wife is told all the time that train purchases are done! What happens, a nice L&N car shows up on the forum or "other “venue and it has to be bought for the layout.

Brent

I spend my money on trains and sometimes I don't make good purchase decisions.  Why did I buy that?  

I also enjoy going to sports events but I won't pay for season tickets.  The Warriors play about a mile from my house.  I watch the games on TV.  I am going to watch the victory parade through Oakland on TV also.  This is one of the few good events that has happened to Oakland during the past few years.

Yeahhhhh........not really true.

Happiest days for most boaters are those being out on water on a beautiful day with the familiy! 

Jim

As most folks have said, it's a matter of priorities.

#1 son and I always had a rough time of it during his youth/adolescence (he's 32 now).  He was never interested in the stuff I was, and never really wanted to learn how to fix things like #2 son did.  Regardless, I was always there for him, and always coached/asst coached his baseball teams. That was his passion.  He had the passion, just didn't have the natural ability.

Well, when he got a job that paid really big bucks, he said he was going to buy a mini-plan to the TX Rangers. Since my b'day is in April, he bought one for me as well.

To this day, we each buy one HALF-season ticket, and we go to the games together. That is our time, and to me, it's priceless.  We don't go to all the games - 40 games is a LOT of games, so we sell most of the tickets. We end up making back about 80% of our ticket purchase price over the year, and since we're considered season ticket holders, we have our own seats for any playoff games that might come our way. Even better, he buys the parking pass package.

Yeah, my wife uses that 'logic' with me all the time in regard to other non-hobby related stuff being cheaper (model trains is just one of several things that I really enjoy).

My reply has always been this, "Yeah? Dog poop is free but you don't see me picking any up, do you?"

I've also pointed out the current medical theory of why there's much obesity among poor people, in that healthy food is often more expensive than less-healthy stuff.

Either of the above will usually kill the cost argument right in its tracks.

"Happiest day in a boater's life:  When he buys the boat. 

2nd Happiest day in a boater's life:  When he sells the boat."

I totally agree, not true at all in our case. I have had the boat for 11 years and it was one of the best buys I have ever made. It gives us so much pleasure 6 months out of the year. Maintenance cost has been practically zero and since it is docked in the back yard, no slip fee either.

I have found trains and boats are a pretty good combination for recreational time.

Your prices for the Ranger tickets are the same for Good seats at a Red Wings games.

You are right you have to pay for ALL the post season games. If they don't get very far

they will hold your money for free and apply it to next years tickets.... That is really

nice of them to do that for you...

$16,000 a year on trains!!

 Add up the MSRP on the MTH and Lionel 2015 catalogs and

I'll bet it's close !!!  

I think the part I highlighted is why you don't have the woes that all the boat owners I know have. Having it out of water will keep your costs way down.

Someone tried to sell me a WW2-design LCVP landing craft (postwar made with fiberglass sides) once. I seriously looked into it but when I found how much it would cost just to keep it docked somewhere (it's way too big to put on any trailer other than a 18-wheeler), my eyeballs wanted to leap out of my skull in shock. And that's the rent for the slip, not factoring in any other cost.

I've never been a big fan of the water other than swimming in it when is till lived in Florida...

I'm still only spending about $9.00 a day on trains.

rat

The NBA has the youngest audience, with 45 percent of its viewers under 35. It also has the highest share of black viewers, at 45 percent—three times higher than the NFL or NCAA basketball.   

• Major League Baseball shares the most male-heavy audience, at 70 percent, with the NBA.  
• The NHL audience is the richest of all professional sports. One-third of its viewers make more than $100k, compared to about 19 percent of the general population.  
• Nascar's audience has the highest share of women (37 percent) and highest share of white people (94 percent).  
• The Professional Golfers Association has the oldest audience by multiple measures: smallest share of teenagers; smallest share of 20- and early 30-somethings; and highest share of 55+ (twice as high, in the oldest demo, as the NBA or Major League Soccer).  
• Major League Soccer has the highest share of Hispanics by far (34 percent; second is the NBA at 12 percent) and the lowest income of any major sports audience. Nearly 40 percent of its fans make less than $40k.  
• The NCAA demographics for football and basketball are practically identical but they are surprising old (about 40% over 55+) and surprisingly white (about 80%), which clearly has as much to do with who owns a TV rather than who follows the sports

Build to Order has stopped me from impulse purchases.

I have order several large ticket items and some rolling stock.

Now when I see things on the Forum or at my local LHS, 

I have to stand down, to make sure I have the funds for this fall,

when my "Build to Order" items come in...........

Gary 

Cheers from

mike.caruso,

          I want to take this opportunity to offer you my sincere thanks for stating that the Philadelphia Phillies only kind of stink this year.  You are truly a charitable individual.  I have been a Phillies fan all the way back to the very early 1950s and I have suffered through some very bad baseball teams.  Especially bad were the 1960 through 1962 teams but this years squad may top them all.  I'm wondering if they can top their own record this year and lose 24 in a row.  Nope, no season tickets for me.  Actually it works out great 'cause I get to spend more on trains-but no Phillies trains.

I still have my ticket stub from a game I saw at Forbes Field in 1969, Pirates against the Reds.  Lodge Seat, $2.75.  So Dad bought 3 tickets, that's $8.25 and paid to park at the Syria Mosque.  He wouldn't buy us any pop, said it was too expensive there.  So he got out of there spending less than $15.

I wonder how that would adjust for inflation? From the amounts above, I think it's still way lower than the 2015 equivalent.

I guess I should consider myself fortunate that I do not live in a market with teams from the majors. Otherwise, I might really have some expenses to justify to my wife. 

I pulled up the U.S. inflation Calculator.  1969 - 2015.  Lets say he spent $15, probably fair, because I left out gas.  80 mile round trip at 20 some cents per gallon.  Anyway, $15 in 1969 would be $97.20 today.  These were good seats too.  Just up the first base line from the box seats.

So, I said earlier I was deliberating on $300 spent on trains.  In 1969, that would have been $46, or three trips to take the boys to the Pirates game.  Today you can buy a lot of trains for what it takes to take two boys to three games and have field level seats!  Proves Mike's original point with historic data.  Pseudo scientific test??  ;-)