CNJ831 wrote: As with a number of the posters above, I've pretty much cut my hobby budget by 50% to 60% over the course of the past two years (formerly it was about $1500 per) and expect to cut it further if the current national ecomonic situation doesn't improve soon.The recent posts to this 5 year old thread cause me to wonder just who is keeping this hobby going financially? More than 15 years ago, when MR was still providing its readers with a profile of its "average" hobbyist, based on its own surveys, it was claimed that $1,000 was spent annually by the average model railroader. Now, many years later, the average generally indicated by recent posts seems typically a half of that figure and after factoring in inflation, would be closer to 1/3. Over the same interval, most model railroad items have increased dramatically in price. This tends to give me the impression that the majority of the more expensive products today must be being purchased by a rather small faction of modelers, rather than any broad multitide. I suppose that this is exactly what has spurred about everything for the hobby being offered only as limited runs and the prices, especially locomotives, rising to the sky with just about each new example offered. It also makes me wonder just how many of the manufacturers may currently be very near the edge of solvency.CNJ831
As with a number of the posters above, I've pretty much cut my hobby budget by 50% to 60% over the course of the past two years (formerly it was about $1500 per) and expect to cut it further if the current national ecomonic situation doesn't improve soon.
The recent posts to this 5 year old thread cause me to wonder just who is keeping this hobby going financially? More than 15 years ago, when MR was still providing its readers with a profile of its "average" hobbyist, based on its own surveys, it was claimed that $1,000 was spent annually by the average model railroader. Now, many years later, the average generally indicated by recent posts seems typically a half of that figure and after factoring in inflation, would be closer to 1/3. Over the same interval, most model railroad items have increased dramatically in price. This tends to give me the impression that the majority of the more expensive products today must be being purchased by a rather small faction of modelers, rather than any broad multitide. I suppose that this is exactly what has spurred about everything for the hobby being offered only as limited runs and the prices, especially locomotives, rising to the sky with just about each new example offered. It also makes me wonder just how many of the manufacturers may currently be very near the edge of solvency.
CNJ831
Adding to this, at least in my scale one thing I've also noticed is a ever increasing trend in marketing high price limited run items to a small pool of long established deep pocketed model railroaders, add to this the trend of only ever larger offering that require larger layouts that are ever more expensive, while almost ignoring the core base of modelers with average size layouts and the beginners entirely. I wonder if this trend is also true in HO.
Have fun with your trains
Hi!
That is a hard question to answer, mainly because I have been in the hobby for a very long time. I guess my "high dollar" time came from 1990 thru 2008, and each year would have easily been in excess of $1,000. However, in the last 4 years, I have held winter Ebay auctions to facilitate upgrades of locos and to thin out a huge collection of cars/kits that I had stockpiled. Then the proceeds went towards higher grade locos (BLI, Stewart, Kato) and passenger cars (Walthers). So my out of pocket cost was much lower in these years.
May I share a story somewhat related to your question? When I was "between wives" in the 1990s, I would of course show off my HO room filling layout to serious dates. Their reaction typically gave an indication as to how we would fare as a "couple". Ha, one lady was very successful in her career and I initially thought she would be a "keeper". Well, the first words she said upon viewing the layout was "How much did all this stuff cost?" Needless to say, we didn't last long together.
On the other end of the spectrum, my wife to be was genuinely impressed with the layout, asked a lot of sincere and meaningful questions, and hand painted several cattle and figures I had on hand that were in need of such. She did an outstanding job, and needless to say we were married not long after. Oh, her enthusiasm for the hobby (for me, not for her per se) remains high, and you can't ask for more than that.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
modelmaker51 wrote:This thread is from 2003!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Half as much as I would like to but my wife says the figure is closer to twice as much as I should!
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
vsmith wrote:I dont keep track, that way I dont get shocked. But I do try to stretch each buck. $100 is the top I will spend in a month time. That total not per item.
Holy Moly, 5 years later and my budget has actually gone down!!!
Try to limit it at $50 a month, but I'm trying not to buy anything at all, as money is very tight right now. Been forcing myself to kitbash and scratch build, as its much cheaper- if not almost free.
My train budget is 20 bucks a week. Less if I don't make enough to cover everything else (school, gas, IRA, insurance, etc)
So that's about 1,040 a year.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
QUOTE: Originally posted by jackjackson I am a young railroad fan and I wish I could spend much more but I spend just about $100 a year and I learn to make it satisfy my needs. My parents don't like it when I spend to much at one time though.