Price of playing

[Kiwidave]

I've just finished cataloguing all my gaming stuff prior to emigrating (and I'm never doing it again - life is too short),and it's interesting/eye-opening how much I've got from a cost perspective.

6mm GW Epic:     £180.00
10mm Historical £1,436.20
15mm Historical    £130.20
28mm Historical    £980.00
28mm Fantasy      £253.00
Books                  £370.00
Total               £3,349.40

This is only the replacement cost, and some of it is pure guesswork (especially the GW stuff) and I haven't included odd-ball stuff, paints, scratchbuilt items etc etc

I suspect that this is still quite a modest collection though....

[Subedai]

I reckon if I totalled up all the unpainted lead I have that would be enough to make me weep, let alone all the painted chaps I have. I might game mostly in 6mm but the amount soon mounts up. Very rough estimate of painted 6mm chaps in Irregular blocks is 20 or so armies at seven only a £1 a block...there's two grand to start with!

[petercooman]

I wouldn't dare to count mine.

but i counted up all my pendraken orders i made in the last 3 years (still had the emails) And came to a total of 648,73 £

I have been buying wargames for 22 years so i bet i'll have spent a tad more 

[Zippee]

I'm confident I could add a 0 to that without breaking the upper limit.

40 years of continuous expenditure, you'd think it's be bl**dy painted by now 

[petercooman]

I wouldn't dare to count mine.

but i counted up all my pendraken orders i made in the last 3 years (still had the emails) And came to a total of 648,73 £

I have been buying wargames for 22 years so i bet i'll have spent a tad more 

Just had a quick count and i can add 400£ of x wing miniatures in the last 3 years too, and 230£ of war at sea minis.

I'm not even going to add up those 200 LOTR and 800-900 gw fantasy and 40 k models 

You never now SWMBO is reading this 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

(Censored) in case the Mrs reads this!

[Ithoriel]

Are we talking

     What I paid? - lowest figure thanks to buying much of it from sales, bring & buy stalls, eBay, etc. Also, should one adjust for inflation?

     What they'd cost to replace? - probably highest value as I have lots of old, hard to get figures

     What I'd get if I sold them? - I'm guessing somewhere between those two.

[DanJ]

Adjusting for inflation probably the equivalent of £3-400 per year for the past 35 years.  Possibly double that if you add in books.

And a lot more if you include travel to exotic holiday locations which have an military/historical connection but these can sometimes be problematic.  I haven't been able to persuade her to come with me to Flanders, but Rome (twice) was an easy one 

[Kiwidave]

My value is just the replacement cost - i.e. what I'd need from the insurance company if the boat sinks....

Resale value is hopefully higher, as about half of this list is painted.

[Leman]

Golf's more expensive and remarkably pointless.

[jimduncanuk]

I'm confident I could add a 0 to that without breaking the upper limit.

40 years of continuous expenditure, you'd think it's be bl**dy painted by now  

Over the last couple of years I have been selling a forty plus years collection belonging to my deceased best mate.

This took 14 car journeys just to move it all, dusted and cleaned the painted bits, painted the unpainted bits, built the unstarted bits, painted them, sold them at two years worth of shows, direct personal sales and eBay. All of his chums got something from the collection as a personal memento.

I raised over £10,000 for charity, heaven knows how much it cost to buy new, never mind the inflation component.

Some prices I got were 2-3 times the bare metal cost, some just a bit more, some at face value and some at less.

It's all painted now and hopefully on someone's table being pushed about.

[Leman]

Good to know someone's love of the hobby has gone on to benefit others. 

[fred.]

Over the last couple of years I have been selling a forty plus years collection belonging to my deceased best mate.

This took 14 car journeys just to move it all, dusted and cleaned the painted bits, painted the unpainted bits, built the unstarted bits, painted them, sold them at two years worth of shows, direct personal sales and eBay. All of his chums got something from the collection as a personal memento.

I raised over £10,000 for charity, heaven knows how much it cost to buy new, never mind the inflation component.

Some prices I got were 2-3 times the bare metal cost, some just a bit more, some at face value and some at less.

It's all painted now and hopefully on someone's table being pushed about.

This is a really great thing to have done Jim. Doublely so as it is for charity.

[fred.]

I'm not adding up the cost of my lead collection. And I've only been back in the hobby for 10-15 years.

I tend to buy little and often lots of eBay stuff on top of new stuff.

I've just looked at a photo of my painted WM High Elves - there are 65 units, at a conservative £10 a unit that's quite a bit! And there is more unpainted (but not a lot) and thats just 1 of several GW WM armies

[Steve J]

Over the past 10 years or so that I have got back into wargaming, I must have bought a few £1,000 worth of stuff, much of it sold on as I slowly downsize to 10mm. No idea how much I currently have in the attic and probably don't want to!

[jimduncanuk]

This is a really great thing to have done Jim. Doublely so as it is for charity.

Certainly the board of Hollybush House (Combat Stress in Scotland) were very happy.

[fred.]

I'll say 'well done' again.

You may not want the publicity, but Henry Hyde the editor of Miniature Wargames has been collecting for Combat Stress for some time (through the magazine) your total would add about 50% to the total the magazine has collected! A really generous use of your time, and a great way to turn your friend's stuff into a legacy.

[paulr]

Over the last couple of years I have been selling a forty plus years collection belonging to my deceased best mate.

This took 14 car journeys just to move it all, dusted and cleaned the painted bits, painted the unpainted bits, built the unstarted bits, painted them, sold them at two years worth of shows, direct personal sales and eBay. All of his chums got something from the collection as a personal memento.

I raised over £10,000 for charity, heaven knows how much it cost to buy new, never mind the inflation component.

Some prices I got were 2-3 times the bare metal cost, some just a bit more, some at face value and some at less.

It's all painted now and hopefully on someone's table being pushed about.

As others have said, an amazing effort Jim, particularly when you compare it to our progress on our own lead mountains

A great contribution to worthy charities

and

It's all painted now and hopefully on someone's table being pushed about.

[jimduncanuk]

A great contribution to worthy charities

Some other charities also benefitted from the grand total raised; SSAFA for one, MacMillan Cancer for another, Diabetes Research to name another.

I also understand that the family of my chum have sold his house and have made a 'substantial donation' to the Scottish Wildlife Trust for a piece of new woodland to be created in his name.

[JeffNNN]

Can we please lock  down this thread under a seal our respective "She who must be obeyed" partners cannot possibly penetrate. N.B. I'm typing this on a bit of kit that runs under GCHQ Protocols so I can risk saying it. I've been gaming for nearly 50 years and have never parted with anything I bought and painted in that time. My son also had a spell of GW 40 K and Epic so we've got loads of that. (Squats anyone?) Or Tallarn with "spice blue" eyes.

As for books, well my Access database says there's over 1600 of them. Many are paperbacks but many not so figure £5 a volume on average. You can do the math, I'm tired and emotional.