What is an expensive hobby?

[Martacus]

Nobody's mentioned espresso yet. I got my equipment on the cheap (re: heavily used) and it was still over $800 for just a grinder and a halfway decent espresso machine. Decent coffee beans are also expensive, running $15-20 per pound and needs to be used up in two weeks after roasting at most, maybe three weeks if you freeze it. Oh, technically you could buy unroasted beans cheaper and roast them yourself, but then you'd have to invest in a proper roaster to get any sort of consistent results, and all the experimentation, expense and waste involved with that, then finding the right grinder setting for your beans and on and on it goes.

But on the upside, some day you may be able to enjoy a good cup of coffee.

 

[Hornblower]

Oooh yes coffee! I'm a coffee snob and wouldn't think twice about spending on a good cup. There is a particular type of coffee that I'm keen to try called Kopi Lupak. It comes from Borneo and the beans have 'passed' through a Civet Cat first! At $21 for a cup though it really is expensive enough to give me pause before trying it.

 

[warpus]

How about hiking in the mountains for an expensive hobby? Last trip cost me like $7,000+ I seem to be addicted to hiking in remote & far away places..

 

[CaptainF]

Paintball is way too damn expensive.

I have my own gun that I bought years ago (around $200 including aftermarket mods), but what really kills me is the cost of the damn paint. I haven't played in a year but IIRC 2000 paintballs runs about $50, maybe more, and if you're playing with other people that can get shot up in a couple of hours especially if someone is using one of those fancy rapid fire mechanisms. On top of that, many paintball venues require you to buy their paint on site, which is even more expensive. I'd definitely be playing a lot more paintball if the cost for paint was halved or so.

Airsoft is definitely far cheaper with regards to acquiring ammo ($20 for thousands and thousands of pellets), but it can cost a lot more to get a good gun. One of my buddies who is very into airsoft sank about $500 or more on a full metal M4A1 carbine replica complete with scope, aftermarket springs and battery.