support my local stores and merchants, and talking to my
regular guy at the hardware store the other day he says they are feeling the stress too.

Hobbies were supposed to be fun... and now they are just getting expensive! :-(

|09-dmxrob|07


--- WWIV 5.9.03748[Linux 6.5.0-1026]
* Origin: Off the Wall - St. Louis, Missouri (954:895/12)

.xx and no end in sight. I went to buy a lamp socket the other day -- $8! They used to be $2.xx.

I do my level best to support my local stores and merchants, and talking to my regular guy at the hardware store the other day he says they are feeling the stress too.

Hobbies were supposed to be fun... and now they are just getting expensive! :-(

|09-dmxrob|07


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* Origin: Off the Wall - St. Louis, Missouri (954:895/12)

y building kits -- which I was
not stocked up on -- have not gone up quite so much.

Overall my opinion is that prices have gone way up while selection is
mostly down.

Mike


* SLMR 2.1a * Press to test... release to detonate...
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
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le of the lower-tier brands started making engines
that were also well detailed and very affordable.

That was before 2000. Then, there were some mergers. Lots of the smaller companies were swallowed up or went out of business. Also, there were a
couple of "technological advancements" like DCC.

At some point since then, but before COVID and long before the latest trade wars, almost eveything has gone *way* up. Those engines that were getting cheaper have gone up in price 8 or 10 fold, and some of those lines were eliminated in favor of supposedly more detailed engines (although I don't really see it). Meanwhile, a rolling stock kit (box car, caboose, etc.)
that likely would have cost you < $10 will more likely cost you close to
$30 now, with the high end kits (formerly between $10-20) now costing as
much as a decent engine kit would have cost in the 1990s-2000s.

Luckily, I stocked up back then

Re: Good grief, even hobbies are expensive nowadays!
By: Dmxrob to All on Sun Aug 10 2025 05:31 pm

support my local stores and merchants, and talking to my
regular guy at the hardware store the other day he says they are feeling the stress too.

Hobbies were supposed to be fun... and now they are just getting expensive! :-(

I guess it depends on the hobbies?

What bothers me is that there is nothing like a casual hobby anymore. These days it looks like you need to go all-in in order to enjoy it. Take videogames, for example: when I was a kid there were lots of good games that didn't require deep commitments; nowadays games aimed at casual play tend to suck (with exceptions), meanwhile most good games require you to sink 200 hours in them for you to become any good at them.

But as for price... well, tooling has become a bit more expensive over the years but it is not too bad yet. I mean, if you are into homesteading, power tools and fuel are more expensive but the whole operation can still run for dirty cheap.


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BY: Arelor (954:200/1)
|13On |11Monday,August 11, 2025 at 04:16 AM, |14Arelor (954:200/1)|13 wrote:|07


|11A|09> |10>|07
|11A|09> |10> Hobbies were supposed to be fun... and now they are just getting|07
|11A|09> |10> expensive!|07
|11A|09> |10> :-(|07
|11A|09> |07
|11A|09> |10I guess it depends on the hob|07bies?|07

Even gardening, the most basic for most people of hobbies, is just
increasing in price. Thankfully I have become pretty good at saving seed for the next year, and things like that.


|11A|09> |07
|11A|09> |10What bothers me is that there is nothing like a casual hobby anymore.|07
|11A|09> |10These days it looks like you need to go all-in in order to enjoy it.|07

I think this is driven by the pure profit mentality. I got swept up in the laser engraving/cutting craze a few years back. Spent a lot of money on something that just sits here and never gets used. I even have accessories they swore "I had to have" that have never been out of the box.

|11A|09> |07
|11A|09> |10But as for price... well, tooling has become a bit more expensive over|07
|11A|09> |10the years but it is not too bad yet. I mean, if you are into|07 |11A|09> |10homesteading, power tools and fuel are more expensive but the whole|07
|11A|09> |10operation can still run for dirty cheap.|07
|11A|09> |07

For me, and I think most others, we need to buy off-the-shelf parts and pieces and that is where it is going bonkers. The tariffs are really hitting hard on some items. I can't even get a specific LED tube anymore because I would pay almost double with tariffs. It's only made in the UK, and there are absolutely no manufacturers in the US or anywhere else making it.

|05-dmxrob|07

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* Origin: Off the Wall - St. Louis, Missouri (954:895/12)

> Re: Good grief, even hobbies are expensive nowadays!
> By: Dmxrob to All on Sun Aug 10 2025 05:31 pm

Hobbies were supposed to be fun... and now they are just getting

> expensive! :-(

I guess it depends on the hobbies?

What bothers me is that there is nothing like a casual hobby anymore.

>These days it looks like you need to go all-in in order to enjoy it.

I think, as you stated above, it depends on the Hobby and, maybe
more important, your definition of what constitutes a 'Hobby'.

Many things you can do to fill time cost little or nothing. I do a
lot of reading and get most of my books from the Library and my
brother and his wife are into Jigsaw Puzzles they get used from
the Thrift Stores quite cheaply.

I play guitar which after a moderate outlay to buy one can fill
a lot of time and be somewhat rewarding if you get good at it.
Lessons can be costly but there should be books to get you
started on the basics and, in my case, after a few lessons, I
learned a lot more on my own faster than I would have from a
teacher I'm sure. I went very quickly from doing scales and
plucking out very basic juvenile songs in the books to playing
in a group and writing my own music within a year or so after.

Creating things by hand, be it art work or building small things
like bird houses don't usually cost much in tools or materials.
That's more food for thought rather than a suggestion.

But you can always go all out on any sort of hobby and end up with
something expensive and probably more time consuming than you hoped
for when you started it.

Years ago I got into custom painting motorcycles, which may
be considered a Hobby, as in it wasn't my full time job.
Equipment and materials were a little costly but I got good
enough at it that people would pay me to do their bikes which
turned the expense into a profitable part time job. It also
saved me the cost of paying someone else to do my own bikes..

---
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Re: Good grief, even hobbies
By: Rob Mccart to ARELOR on Wed Aug 13 2025 07:54:08

...more important, your definition of what constitutes a 'Hobby'.

I see "hobbies" distinct from "interests" in that hobbies are more hands-on endeavors, where interests are more passive. For example, if you have an interest in trains, then you probably read about them, watch them, etc., but you don't build model trains, make trips to famous round houses, etc. "passtimes" are just that, something to do to kill time, like playing games on your phone while waiting in the checkout line at the store, that kind of thing.
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On 8/13/2025 7:59 AM, Rob Mccart wrote to Arelor:

Hobbies were supposed to be fun... and now they are just getting

> expensive! :-(

I play guitar which after a moderate outlay to buy one can fill
a lot of time and be somewhat rewarding if you get good at it.
Lessons can be costly but there should be books to get you
started on the basics and, in my case, after a few lessons, I
learned a lot more on my own faster than I would have from a
teacher I'm sure. I went very quickly from doing scales and
plucking out very basic juvenile songs in the books to playing
in a group and writing my own music within a year or so after.

I would like to hear more about this, perhaps in the HNET_MUSIC area. I don't consider
myself a true musician like Mick Manning, but I do love to play the organ and have made
a number of YouTube videos.

Mike Dippel

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...more important, your definition of what constitutes a 'Hobby'.

I see "hobbies" distinct from "interests" in that hobbies are more hands-on e

>avors, where interests are more passive. For example, if you have an interes
>n trains, then you probably read about them, watch them, etc., but you don't
>ld model trains, make trips to famous round houses, etc. "passtimes" are jus
>hat, something to do to kill time, like playing games on your phone while wai
>g in the checkout line at the store, that kind of thing.

Yes, the definition will vary by the person. Some things, like playing games
on your phone, are just a time filler as you said. To call something a
hobby I think you have to be more involved in it, make time to do it as
opposed to just using it to fill time.

There'd be some who agree or disagree about whether some of the simpler
things like reading or doing jigsaw puzzles are a hobby or not.

But technically, a hobby is supposed to be an interest that you put
time into so almost anything might qualify as a hobby for a person,
if not for the majority of people.

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Re: Good grief, even hobbies
By: Rob Mccart to ARELOR on Wed Aug 13 2025 07:54 am

I think, as you stated above, it depends on the Hobby and, maybe
more important, your definition of what constitutes a 'Hobby'.

Many things you can do to fill time cost little or nothing. I do a
lot of reading and get most of my books from the Library and my
brother and his wife are into Jigsaw Puzzles they get used from
the Thrift Stores quite cheaply.

I am not talking necessarily about money. It is more about the time you need to blast into it.

Take modern videogames, for example. A videogame in the 90s used to be something you could get reasonably good at and beat in a small ammount of time. Fast forward and most modern games that are not explicitly designed for casual audiences require you to train a whole lot just to be good enough to actually play it.


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I think, as you stated above, it depends on the Hobby and, maybe

> > more important, your definition of what constitutes a 'Hobby'.
> >
> > Many things you can do to fill time cost little or nothing. I do a
> > lot of reading and get most of my books from the Library and my
> > brother and his wife are into Jigsaw Puzzles they get used from
> > the Thrift Stores quite cheaply.

I am not talking necessarily about money. It is more about the time you need

>blast into it.

Take modern videogames, for example. A videogame in the 90s used to be someth

> you could get reasonably good at and beat in a small ammount of time. Fast f
>ard and most modern games that are not explicitly designed for casual audienc
>require you to train a whole lot just to be good enough to actually play it.

Yes, I know what you mean after watching my young relatives spend hours
every day playing games online.. I'm talking kids that are 6 or 7 years
old spending non-stop hours until their parents finally force them to
go outside or something..

But that particular thing I think of as more like an addiction than
a hobby.

Maybe just eye of the beholder though. They may look at me reading
for 3 or 4 hours a day as a problem or a waste of time as well.
I feel I can halfjustify reading by looking at all the things I
learn about science, military, law enforcement, other countries or
space, etc., depending on what I'm reading. I've often said that you
learn something from every book you read if you're paying attention.
That's maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much..

I do play video games as well, but not the online ones. I don't
think of that as a hobby though, that's wasting time since you
get virtually nothing out of it other than maybe a little better
hand/eye coordination, and maybe some strategy early on until
you know the game inside out..

I have done more active things in my life, such as custom painting
motorcycles, playing hockey and baseball, shooting pool, various
water sports.. etc..
---
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