The trope title comes from an old, but well-known (and entirely true!) saying: "Anime - Crack is Cheaper." Not only in regard to addictiveness, but also as one troper put it about the early days before the market took off, before the {{Fan Sub}}s, before {{Manga}} scanlations, before [=BitTorrent=], before [=mIRC=]: ## You were always receiving mysterious packages from strangers. ## You never had any money. ## You had no idea what people were saying. (Subtitles? HAH! We were lucky if we had a synopsis.) ## And to buy your anime you had to walk ''fifteen miles'' through the snow, uphill both ways. Seriously, what was up with that!? Even in the middle of June there was at least a foot of snow on the ground.

And yet, Western Anime fans have nothing to complain about compared to Japanese Anime fans -- who spend upwards of $90 ''A DVD'', with the average DVD having 2 episodes. A full series may cost upwards of $720, and that's not counting limited editions, extraneous merchandise, the cost of an internet connection and gear to stalk your favorite voice actress, etc etc. A major reason anime companies in Japan are going after fansub groups in the United States is because Japanese anime fans are simply downloading the (usually DVD Quality) fansubs rather than deal with paying outrageous DVD prices.

Book collecting, anyone? Not even rare books. Series. In the case of, say, a young pre-troper fresh out of Revenge of the Sith who is all fired up with love of Star Wars and discovers the StarWarsExpandedUniverse? You know how many books are in that thing? You know how many of them are a total waste of paper? Oh, yes, some were better than she could have imagined, but she looks back on her buying of the entire NewJediOrder and weeps. Damn it, for that money she could've started {{Discworld}} and missed out on a lot of head trauma.

Recommendation: purchase your Expanded Universe literature from second hand book vendors, meatbag. Qualifier: Also, utilise your library.

I had the exact same problem with the Star Wars EU. Never made it quite as far as the original poster, but it's still an expensive hobby, book collecting. Reading them from the library is nice, but there's just something fulfilling about having it belong to you. I had to convert my bedroom back home (currently living in dorms) into what can basically be called a library with a bed in one corner. So many books, so little time...

EU? Damned lucky whippersnappers. Why, when I was a young fanboy the only 'EU' we had was the West End Games RPG! Let me tell you, completing a collection of RPG supplements is no easy task on a High School Student's budget!

Comic book collecting. They used to cost less than a dollar, except for the 60 page giants which, at a full dollar, were a huge investment from the allowance. This is no longer the case. Sure, they're still cheap individually, but after a few crossover events, you'll be picking up more different titles than you have friends. This is just the beginning. You'll want to bag and board them (must have Mylar bags and acid-free boards). You'll need to store them in boxes. The boxes will need to be stored in shelves, which will soon need a room of their own. And you're going to need special software to track the value of your collection. You will, at some point, be tempted to start picking up action figures and other merchandise related to your favorite characters. That way lies madness. They take up room you'll be needing for more comic books.

Collecting graphic novels is incredibly expensive,considering most of them are at least $20 or more for one volume of material.

Go to a discount bookstore and get a thick volume of classic literature for a couple of dollars. Then you find out... you wanted a better translation. And the printing's bad on the cheaper ones. Or this one's abridged. Or you want the original Irish edition, the American one's been localized a bit. Or you got the first volume in a twenty-set series. Or you just got so hooked that NOW your desire goes to audiobooks. I mean, what else are you going to listen to in the car on those long road trips? That runs the price up to at least twenty dollars a book, if you want a reader you can understand and professional quality. Either that, or you can get the cheaper ones on cassette tape. Good luck installing a cassette player into your car's stereo system.

Even ''administering a forum story'' can become this. The web hosting? Free. Suppose, though, you decide you need a hard copy. And the story is at 100+ pages of text. And 30 paper pages per web page.\\ At the end of it, you've spent $100 on the ''binders alone'', and the staff at the copy center are entirely too familiar with you.

Cookbooks.

Reference books (unabridged dictionaries, encyclopedias by volumes, atlases, et cetera), whether new or antique, are a hassle.

Trading-Card games like ''MagicTheGathering'' or ''WorldOfWarcraft's'' CCG. While not to the same scale as some of these other entries, the fact remains that a starter deck will get you nowhere, and buying booster packs/box sets in hopes of getting something good isn't always practical. What this means is that you often have to buy ''individual cards'' to make your deck worthwhile, and the strong cards can run you a good $15 apiece. Prepare to spend at least $100 on a deck worthy of tournament play, which you have to update every year or so as old cards are phased out and new ones are brought in.

The design and architecture majors at ''any'' college. Also known as the most expensive majors in the world, even more than engineering majors which need special equipment. Apart from your tuition, you must ''also'' pay for all your supplies and job expenses. That means ''you'' are the one who must pay for special texturized papers only made somewhere in Kyrgyzstan, professional-grade color pencils, markers, stylographs and ink, laser-cut marbled plastic, and 3D models that cost $50 to create in the college's ''subsidized'' carving machine. Software? It's usually [=SolidWorks=], Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel, 3D Studio and [=AutoCAD=], among others; if you don't want a clandestine version, all this will cost you ''$50,000, a 2008 Dodge Challenger''. And the teacher ''will fail you'' if you give him anything that's not exactly what he asked for. And That's Terrible.

Teachers at Kent State University will FAIL you if a squirrel nibbles on the edge of your project. That nice $100 model has one nich and you fail. This troper has stayed up for hours on "Squirrel Watch Duty" armed with a steel T-square and heavy spite. And god forbid if anyone finds out you set off a fire alarm and made the sprinklers drench people's projects.

Music. As in playing instruments. To get a decent... anything will set you back a few hundred (there's a reason you play recorders as kids, and not the cool stuff). Sure, guitars are cheap, and electronic keyboards are coming down but anything else? Have fun wasting all your money on that nice shiny new flute that doesn't sound like a cat being strangled. And then there's actually buying music to play.

And the there are drums. Ok, so you've just got your first five-Piece set and three crappy cymbals. Another Crash would be nice. Also, better Drumheads for a better sound. That old Hi-Hat sucks, so you need a new one. And Hardware. And a China-Cymbal. Hey, these twin pedals are nice, but why not get a second Bassdrum, which also gives you room for more toms and even more cymbals.

Playing electric guitar and to a lesser extent electric bass is all about the quest for the perfect "tone". You may start learning on a starter electric guitar with a cheap amp, but then you continuously upgrade your guitars and buy different brands until you need a separate room in your house to store them. Then the amps, which make a huge difference in sound, take up even more space than the guitars, and run through money. Then the necessary accessories: cables for the instruments, a different kind of cables for the amps, straps, picks, gigbags or hard cases, stands, tools for repair, new strings (which is where bass really racks up expenses), tuners (because it's extremely difficult to tune perfectly by ear), and heaven forbid you get involved in the wide world of effects pedals, where a board full of quality pedals could set you back almost as much as your high-end guitar and high-end amp combined.

Thought singing was cheap because you don't have to buy an instrument? Sure, if you just do it in the shower it costs you nothing, but let's say you're really serious about honing your skills. That'll be at least $30 a session for a decent voice teacher, and you'll be wanting to buy the vocal/piano scores to the songs in your repertoire. Sure, you could illegally download them to save money, but if it's a song with many versions/covers and you want just one in particular, or if it's particularly obscure, good luck finding it online. Or you just want the books because they look so impressive. Director gave you a libretto for a musical production? Don't lose it or damage it or you'll pay for that too. Then we can factor in the fees for auditioning for regional/state choirs, attending workshops, and hiring an accompanist. And the endless boxes of Throat Coat and bottles of honey you'll be buying whenever your throat gets even mildly scratchy.

Animation:

Stop-motion animation. High-quality armatures (between one and two hundred dollars each), polymer clay instead of plasticine, lights and lighting equipment, a good camera (preferably with a remote control), and a decent capture program (which usually sucks for editing, so you'll need software for that too). Yes, you ''can'' make an animation for free with a crappy camera and iMovie, but you will spend five times as long in production and editing for something that looks one-tenth as good.

Decided stop-motion is too much cash, and you're gonna go the traditional route? It's on paper, it can't be that bad, right? OH, MY FRIEND. Welcome to the profession where a hole punch can cost $1000. You can order reams pre-punched instead, of course, but that'll still be $20 per 500 sheets. And you will need all of them. And many many more. Plus the peg bar to put them on, an actually cheap supply that'll last a while at $5 for a plastic one, maybe $20 for metal. You'll want to put that in the disc of translucent plexiglass you dropped at LEAST $60 on- we're gonna assume you're going the cheap student route and don't have your own specialized desk to put that in. Now you need to get another pegbar for that pencil testing station you'll need, to see how your work's coming along. Assuming you've got a spare computer handy, you could easily end up dropping $250 on a camera stand. And that's WITHOUT a light! Or a camera! And the video you get out of this won't actually looked very good. No, you'll need to scan your drawings in (where you'll want- guess what?- another peg bar!) and composite them and- Hey, where are you going? I hadn't even touched on exposure sheets, pencils, or the investment of weeks into a few seconds of motion...!

Art in general. Quality art supplies can get pricey. Store brand Alizarin Crimson oil paint can cost $30 and it only goes up from there, then there's the other paint colors, linseed oil, turpentine, and damar varnish (if you mix your medium the traditional way). Being a printmaker requires a huge apparatus that resembles a torture machine, gallons of etching acid, various types of ground, zinc or copper plates, inks, rollers, scrapes, it goes on. Not to mention paint tubes eventually empty, brushes crack and fray, etc. Digital Artist? While digital artists have the advantage of not having their supplies run out, be prepared to drop a couple hundred on Corel Painter, Adobe Creative Suite, or other programs, and a tablet. A good tablet can cost in the hundreds, though there are cheaper models for beginners. Then, if you go to art school, you have four years of tuition to pay, plus room and board if you dorm, among the other associated expenses of campus life. Then your class has delightful things called supply lists.

Also applies to film classes. Though if you work in video, can borrow equipment, and have a teacher nice enough to pirate software, you can get by on the cheap.

Ceramics/Pottery is another expensive hobby, $10-$30 per bag of clay, $500-$1200 for a good Wheel, all the different Tools, Boards/Bats to work on, Plaster for a wedging table, an Extruder, a Slab Roller, Glazes or Ingredients to make your own (hoo boy), and that's not even getting into the ''Kiln'' which runs upwards of several thousand, and more than a brand new car for a bigger one, plus the Energy/Fuel costs to fire it. A college class is the only sane way to do it.

Airbrushing. A rather niche art form now outside of high end auto graphics can be very expensive. A decent single action airbrush starts at $60 and goes up from there, a good double action starts at about $100 and can go up to $450 for a fine detail airbrush from Iwata. You also need an air source to do anything. A compressor will cost $150 for something loud and under-powered or you can spend up to $1000 for good pro models, another option is compressed [=CO2=] cylinders for $100-$200 for the cylinder plus $100 for the regulator to make the cylinder work with an airbrush and $15+ to refill the tank. Then you need air hoses with proprietary connectors for your airbrush. Now you can start buying paints, cleaning stuff, masking frisket and templates. Oh, did I mention that since there is low demand for this stuff, you're going to be making long road trips if you're lucky enough to live in the same state as a store that sells this stuff? You can always go the online ordering route if you're willing to pay shipping and wait 7-10 business days.

Avertable: Calligraphy, at its simplest, is not too expensive. Paper needs to be workable, which is not necessarily expensive. Nibs and/or pens (even reasonably nice ones) can put you out a few bucks a pop, but unless you don't really know what you're doing, they'll last you for a few pages at the least. Ink can cost next to nil, or a whole lot, depending on what your needs are, though getting different colors is something you should hold off on until you need them. But when you get into the ''nice'' stuff (e.g. vintage nibs -- a single Gillott Principality could put you out around $20, and they ''aren't'' getting any more numerous), the price of the hobby can spike from a minimal under-$50 to thousands of dollars depending on what you do. Since nibs are fun, I'll have Richard Thompson (author, I guess most famously, of CulDeSac) explain a little.

Model building is an expensive hobby; it involves spending lots of money on paints, brushes, model kits and miniatures, and if you want to add scenery? There are massive projects out there that have taken time and money.

Writing. What could possibly be so bad about writing words on paper? Well, writing in itself isn't hard -- but if you want to enter contests, you might have to pay $10 USD per entry fee, and the prize money ranges from $50-$1000 USD, which usually isn't enough to pay more than a few months' rent and groceries. Looking on getting published? Once you finish that novel, you'll have to send it to agents and publishers. You'd usually have to send your manuscript to at ''least'' ten agents/publishers for a good chance of getting accepted, so for a good-sized novel (about 100,000 words or 350-ish pages) you'll need to print out at least ten copies of them, PLUS the plot synopsis and a letter explaining who you are and what your target audience is. That will easily cost 100+ USD in cheap standard paper and ink, and then you've got to cover the postage costs (which may cost just as much depending on where the agents ARE). Emailing? You've saved a few trees, but you'll still have to pay the less-monetary cost of ''waiting an ungodly long time for feedback,'' because other people probably had the same bright idea as you and now the agents' inboxes are flooded with several ''literal'' books' worth of emails. Then, after you finally get the news that you're getting published, there's the problem of deciding: How many copies to make (too much with too little demand and you're bankrupt, too little with too much demand and you'll have angry fans scanning their friend's copy so they won't have to buy it themselves), what kind of cover art you want (look at the photography and art portion of ''this same article''), how much of the profit you should get (you have rent to pay, and they have publishing costs), and a boatload of other secondary expenses. This is why so many writers end up getting part-time jobs, and all of the famous authors are an exception to the rule. ''All of them.''

''Drawing'' comics. Forget the nerdy collecting stuff part of comics. If you're into drawing comics... forget it. If you decide to major in it, you're going to die in debt. Even if you were to get decent work after you graduate, it's just ''that expensive''. SVA in Manhattan is $27,000 A YEAR. ''A YEAR''. Then you throw in things like housing, eating real food every once in a while, daily expenses, commuting... and then add on the price of traditional art supplies (foundation year requires a lot of canvas and paint and paper and pastels, etc, etc) and then maybe a computer and a PC tablet and Adobe programs...yeah.

And even if you ''don't'' go to school for it and just do it as a hobby its still pricey. Good bristol board isn't cheap and if you want to draw at the same size the pros do you gotta buy 14x17 inch pads which is extra. And then there are the utensils. You'll want a mechanical pencil with a comfortable grip and you'll want fairly hard lead for it. And as far as pens go, quill pens are the classic and for those you gotta buy replacement nibs and a lot of ink. Or you can go a little more modern and use a regular pen. Micron are top notch and those are five bucks a piece and their tips go to see fast so you'll want to stock up. And thats not even figuring in different tip widths and feels. And of course you'll want a few brushes for spotting blacks and doing swishier work, and not cheap ones where the bristles come off in the ink either. And if you want to colour by hand you'll want even more brushes and some appropriate paints or a set of good quality markers. Of course, you'll need a T-square to draw panels and it'll have to be a big one for that big paper. While you're at it, pick up a few circle and shape templaters, a compass and some French curves. Good erasers are a necessity as well. And if you feel like going really old school you'll need a lettering guide. And thats just for starters. You have to scan it as well and to do that you'll need a big one to fit that big paper on. And nothing beats Photoshop when it comes to reducing and adjusting your work to make it fit for distribution. If you aren't broke when you start then the sheer number of consumable resources you'll go through will do you in.

Subversion, double subversion, and partial triple subversion: origami. A starter pack of paper costs about US$3-$5, and with dedicated use will probably last at least a month or two. Even beautifully patterned paper with embossing or metallic accents rarely gets above $15 at a Japanese market, and that's for quite a large packet. Origami books usually run in the $10-$20 range, with only the highly advanced or theoretical ones reaching $50. The difficulty comes in finding them--the vast majority of origami books you're likely to see are along the lines of Fundamental Origami for Beginners, which you'll outgrow in about two weeks of practice. Still, after a bit of searching in bookstores and online (and many diagrams are available for free on the web), you can build up a sizable origami library for well under $200. Until that fateful day when you find an utterly entrancing model of the Australian Blue Crested Turnip, and you just HAVE to fold it. The diagrams aren't to be found anywhere online, and a bit of searching reveals they were only published in a compendium released in Japan that's been out of print for fifteen years and isn't on Amazon. You'd better hope you have an obliging contact in the country willing to search around for the book and send it to you, or else you're out of luck. Unless, of course, fate is smiling on you and you manage to find the book itself online, which is a slim chance but not outside the realm of possibility. If for some unfathomable reason you decide to make your own paper, that's a whole new can of worms...

Sure, basic origami might not cost a lot, but then you see that CrazyAwesome 100-crane-renzuru online, and you want to try it too. Only thing is, you're going to need at least A2 paper to fold it, and if you happen to break just one link while folding, you're going to have to start all over again with a new sheet of paper. Also, folding that out of 80gsm paper (standard thickness) just isn't going to work, so then you need to buy those thick art papers...

Video editing. Sure, most computers today come with a basic editing program, but sooner or later you've had enough of the limited options available and want to do some serious editing. A decent program can cost anywhere from $50 to a couple hundred. You'll also need a fast enough computer with enough memory to keep up, which can get pricey. Then lets say you want to go into AMV making. You can find most anime online to download, but if you want high quality video to work with, you might want to buy the actual [=DVDs=] to use which can cost hundreds as described above.

Handicrafts:

Knitting and crochet. That first ball of acrylic might be cheap, but before you know it, you're buying the good stuff (merino wool, alpaca, silk, cashmere,... to say nothing about truly exotic fibers like qiviut or vicuna) and enough yarn for a jumper (i.e., sweater) will ''easily'' cost you upwards of $100.

'''[=SABLE=]''' (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) is a term commonly used to describe the tendency of knitters (and other handicrafters) to accumulate excessive amounts of raw materials (stash) for more projects than can be possibly completed within one's lifetime.

Beading and jewellery making. Sure, the bare basics aren't that much. But some of the more exotic beading (Semi-precious stones, coral, crystal, ''lampwork'' oh god lampwork) can range from $15 for a 10-bead 6mm string to about $10 for an individual bead, then you have to get the tools, findings - good luck if you're doing something for someone who IS allergic to cheap metals like nickel - and wire. The craftbooks are $15-$30 a pop, if you need them. Oh, and [=SABLE=] is as much a risk for beaders as it is for knitters.

Sewing. First, you have to buy a sewing machine. Then fabric. Some fabric is not so bad per yard, but it adds up. Some fabric is quite expensive... for example, velvet at even a mainstream sewing store such as JoAnn's costs '''35 dollars a yard'''. Thread isn't that bad... unless you don't already have a stash. Notions, like elastic, buttons, zippers, etc. and anything you want to add as decoration. Then patterns and tools for making your garment. Most patterns cost around $20 now, unless you can get them when they're on sale or with a coupon. A lot more goes into sewing than most people are aware.

And then you realise you ''need'' an overlock machine... Additionally, if you went and became an educated seamstress, you'll always miss the reliability and speed of industrial sewing machines. Costs about $1000 and you get two functions: forwards and backwards. Features such as different stitch patterns or a buttonhole making function may well triplicate the price.

Latch-hook. The latch-hooks themselves aren't that expensive, but let's go further. A really good quality pair of scissors? Maybe $40. Good quality wool can cost $10 for just one ball, and they're often small with thin thread. Canvas can cost about $30 if it's a decent size. The kits, which include canvas, pattern, wool and sometimes a latch-hook, can cost $30 if they're cheap... or $200 if they're high quality.

Chainmaille: you'll want a good set of pliers, not all that bad by themselves, and some galvanized steel jump rings, and you're off. But then there's that gorgeous necklace that you want to use silver for, then you want titanium for your chainmaille outfit, scales for it too, and the prices really start to rocket. Add in the shipping costs and it starts to become a pretty expensive 'hobby'.

Photography:

Don't forget photography classes. While there are genuine gems in the rough, lenses are retardedly expensive. The cheapest consumer zooms cost roughly $100 (with or without image stabilization), and the cheapest consumer telephoto zooms cost $200. The problem is that the cheaper it is, the harder it sucks. Good consumer zooms and telephotos have some extra features and go for $500-800. Professional lenses start at $1000 for zooms, $1500 for telephoto zooms, go up in price fairly quickly, and compared to consumer stuff "only" add a fixed low aperture. Slightly cheaper stuff can lower apertures, but you require more of them to cover a range. The pro level ware means an unmatcher image quality. Supertelephotos are almost always fixed primes, start at $5000, and climb into the stratosphere before they are done with you, and are ''absolutely required'' for some types of photography, such as professional sports or bird-watching _ you can be kicked out of the photographer's box at an NFL game for not owning one. Second-party brands tend to be much cheaper, but are plagued by quality-control issues, tend to be missing some important features and have compatibility issues between models. And this little writeup is only brushing the surface of a huge money pit.

Film photography has the requirement to buy film, and photographic paper. Think about how many photos you take for your stupid day out with your friends..let's just say..at least 15, maybe 40. Digital photographers will often take hundreds of photographs in a single day. The most you can get on a film is 36 photos. Now good luck making sure you get good photos, seeing as you can probably only afford to take a photograph of something about three times if you don't want to waste your film...oh, and need I remind you that you're going to have to pay someone to develop the stuff for you? Ah, the good old days! Why does anyone do it? For the art.

And that's not even going into what you have to pay if you want to do everything yourself. Now, instead of paying someone else to develop your film, now you have to pay for all the chemicals yourself. And some chemicals, namely the developer, are single use only. Add in the cost of light-proofing a room if you don't have one already, the different chemical processes needed for color film, a drying cabinet to hang the film in, unless you have a dust free area already ready or you love having dust particles in your film that is literally impossible to remove, and the enlarger needed to even get that image onto photo paper, it's a wonder that anyone does it themselves anymore. Luckily, depending on where you live, there are places that let you develop your own film, so you don't have to go through as large of a monetary investment.

This metalhead troper spends more than a healthy amount on band shirts... and will sometimes get into bands just to get the shirts(though in all fairness, I actually do like them). HELP ME, PLEASE.

This troper is you. This especially becomes a problem with bands like Converge or Kylesa, because some of their members are also graphic designers, meaning that they have a much greater number of t-shirts you'll be wanting. A t-shirt can go for £10-25, and a hoodie from £35-£55, and I will tend to buy several of both in one sitting. Not good.

If you're a collector of Golden Age cartoons, you had better have cash to ''burn.'' Lets start-getting all of the ClassicDisneyShorts [=DVDs=] via the Walt Disney Treasures lineup? You're looking at over $1000 ''already.'' Thankfully, the more well known stuff like Popeye and Droopy are dirt cheap...but wait, the Looney Tunes [=DVDs=]--$65 for a new copy of each set, and then theres the Super Stars [=DVDs=], and then theres the old Warner Bros. movies with an individual Looney Tunes cartoon on it that is NOT available in any other way...then theres the obscure cartoons like Van Beuren, Ub Iwerks, Famous Studios/Harveytoons, Animaland and more, which are usually cheap on their own, but bought together can rack up a hefty bill. Oh, and let's not forget Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research Site, which offers unrestored, otherwise unavailable cartoons on DVD--provided you pay at least $25 per disc, $100 for five, $200 for twelve, and so on. Look at how many volumes of [=DVDs=] he has on that list, and you might want to consider if it's worth going to the trouble of hunting down ''every single'' available Golden Age cartoon...

For all that's holy, don't ever become a Beatledork. This way lays madness. Above and beyond the 13 canon albums which you can now get remastered in stereo and 11 of them in mono, we're only talking about CD. Even then you have the 1987 remasters (which were bad, but a completionist is a completionist) the cassettes, 8-tracks, reel-to-reel and vinyl (both US and UK pressings, both mono and stereo) the 45rpm singles and then there are all the books, official and otherwise. Oh, then there's the special edition ''The Beatles: RockBand'' with two guitars that are sold separately and the three albums worth of {{DLC}}. Also the movies in various forms and the unofficial [=DVD=]s and interviews and mp3s and and and and... hey where did my bank account go? oh that's right - APPLE CORPS.

Don't become too attached to the Swans, as the eight albums on iTunes are merely the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the critically-acclaimed Swans catalog is completely out of print, resulting in ridiculous prices in websites such as eBay. Michael Gira, the band's leader, wrote a disgusting short-story collection called "The Consumer" which is also out-of-print and expensive to buy.

You want to try to collect everything HelloProject? GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. Just the main group, Morning Musume, alone has 42 singles, 10 albums, 4 best ofs, single [=Vs=] for most of their singles (they basically have the music video, an alternate version and a making of), several singles have more than one edition (the recent albums do too) and then there are the photobooks, concert [=DVDs=], the OTHER [=DVDs=], concert goods, etc. Did I mention that that's just one group?

If a fan of Japanese pop thought certain groups hard to collect, then they haven't tried collecting from Johnnys Entertainment. As a fan of JE, a full collector can expect to spend upwards of $500 a year on a reasonably active groups, and thats ''just on [=CDs=] and [=DVDs=] for singles, albums, and concert [=DVDs=]''. That's not counting Box sets for dramas they appear in, at least five magazine subscriptions, out of the way magazines, concert tour goods, Backdated items that cost twice as much when you come into fandom late, and more. All together, you're looking around 2K-3K a ''year''. A super active group puts you back 3K-4K. Now trying doing it for eleven groups, which depending, may have up to twenty years of active back material. Have fun.

Fan of the Japanese noise artist Merzbow? Prepare to spend the rest of your miserable life tracking down his discography. Releasing anywhere from 4 to 10 albums a YEAR, Merzbow's discography on wikipedia consists of TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT STUDIO ALBUMS, 58 live albums, 32 EP's, 213 compilation tracks with various drone/noise artists, TEN box sets, and 35 splits with other musicians. God have mercy on your soul.

And if you are a fan of {{Takarazuka}} theater God have mercy on your wallet -- the stuff is expensive, your favorite star may have numerous [=DVDs=], articles written about her in speciality magazines, your favorite shows will have programs and what not. Add to it the shipping costs, finding a relaible seller, navigating the seller webpages in Japanese, etc... Mind you it is worth every penny but it is a pretty costly one.

{{KISS}}- the albums, the ''Alive'' albums, the cover albums, the re-release albums, the toys, the games, the candy, the T-shirts, the comic books, the novels, the underwear, the towels with matching shower curtains, and the Kiss Kondoms (not to mention the Kiss Kasket). Sad part is that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The ''[=~.hack~=]'' series. Multiple novels, multiple manga, multiple anime series, and multiple games and '''still on-going.''' ''.hack//your money is ours.''

Simply being a fan of ''Series/DoctorWho'', with its 50-odd years of canon and the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, can run you a hefty bill (especially outside of the UK). The new series box sets will run you about $80 each in the US, plus the Classic show, which is usually sold by individual serial, all at import prices, many of which don't get imported so you have to buy them and have them shipped. Then you get into the "Lost in Time"-type boxsets for the reconstructed lost episodes, which are for obvious reasons extraordinarily expensive. Then you discover the wonderful Eighth Doctor, who only has one TV outing, but who got his own Expanded Universe that runs to ''ten years'' of books, audio dramas, ''and'' comics. Plus an entire run of novels for Seven, and audio dramas for Doctors Five-Eight (soon to be Four-Eight) and spinoffs "UNIT", "{{Gallifrey}}", "Sarah Jane Smith" and monthly "Companion Chronicles", each at about £8 a pop if you want to download them instead of have them on CD. And that's not even getting ''into'' merch!

God forbid you decide to buy DetectiveConan. Soon to have a 32nd volume printed in English. How many chapters have been written in Japanese as of this edit? They've just finished volume 68. ''Sixty. Eight.'' Even worse, it's still going.

And then we have the king of long running anime/manga: OnePiece. Over six hundred chapters and it's STILL going.

MahouSenseiNegima -- 300+ chapters, an ungodly amount of stuff, and it's still going.

Manga in general. A single volume usually costs about $10 and even fairly short series are usually at least 3 volumes. The average series is a good bit longer than that, and ''then'' there's the fact that there are a ton of popular {{shonen}} LongRunners like those above. When the full run of ''FullmetalAlchemist'' will set you back around $260, is it any wonder that {{scanslation}}s are so popular?

Can possibly be averted by apps or websites that have free manga browsing, though how up-to-date they are varies.

Poor, poor, poor Trekkers. Oh, you start out catching TNG reruns on SciFi. Sure, that's free. But then you want to watch all 28 live action seasons? At roughly $30 a season? Goodbye, paycheck. And then there are the films - all eleven of them - and ''then'' there's the StarTrekExpandedUniverse, at 600 novels and climbing as we speak. And let's not even get started on decently authentic costumes, convention entrance fees, merchandise, accessories... say goodbye to your retirement fund.

Want to be a {{Disney}} fan? Alright then...the next movie in the DisneyAnimatedCanon will be the 52nd, and the [=DVDs=], unless you do some bargain hunting, will cost about $20 a piece. Many of them have direct-to-DVD sequels and spinoff TV series (though, in those cases, your best bet is to KeepCirculatingTheTapes). Then there's the {{Pixar}} movies, only a 5th of the amount, same price. Want the ClassicDisneyShorts? The only half decent collections are a part of the ''Walt Disney Treasures'' line, and sets in the first and second wave can cost up to $100. What few shows from TheDisneyAfternoon are out are about $30-$40 a set. And there are numerous live-action movies that are considered cult hits. And that's just the [=DVDs=]. As noted above, there are the comics, video games, books, and, of course, tickets to the DisneyThemeParks. Have fun.

Hope you're not a fan of stage productions -- plays, musicals, what have you. Especially in big cities, half-decent seats can cost $100 a pop, actually GOOD seats are more; you'll probably get suckered into buying vastly overpriced merch; and if you live in the middle of nowhere, where no musical would set foot, I really hope you don't mind paying for travel and hotels. To say nothing if you buy tickets then get snowed in (what are you talking about? I'm not bitter!)? And you know, crack is probably better for your state of mind if you get into arguments about "[actor A] is a WAY better [character X] than [actor B]!"

That's not even mentioning the recordings, if you're a musical fan. Take LesMiserables. There are currently six recordings in English alone, all of which will cost you at least 20 bucks unless you find them at a secondhand store or acquire them through...less than legal means. And there are the concert [=DVDs=], which are at least 30 dollars apiece. And that's just in ''English''. Two French recordings, ''six'' in Japanese, three in Czech, two in Dutch, and the list goes on. And then say you wanted them in ''vinyl''....

If you're a {{Duran Duran}} completist, get ready to lay out some decently decadent dough on all of their [=CDs=], including every single remaster EMI's ever thought of releasing, their vinyl recordings (albums, 12"s, and 45 rpm singles), including limited test pressings and alternate album versions (there were THREE regular album release versions of ''Rio'' alone!), all the audiocassettes, videocassettes, [=DVDs=], scrapbooks, regular books, Nick Rhodes's ''Interference'' (which has been known for fetching upwards of $200 on eBay), tour memorabilia, buttons... Duran Duran can be quite an expensive investment.

Are you my twin sister? Seriously. I've lost count about what her collection is worth.

While the ''StarWars'' movies aren't expensive (the original and prequel trilogies box sets combined are less than $80)... dwelling into the StarWarsExpandedUniverse, with games, books, animated series, toys and the such will surely sent a lot of your paycheck into GeorgeLucas' pocket.

You'd better hope you're not a fan of NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) music. Sure, a lot of the better-known stuff (IronMaiden, Saxon, early DefLeppard, etc.) is fairly easy to get a hold of, but even a number of fairly important bands and albums in the genre can get a bit expensive, and God help you if you want to get your hands on albums from some of the hundreds of bands that fell by the wayside before they ever really got much of a following.

Eurobeat. Good Lord, Eurobeat. The most known series of compilations for the genre (and that's usually all there is - artist albums don't come out much, and they're typically just the stuff already released on compilations before anyway) is Super Eurobeat, which has been going since 1990. The main series of SEB alone is up to 210 albums and it's still going at a rate of about one album per month. Then there's the spin-offs of the series - the best-of countdowns, the artist collections, the Christmas albums, the Disney covers... and SEB isn't even the only Eurobeat series. Artists tend to jump between different compilations, so if you want everything from a certain artist (hopefully you're only looking for a certain alias - some artists have been in it for AGES and have millions of aliases!), happy hunting. And for more fun, a LOT of stuff is out of print, so hope you're good at eBay. Even the stuff that is in print is only sold in Japan, so if you're outside that country, you've got importing fees on top of that. And sorry if you decide that you can feed your Eurobeat addiction through piracy - a lot of albums have either never been ripped or have only been ripped at a quality that's so bad, it's not even worth the disk space.

Cardcaptor Sakura.if you are one of those people who needs everything to be new with the original box set cases youll run up a massive bill. on amazon as of March 2011, all 18 dvds in the brand new original 2 sets of 9 format your bill wil be exactly $1299.97.

"I used to be a millionare, but then i got into Anime."

DavidBowie fandom hits you with a double whammy of "Sound and Vision", to steal one of his song titles. Over 20 studio albums and a bunch of live albums, soundtracks, music videos, and concert films would be enough to try the wallet of a fan even without expanded reissues and remasters. But HeReallyCanAct too...and three of his films are in TheCriterionCollection...and another has spun off its own merchandise. And let's not even get into the myriad ''books'' written about him...

BluRay collecting will be a bad thing for you. Blu-Rays mostly cost $20 and up, the cheapest for as low as $12. The bad part of it is if you like your fave movies you have on DVD, you'll have to buy them again... on Blu-Ray format. if you're the kind who likes both US and Japanese movies/TV series on Blu-Ray, prepare to lose every dollar for it. One of the examples is when you decide to buy all Heisei Era KamenRider films on Blu-Ray (Including the Chou Den-O trilogy boxset). The prices are too high, and that's not even counting the shipping fees! And don't get started with Special edition releases, or similar Blu-Ray releases. and that's not even getting the 3D editions.

PowerRangers and SuperSentai were specifically designed for this. Since they discard and draw everything each year, that means every new season, even if you only collect the basics, you have to get a new set of action figures (anywhere from five to seven, and that's only the vinyl ones!) and zords (and the number of zords has been exploding in recent years (the most infamous example, ''Gaoranger'', had 22 or more depending on special editions.) This gets worse if you're an American, since Bandai America's toys tend to not be as good, so you buy the Japanese version. Add to that extra things, like roleplaying sets of weapons and morphers, and collect them all extras like ''Shinkenger's'' disks, ''Goseiger's'' cards and Headders, and ''Gokaiger's''ranger keys. Forget crack, collecting diamonds might be cheaper.

It does not help it when some Figures/Items are ether Tamashii/Toei Hero Web Exclusives (they can only be bought at Online Stores that usually only ship within Japan) or Promotional Items given away at events or included with Magazines, Books and even Clothing. Not only do these special items cost more outright than the mainline stuff, but can often only be bought via Middlemen, upping the end cost quite a bit.

The ''KamenRider'' series is almost as equally guilty as SuperSentai. SHFiguarts, detailed figurines of the Riders? Crack for adult collectors. The belts, weapons, and whatever other accessories used by the Riders? Crack for both adult and children, ESPECIALLY in the later Heisei titles. Have fun finding something to contain all those Gaia Memories and Medals!

RC vehicles can get ridiculously expensive depending on the vehicle type, manufacture, and the fuel.

AmericanGirl - a single doll will run you about $100. New outfits run from $20-35, and accessories - such as a bed, etc - can easily top $150.

Completed PVC anime figures, resin kits and pretty much any kind of model kit adds up like hell. A standard completed PVC figure runs about 60 USD without shipping (which is between 8-25 USD), resin kits run less at around 35 USD, but once you add in all the materials you need to add about 100 USD more to that total. Punch-out PVC gundam models are hard to find in stores, and run around 60 USD. If you buy them online they're less, but then there's shipping again.

On that note, Gunpla, or Plamo ([=PLAstic=] [=MOdel=] kits) in general. You may think that a few $20 HG models won't set you back too far. Then you want more detail and articulation, so you start plopping down $50-$100 for the Master Grade models. Then you want even more, so then you start dishing out for the $200+ Perfect Grade models, and then you start buying the side-story extras. That's when you're not using the proper tools. Factor in paint, knives, sprue clippers, and maybe an airbrush kit, and you've got a serious drain. Not to mention how much time and money you're going to spend if you want to kitbash them.

{{Tabletop RPG}}s in general, which usually start with a basic rulebook (or three) between $40 and $50 American. This doesn't count the additional {{Sourcebook}}s and supplements that go for $10 to $30 apiece. And then there's dice, paper, pencils and more. This can easily run into the triple digits, and that's ''per game''. Heaven help you if you're into more than one -- or if the game company arbitrarily decides to release another edition (what, me bitter?).

The owners of DungeonsAndDragons bought out the RPG ''DragonQuest'' and it was never seen again. Conspiracy theory states the reason is that ''DragonQuest'' was a one book game that could compete with the D&D "make them buy 20 books, plus all sorts of accessories" franchise, thus they bought and buried it.

In extension to Tabletop [=RPGs=] and Wargames, there are the Board Games. You can start off collecting cheap family games that are about $25 AUS or less, like Jenga, some even down to $5 AUS if you want a Barrel Of Monkeys - but what happens when you try and collect special editions of Monopoly? Or worse for your wallet, hobby board games that most people haven't even heard of? There's thousands of fantasy genre board games like Talisman, sci-fi games like Cosmic Encounter - but increasingly they're getting more expensive and some of the classic board games like Samurai Swords are getting rare. Sometimes your best bet is eBay or if you're desperate, thrift shops - to try and find a classic bizarro game. God help you if you start building a collection... Trading Card Games like Magic are expensive but you have to store and keep your games clean - maintain the pieces and ensure you're getting your money's worth out of games you on the most part have no idea are any good or not if there's no reliable board game reviews. It's not as easy as video game journos telling you which game rocks or not.

You say that as if video games are cheap or something. First off, you're gonna need the system, which can range anywhere between $200-$500, or possibly more. A couple extra controllers are gonna set you back another $100 or so, and, if you got one of the consoles, you're gonna need a TV. Yes, that 12-inch black-and-white CRT TV your grandma left you in her will will work, but there isn't a chance in hell you're gonna be able to tell which character you're controlling. Back out to the store and pick up a nice new shiny widescreen TV. Say goodbye to another couple '''''thousand''''' dollars. All this, and you still haven't bought any games. While you can pick up used copies rather cheaply, you're likely going to want the popular new games all your friends are talking about, which are usually around $55-$70 brand new. And then this game comes out for a system you don't own, and you start eying other games for that system, and you break down and buy a couple of them and the other system and what'do'ya mean I'm bankrupt?!

''Action Figures.'' Especially when the lines expand.

Vinyl Toys aka Urban Vinyl. The egregious ones go for thousands. Kid Robot has built a cottage industry off of people's desire to pay $8 for a blind-boxed plastic rabbit.

''{{Trading Card Game}}s''. They're called "Cardboard Crack" for a reason. ''MagicTheGathering'' ("Five-Colored Crack") is the worst offender.

''Game/{{Munchkin}}''. Dear God. It starts out with your first set, and you and your friends think it's pretty fun. But then, after a while, the cards get old, strategy gets predictable, and you need more. So you buy another set - and hey, why not the Blender Pack, to make the combined games better? And while we're at it, why not a booster for mounts, and maybe even a third basic set to add ultimate wackiness?! If you value your life or your reason, ''stay away from this game''.

Alternate reality games can quickly become like this. Actually acquiring the clues to solve the puzzles can be a wallet-draining exercise.

Not just geeks have trouble. Just as wallet-drained as consumers of media that the masses associate with "weak, ugly, socially awkward teenage boy who thinks he's 5 years old" are those whose hobbies label ''them'' as "senile, unwanted, deluded old woman who thinks she's 5 years old". See: doll collecting (antique or otherwise) and commemorative plates.

You want a Transformer toy? Very easy! You want a Transformer toy that's accurate to its animated counterpart? Less easy! You want a G1 Starscream that's accurate to its animated counterpart? $200 plus postage, please.

Not to mention obscure toys that were only released in Japan, or Europe, or ''Brazil.'' Or factory variants, or packaging variants, or running changes. Or Japanese "Lucky Draw" prizes that are chrome-plated and they only made ''six'' of them. Or buying all the comics, or all the TV shows.

There's a reason it's called the SE Tax. The store doesn't even allow purchases under 23 bucks!

Let's talk about SE some more. You know those Play Arts/Kai figures? Very nicely sculpted, with decent articulation--and you're gonna pay out your ass for every single one of 'em (unless you get lucky). ''Especially'' the older sets (like X-2 and VIII, unless it's Selphie). You could always, say, work around the house for 'em, but that's really not much easier (ever raked a yard, bagged the leaves, and dragged the bags to the side of the road all by yourself? And you have all the body strength of cooked spaghetti? Ow).

{{LEGO}}. Crack is not only cheaper, but ''way'' less time-consuming, and doesn't take up nearly as much space in your closet. Also, standing on pieces of crack does not hurt your feet half as much.

Fortunately, LEGO lasts ages longer than crack (especially if the room you're storing them in is damp) and if they get dirty, the plastic can handle a good wash.

Comparatively, American prices for LEGO are downright ''fantastic''. Other countries aren't so lucky - Australian pricing for LEGO painfully takes the CrackIsCheaper factor ''even further''. Even with exchange rates near parity, LEGO goes for up to double the equivalent US price in Australia, with the average 500-piece set going for upward of $90. And God help you if you happen to want any of the licence tie-in sets, which are even worse - a 2009 model of Count Dooku's solar sailer was priced in the $100 range, and it was ''a paltry 300+ pieces''. One must wonder how they move any sets at all to the child audience with those prices, especially in this economic climate.

And then {{LEGO}} started selling collectible minifigures in random packaging. Sure, the price of a single minifig seems low. But once you get one, you will want more, and more and more. Eventually you will found out you have been spending all your money on them. It does not help that apparently there are four series of 16 figures per year.

Collectible Miniatures Games, such as ''HeroClix'' and D&D Minis have all the worst features of trading card games and tabletop war gaming put together, so naturally we must have them. Another new {{Superman}} figure? Gimme!

Collecting plush toys. Dear... ''god'' is it expensive. This one has been an avid collector of plush toys since she was 4 or 5 and she thinks that she'd have been better off collecting solid gold paperweights. You see these? They're 27 Pounds Sterling each. '''Each'''. Don't even get her started on ''Pokémon plush toys or Were Bears. (Note that the price sure as hell doesn't stop her from buying the darn things, hee~).

This troper can attest to that.

This troper also agrees. She collects Pokémon stuff to the best of her ability, considering that currently her only source of income consists of allowance that she gets on a non-set basis. That allowance quickly goes down the drain buying plushies (definitely the most expensive items that aren't sealed video games) and what have you, ESPECIALLY at conventions. That new Zoroark chibi plush? Around $19. The Zorua? $25. Arceus? Also about $25. A pillow featuring some characters? 20 bucks.

Hell, just Pokémon in general, if the OneGameForThePriceOfTwo shtick also hits you. You have all the main games, the spinoffs, the merchandise, the trading card game... not to mention how much time you'll spend trying to catch them all. If they had a Weed Pokémon, crack would have ''absolutely nothing'' on this.

They already do, in one or more of the games, the poke'dex entry for Oddish says "Weed Pokemon"

Playing Arcade Racing Games competitively (namely ''Initial D: Arcade Stage'' or ''WanganMidnight: Maximum Tune'') really sucks your wallet dry quick:

Averted by Hot Wheels cars. They're usually 99 cents or so at your average WalMeijerKMart You pick up four or five with your milk. And you can get around the "boxed or deboxed" debate by simply buying duplicates. Not so much with the the larger 1:18 scale cars which can range anywhere from thirty bucks to a few hundred, though.

Or how about Retro Gaming? If you're not pirating for one reason or another, first you have to buy the system (price can vary from $30 to $120, depending on the specific system and condition), then the controllers, S-video cables, any peripheral products like The Superscope, Zappers, etc. Then the games themselves, the really good, or just the rare games can go up to over $50 a pop, some even go over a $100 (like a gold-colored copy of Link II). And since all this stuff is out of print, the stuff just only gets rarer over time.

Vehicle simulation gaming drains your wallet QUICK because of the peripherals. So you want to start playing flight sims? Here's the basic two-button stick with no throttle or rudder for a few bucks, but why do that when you could easily spend $75-100 (most likely up to and over '''$500''', depending on whether you're going for something cheap like a Saitek X-45 or X-52, or going top-of-the-line like the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog) on a whole Hands-On Throttle And Stick (HOTAS) setup with all the buttons and switches you could possibly need? If it lacks rudder control (and the more expensive ones generally don't have twist sticks or rudder rockers), you're probably out another $100-150. Need more intuitive control for the [=MFDs=]? Here's a couple of MFD frames for $50-add your own displays. Hat switch too cumbersome for controlling view? $120-150 for a [=TrackIR=], please, and add an extra $35 for a [=TrackClip=] Pro if you don't like wearing a baseball cap and headphones at the same time. Oh, and there's plenty of cockpit-building parts out there to drain your wallet with, control panels and everything, depending on the aircraft you're modeling the pit after. (Especially the F-16C.) If that's not enough? Put your flight sim cockpit on a motion platform, most likely costing at least $3,000! Racing sims aren't that different, only instead you're buying expensive wheels and shifters from the likes of Logitech, Fanatec, TSW, or if you've got $8,000 or so to burn, ECCI.

In regards to the facetious comment in the description regarding mecha bobble-heads, enjoy the many new toys that have been released for ''Film/{{Transformers}}: Revenge of the Fallen'' (scroll to the bottom for bobble-heads, and get your wallet ready). No word on Gundam bobble-heads, yet.

Home for the Homeless: an article about a homeless woman who managed to keep up with ''SecondLife''.

So? You wanna modify your copy of ''Sim City 4 Deluxe''? Well get ready to lose a severe amount of time, energy, sleep, and possibly even some serious cash if you do so... The game is so complicated and the community expects you to deliver some real work to call art, so get ready...

{{Shmups}}. Aside from the aforementioned arcade boards and cabinets, some ''console'' shmups--particularly older ones that have acquired plenty of value--tend to be quite costly. Just take a look at the prices for ''Border Down'' and ''Radiant Silvergun''.

Yoyos. Yoyos range from a dollar to several hundred. To get a decent yoyo you spend fifteen to twenty bucks. To get a competition grade metal yoyo it is normally around a hundred dollars. Then you have to pay for replacement strings, pads, and youʻll want to mod your yoyos. And a lot of players have ten plus yoyos. Yoyoing can get expensive.

Playmobil collecting. considering how rare it is to find an actual set at stores like target will force you to buy them from the offical website. The playmobil toyline dates back to 1975 and their are over a billion sets since that, the older the set the higher the price.

Nerf sounds like a cheap hobby, right? Just a few dollars for your first Nitefinder or Maverick, right? Next, you pick up a Clip System blaster, some extra darts, spare magazines, and then you get hooked onto all the lovely GunAccessories of the N-Strike line, the bigger and faster-firing blasters, and ''then'' you discover the joys of Nerf Blaster customizing and homemade saboted darts, and slowly all your gold turns into Nerf.

Series/DoctorWho toys are... ridiculously expensive. OK, so you want to start collecting, fair enough. You buy a wave to start you off. £70, right off the bat. Then the variants might cost you at least another £48, bearing in mind we're still on the first wave here. Then they announce another wave, with about five or six new figures, so another £40. And then there's that exclusive box set with one figure that you need and four rereleases... But you're not even done yet! One figure pack from SDCC can and does fetch over £200 on eBay. And we haven't even gotten into the Forbidden Planet exclusive releases, which number about one every one or two months and cost about £15 for one figure, £25 for two-packs (if you're lucky) and then in some cases, like with the Remembrance of the Daleks set, it's about £40 for three repaints and one new mold with a rusty paint job. Yeah, it's not a very good hobby to get into.

Not to mention the Build-A-Figure ranges. Especially galling when, as noted above, you've already bought half the set before.

Whoa, whoa. £40 for ''five or six''? Sounds like a fairly sweet deal in comparison to... oh, I don't know... Figmas, Nendoroids, or -God forbid- PVC figures. Which can cost around $40/50/''100+'', respectively. Before shipping. Or import taxes, if they apply to you. *shakes fist* Anime/Video Game fandom...!

OK, let's approach it from another perspective. You don't want to buy the actual waves, since they tend to have a few one-shot characters that don't reappear again, if ever, so you only buy main characters. Let's also assume that you're only a "Nu Who" fan. You get a [=TARDIS=] playset (Priced at around USD $70) and the "Nu Who" Doctors: Nine, Ten, and Eleven. You don't want him to be alone, so you pick up his companions, which consist of Rose, Mickey, Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, K-9, Martha, Donna, River, Amy, and Rory (should he ever get an action figure.) Assuming you're a fan of the entire Whoniverse, buying Captain Jack might compel you to buy the rest of the ''Torchwood'' team, which consists of Gwen, Ianto, Toshiko, and Owen (should ''he'' ever get an action figure.) And since you have so many heroes, you need a few villains. Daleks (five in the new Paradigm), Cybermen, Sontarans, Weeping Angels, take your pick. If you're lucky, you can find them for about USD $15 each, but if you can't the exchange rate between US and UK currency can easily run them up to double that.

{{CollectibleCardGame/Bakugan}}, its starts with a somewhat cheap Starter Pack, then you realize that probably only one of those Bakugan is useful or that all of them just plain suck. So you buy Booster Packs, what's wrong with that? The fact that booster packs come in more than '''28''' types of booster packs (Bakuboost, Bakuflip, Bakufrost, Bakubronze, Bakuwhatever else) and then you realize that there are these things called bakugan traps and you have none. Then you realize that there are ''also'' things known as Battle Gear, finally you realize that in you quest of high G Bakugan, you have no good cards, so you buy card packs. After all of this you've realized you've spent over ''Seven Thousand'' rand ($1000) buying and importing ''marbles.''

{{Warhammer40000}} and {{Warhammer}}, a single army normaly costs over £200 and you can always find something to add. Also it won't just be one army - crack is cheaper and less addictive.

Don't forget you have to buy the rule book, the codex for the army you using, buy terrain features, and the rule that what you see is what you get (all war gear you want your model to use must be visible on said model), and then the paint so that your terrain and models look nice.

Don't also forget the frequent rule updates (it's getting to the point that they're not even finishing releasing all the current rulebooks before revamping the main ruleset and invalidating all of them), the frequent price increases, the unethical-if-not-illegal price-fixing (especially online), etc etc. Most recently they announced a switch from Metal to "Fine-Cast" resin -- with a 25% price hike to boot. Unfortunately, the Fine-Casts suffer from severe molding problems, basically being unusable about 2/3rd of the time due to mold failures, bubbles, etc etc. All told, Games-Workshop suffers from a strange case of SmallNameBigEgo and sees absolutely nothing wrong with this, because they're the only game in town, right? (The fact that people ''keep buying it'' and ''actually defend the price hikes online'' doesn't hurt.)

And don't even think about getting into models from Game Workshop's Forgeworld division. Not unless you want to increase your army cost by an order of magnitude. A single Titan or superheavy vehicle starts at roughly the same price as a full 1500 point army; and goes up rapidly from there. The most egregious example being the Tau Manta, at ''£945''.

While the prices go up to stupid proportions, its only fair to point out that the Forge World models do scale too. Not to the extent that they are actually worth as much as listed, but for example, the manta is 25 inches by 34 inches, weighs 28 pounds and comes with 48 infantry, 8 battle-suits and 4 tanks, all of which fit inside it. Sure its only for the genuinely insane, but you do get a lot of stuff...

In metric, that means: 63.5 cm by 86 cm, 12.7 kg. Note that the infantry is not actually usable in battle (they're all sitting), but the rest is.

In this tropers opinion, how much this trope applies to any miniature game is up for debate. There's no denying they are expensive hobbies. However, in general terms they lack two things that are at the core of this trope. All the other examples here have either incredibly fast expansion/refresh cycles, or have a very strong 'gotta catch em all' ethos at the center of them, or both. Miniatures games tend to have the former only to a very limited degree, and while they do encourage large collections, there is no concept of completeness as a goal.

Taking Warhammer 40k as an example, the last full refresh of the miniatures was in 1998 (the release of 3rd edition), and the older models can still be used right up to this day. While the newer models look rather better, there is no functional difference between new and old as far as the game is concerned. Nothing ever goes obsolete or forces you to get new models just to stay where you are.

They certainly do put out quite a few books, but outside of the rule book and normally one splatbook that deals with the army you play with there is no real need to own any others. The core books (rules and armies) really don't refresh as often as the first section implies, normally lasting about five years. Now there are lots of optional books including expansion rules (for playing similar but different games in the same universe like Apocalypse and Cities of Death) and expanded content (like the somewhat extensive Imperial Armour series) but optional is the keyword.

While collecting is a core part of the hobby, you essentially define how much you want to collect. Obviously most people collect more than they actually need just to play the game and they always want to add new things, but unlike anime figures there isn't a (constantly expanding) complete series to acquire just as an end in itself.

There is definitely a pretty high cash barrier to entry, once you've got a decent size army to play with you can keep on playing pretty much to infinity without spending much more, which goes for competitive play too. Since they don't screw around with the 'chase rare' kinda crap that MtG does, anyone can have an army that wins tournaments (ie a collection to be proud of) without spending more money than a casual player. Furthermore because the models never go out of date, this decent army will continue to be so forever.

Basically, this troper suggests that at best this is a YMMV example of the trope. Compared to MtG, where if you want to actually win games (why else would you bother ?) you need to constantly buy new cards, and to Gundam collecting where the only purpose of a collection is to own them all, tabletop miniature games are a rather more benign hobby. They are all certainly quite pricey, but you get quite a lot of mileage from however much you spend. From writing background to go with your armies; to building and painting; to actually playing the game, there's a lot to do and the game doesn't punish you if you sit down for five minutes.

Now for sure this troper used to pump every penny he could get his hands on into his 40k collection, but its absolutely not in the same league as CCGs. A couple of hundred quid for an army sounds like a lot when you say it like that, but that's a lot of minis that you keep getting a lot out of it. Compared to at least a hundred quid for a competitive MtG deck (assuming you're cheap and don't play one with Wraths) that at a complete minimum has to be totally rebuilt 3 times a year (3 expansions per year) and probably more because the metagame changes so fast its retarded. And this is just if you play cookie cutter metagame decks that actually work. Addictive means you CAN'T stop, and you have to keep spending just to avoid losing ground.

So you liked ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''[=/=] ''RebuildOfEvangelion'' do ya? Well, hope you don't like having money, as the collectables such as the Evangelion Evolution revoltech figures (which run $50 per figure), The gashpons (Price varries these are also blind boxed), of maybe the RAH (''$200 per figure''), and the God-knows-how-many PVC Rei and Asuka sets (GOD HELP YOU), will leave you cashless.

Beanie Kids. The bastards cost about $10 each, and Skansen keeps bringing out more and more of them...

StarTrek ships. Some of them are easy to find, but an 18-inch Enterprise-D will run you $40 at best. Then you start noticing gaps in your collection, and you find that a similarly-scaled Enterprise-B will cost between $100 and $200. And God help you if you want a more obscure ship, since it probably only came out as a limited-edition randomized collectible in Japan in 2001.

Remote control aviation: cheap enough to start with, until you account for crash replacement parts and the better models sitting in your hobby shop's display case.

Boating is perhaps among the originals for this trope, as it's said that a boat is a "hole in the water into which you throw money. The problem is especially bad due to the nature of a boat: you need water to use it. Water corrodes metal, encourages rot in wood and cloth fibers, slowly causes fiberglass to thin, may freeze solid if it gets cold enough, serves as a breeding grounds for all manner of aquatic life that think of your boat's hull as home. If you don't spend the money to repair your boat, ''it may sink. With you in it.'' Weather is also an issue, and if your most convienent body of water is an ocean, then your boat may be at the mercy of tsunamis, tidal waves, hurricanes or typhoons, and worst of all, salt. If you live in a temperate area, you can only use your boat about half the year, unless you are truly hardcore. You then have to pay for dock space, a trailer, or both. And boats usually have to comply with some sort of government safety regulations, so throw in life jackets, air horns, signal flares, maritime radios, and why not radar and GPS navigation while we're at it? Can't forget the backup charts, either. The employees at the local West Marine will come to know and love you. And you will hate them for it.

Fly Fishing. Of course you'll start with a cheap $100 rod/reel setup and buy a random box of flies. But then you get involved, start accumulating different sorts of flies(and replacing the ones you lose). Soon, you'll find you cheap rod and line a pain in the butt to cast and get a new and better rod(which will probably run at least 2-300 dollars, line(probably a good 50-75 dollars for a good line), and like 100 dollars for a cheap reel. And that's for trout fishing with mostly drys. If you try to do something different, you'll probably need a whole new rig because god help you if you try to fish in the ocean with a trout rod. Of course, one rod is never enough-there's always that 6-weight that would make fishing nymphs that much easier. And this isn't even factoring in things like weights, flies(which run about a buck-fifty apecice for most trout flies and more for larger flies), leaders, tippets, gadgets...the list goes on and on. And then you start traveling. Let's just say that when a flyshop opened in our neighborhood my dad joked that he should just give them his credit card number

Lacrosse can sorta fit into this trope. most teams required you to purchase and get your own pads, stick, and sometimes helmet, depending on the team. and then your stick, which you can get a fragile, heavy piece of metal that costs 20 bucks, or get a shaft that costs $100 for decent weight and strength, and then the head, if you want a good shaped head that will hold the ball be ready to drop $70. and then the mesh, which you can get along with strings for $15. then the pads...Helmets can cost between $75 to $300 depending on the model. Cleats, Armpads, Shoulder pads, should drop you around $200 for a decent set. now the gloves, which can cost for the cheapest around $70. now, add all this up and equipment for one player can be around $500. now, you may not think this is bad... but this is also assuming you are playing for your highschool and not a club or a summer team, whose fees could be $2000 per Season, and then Camps and Clinics if you want to get better, and of course your back-up stick and it's back-up for the higher levels... lets see, you can easily drop $4000 on a season if you are trying to play D1 Lacrosse at a mid - high tier college.

Firearms ownership can get get expensive. A .22 rifle and a few thousand rounds of ammo will only set you back a few hundred, and even renting a decent handgun for a few hours at an indoor range doesn't cost too much. However, new weapons, ammunition, replacement parts, accessories, and licensing fees add up. Some anti-Second Amendment locales specifically ban weapons below a certain price point to prevent people who would become gun owners from even starting.

This troper had a military grade assault rifle (AK-103). The cost itself was about $2K, then came ammo, cleaning, magazines, and more ammo. Finally, for good measure, I decided to customize the hell out of it. I moved the rear sight back and recalibrated it in order to make it easier to aim. I had the bore completely redone, so I made it a one in 10-sided female type polygonal rifling done in a heavier steel alloy while adding a bigger and better muzzle brake and an improved compensator. I next took off the folding plastic stock and replaced it with a metal skeleton stock with a flared butt plate. After that, I got a custom upper receiver made of stainless steel Lastly, I put a pistol grip on the handguard. There is a reason why I sold it and then used the $6,200 I received from the sale of everything in this split: $700 for a good Mossberg 500 Police shotgun at a gun show and several dozen 12 gauge shells and then $3500 went into my college fund. P.S.: If you want pricey, go looking for colt revolvers from the West. Trust me on this one: The best guns come from the corner of a gun show with a guy who's just hanging out and there fore the guns instead of being primarily there for the profit. The guys who claim to have good antiques will charge you an unbelievable amount of money for a piece of crap compared to the gun lovers who are cheaper, and because they took care of the merchandise, is in good condition, even after being 108 years old and through two world wars, even though those guns will cost a great deal too. At least they're pretty dependable and accurate.

And that may be on the ''low'' end of price as far as guns go. most semi-auto assault rifles, which anyone at the firing range will be going crazy over rather than firing at their own targets, will set you back, without magazines, ammo or accessories, a good $3,000.

Similarly, paintball. While a rental will run you maybe fifty bucks plus another twenty for extra paint, getting into the "sport" in a serious way means a progressively more expensive marker ($300 for a mid-range, $1k+ for a top-level), mask (and visor replacements every couple months), clothing (team uniforms run a hundred-fifty bucks easy, and you all have to match colors and styles), plus freakin' paint. Good quality paintballs run about $70 for a 2000 count case, and airball (tournament) players can go through that in a single match. Paint sponsorship deals help out the top players, but most people are going to burn through a lot of money just shooting. And that doesn't count travel costs (most fields are in rural, out-of-the-way areas for obvious reasons) or field fees?or the fields that require the use of overpriced field-sold paint. Finally, there's the thriving mod market, so you can spend disposable income on new "better" bolts, rods, triggers, hoppers, tanks, hoses, et al.

Airsoft is notorious as well. While [=BBs=] themselves are not particularly expensive, the guns are expensive (Mid-range starting at 200 USD and going quite high), several hundred dollars in upgrades and accessories, a load of magazines (Easily close to a 100 dollars), sidearm with magazines (Think over 150), and then the tactical equipment is what really kills you. Unlike paintball, which often does not have much in the way of tactical gear, airsofters are often of the "gearwhore" variety, buying the latest and greatest tacticool stuff - a loaded up plate carrier can EASILY cost 400 dollars, and if you're really a gearwhore you might even through the 1,000 dollars down for real plates. With the attention to realism, airsoft adds up fast.

Being into ProfessionalWrestling is relatively cheap, for the most part -- just drop a few bucks on the pay-per-views, watch the free TV shows, and you're golden. But if you're into ''independent'' wrestling, like RingOfHonor or {{CHIKARA}}? Or, worse yet, imported puroresu and lucha libre? You might as well just sign your house over to Highspots.com right now, for the sheer amount of [=DVDs=] you're going to have to buy just to follow the storylines and watch all the best matches.

Any sport that requires equipment that can be personalized can get into this trope. Aside from the ones mentioned above, the most obvious example is golf. Because, you know, 20+ handicap golfers need carbon-fiber titanium drivers with personalized precision weight distribution inserts and hand-crafted Saskatchewan sealskin grips. Paying the entrance fee for some golf courses can also be pretty crazy depending on the course.

Horses. Some people fork over ''half a million dollars'' for a horse. Yes. More than many people spend on their first home - for an animal. She loves the sport, but thinks the prices for a good quality hunter or jumper are just outrageous. And you'd better be an heiress if you want to compete. Clients regularly drop a couple thousand dollars at a show in entry fees, office fees, stabling, etc. And most of the classes don't offer prize money. Even if you're not at the high end of the sport, a "regular" horse can still be several thousand dollars, boarding and upkeep can be a thousand or more a ''month,'' and there are countless expenses from shoes to shots and emergency medical attention. Crack's cheaper, yes. But so are just about all the other examples on this page. Combined.

Scuba - Seriously, we're talking at BEST $200 to get basic certified, and that's just being able to drop to about 60'. Add in another $200-$300 for advanced to get the full range, and you're up to $500/$600 before gear. BCD, regulator, octopus hose, backup reg, tank (probably two), wetsuit, fins, mask and snorkle, weight belt? that can run you almost a $1000 at the LOW end. Then you get into things like shipwreck training ($300-$500), the gear to actually DO a shipwreck dive (winch, lights, gloves, hood? $200), a dive computer (varies, absurdly), specialty air training, night dive training, rescue training? and then you may have to rent the boat ($75-$300 depending on destination) and pay for the air ($8? thankfully). Not counting extra gear? knives, glow sticks, bags, motorized dive sleds? Expensive hobby indeed.

Show Dogs. Like with Horses above, you can expect to fork over up several thousand dollars for a pedigree dog. If you want to compete, you got the booking fees, the travel expenses, the money you need to train your dog to go through the proper paces, grooming supplies so they look nice. Not to mention that in some areas, the pooches will be quarantined after arrival, so you can add a couple weeks of hotel fees while you wait for Prince William of the Fluffsterriblestan to be given the all clear.

Model rocketry. Your science teacher buys some kits in bulk and you do it totally for free in school once and think it's really cool. Then you go to the store and find out that they don't sell all the needed parts and the parts they do sell add up to 34 bucks for a single stage, never mind multiple stages or a mini camera or?

Camping. With enough self-restraint, this is actually a very cost-effective hobby. Individual weekend outings can cost as little as $30 or less if you split costs among a small group (3-4 people), and at its most basic level the gear you need isn't very expensive. However, if you want the absolute best-quality gear there is, you can expect to drop quite a chunk of change. Sure, you'll usually be just fine using a small backpack and duffel bag you got from Wal-Mart for a total of maybe $30, but if you want the state-of-the-art ultra-lightweight weatherproof fiberglass-frame camping backpack, then you're looking at something about 10 times that amount. And that's just the backpack. Then you have tents, coolers, firestarting gear, pocketknives, flashlights, and all manner of various tools and gadgets. Just take a look through the camping section of your local sporting goods store and you'll see what I mean. Fortunately, most of this is a one-time expense, and will serve you for countless fun-filled excursions. Unfortunately, camping enthusiasts are just as prone to Gear Acquisition Syndrome as musicians.

Racing. Get a kart, get your gear (helmet, fireproofs, suit, gloves, boots) get kart to track, fill kart with ever more expensive petrol, race kart, in all probability crash kart, repair kart, continue to race kart, get better at karting, eventually get into a Formula Car (Formula Ford, Toyota, Renault etc depending on where you live) and repeat ad infinitum with repairs, transport and gear becoming more and more expensive, right up to paying a team to be able to race in [=GP2=] or F1. Get a sponsor. Seriously, seriously get a sponsor.

Remote control car racing can get pretty expensive when you actually start getting serious. For instance, a basic 1/28 scale electric RC car can set you back $100 without shipping and we're talking about the most humanly basic RC car, if you want it to look cool or go faster expect to pay another $30 in total if your buying off eBay. And God help you if you decide to start Gas RC cars.

Even before Gas RC cars, broken parts, full custom body, paint, weights, rocket launchers, new tires, better receiver/transmitter, remote car camera, remote dropping mines, night vision, lights, and oh, right, the occasional jet engine in case you want to fly.

Fencing. Assuming you're only planning on "steam" fencing (i.e. without the electric scoring system), then you'll only need breaches, an under-plastron, a jacket, a glove and a basic mask (exact quality/resistance depends on the weapon you use), which will set you back �475. Then of course you need your sword(s), which start from around �35 for a crappy sabre or steam foil. You'll need at least one spare for when it breaks, as well. Once you go electric, you need your lame for your weapon of choice, and they start at �99; plus a bodywire (�20ish) and an electric version of your sword (figure around �5-15 more than your steam blade, although most sabres are built for both electric and steam use). Oh, and you'll need spare lames, bodywires, swords (and for sabre- a special mask and a spare, and a pair of mask clips). And all that is before your registration fees to your local club, to the local administrative body, etc. Not to mention the fact that fencing is one of the sports where the competitor pays to get into tournaments, and the audience gets in free...

Pretty much any other martial art, but especially kendo. Forget the few hundred USD minimum for a decent differential-steel sword. Even a bokken can cost 50 USD, if you want one with realistic weight and balance that can handle a lot of use without splintering.

Rock climbing. A good pair of climbing shoes will easily set you back at least 100 USD, price for harnesses start at 65 USD and go up from there plus gym fees for when you're just starting out. If you want to get really serious you're talking at least six months in the gym then buying all the camping equipment, special belay devices, crash pads, rope, and rope bags easily exceeding a grand all said and done not even touching on the cost of going out to the camp sites.

Windsurfing. An entry-level board, sail, and mast package will run you $1000, but it's impossible to stop there: you need a bigger sail for light wind days, a smaller sail for heavy wind days, and then three more with camber inducers once you start to get the hang of things. Then you need different boards--for just tearing along when the water's flat, for wave sailing, and maybe for freestyle, and then you realize that some of your sails work better with differently-shaped boards. Then stuff starts to break...

Figure skating. You might start out with paying for public sessions and maybe your own pair of skates ($50-$100). You also pay for sharpenings every...4 months? Okay so now you want to get further into the world and you join a club (my club's fees are $100, these will vary from place to place), buy a new pair of skates (this time probably somewhere around $200-$350), and if you're a girl, dresses and tights for practices and competitions and customized dresses for different programs. Customized dresses/costumes can cost up to $1000. You hire a coach who charges per half hour and this isn't so bad...until you start to have to take multiple lessons a week. Once you enter pre-preliminary, you start testing for the levels, which incurs more fees, and you start being able to compete at regionals, for which the entry fee is $100. Okay, let's go even further. You now hire a choreographer and take off-ice classes. You keep buying new pairs of skates all the while (these will really, really add up!). You may have to fly in for competitions, so you pay for airfare and hotel. And you keep paying everything else along with it. Crack really IS cheaper.

Forget figure skating, ''roller derby''. Holy crap. When you're first starting out in the sport, expect to drop maybe $50 for a full set of low-end pads, $60 for a cheap approved helmet (a bike helmet will not cut it,) maybe $10 for a cheap boil-and-bite mouthguard from a chemist, and about $300 for a pair of vinyl skates--maybe Riedell R3s or Sure Grip GT-50 Rocks. Then you realise, about three training sessions in, that your super-cheap kneepads are absolutely not cutting it, and shell out between $50 and $250 for a pair of TSG Force-IIIs, 187s, Scabs, or Rector Fatboys--plus, if you have an old injury or you tend to fall hard, another $70 or so for knee gaskets. Then you realise the shitty made-in-China wheels your skates came with just aren't cutting it, so you get a new set, which can be up to $200. While you're there, you may as well get some new bearings as well--there goes another $200---and then you need to drop between $30 and $100 on tools to change your wheels and bearings with. Then you start to scrimmage and realise you can't talk with your shitty mouthguard, so you head off to the dentist to get one fitted. This can be up to $150, God help you if you don't have private insurance. And then, by the time you've done all that, your first set of skates has been abused to the point where they are now twisted and warped around your foot and starting to fall apart. So, taking advice from the other girls in your league, you either buy a pre-built set up from a skate shop (ranging from $500 to $1500,) or start looking around to build your own. High-end lightweight aluminium plates and trucks costs ''at a minimum'' $200, if they're used. If you find a pair of Snyder plates with 7mm axles, as opposed to the 8mm axles that are now standard, be prepared to shell out another couple hundred for new bearings or a set of axle sheaths, as well as a new set of skate tools. Proper leather boots cost from about $200 up to $1000, sometimes more. It costs money to get your skates put together, and by this time you'll probably want to upgrade your wheels again; and your first set of wristguards will probably be falling apart, so you upgrade it with a pair of Hired Hands or similar that cost the same as your entire first set of pads did; and your knee pads probably need new caps; and you're going to want a set of outdoor wheels, so you can train outside... and it goes on like this. And if you should happen to have feet that are wider than the standard Riedell or Sure Grip build, you'll probably have to pay to get your skates professionally stretched, or shell out at a minimum $700 for a custom made boot. Some, like the Vanilla Brass Knuckle boots, are a bit wider-cut, and the GT-50 is wider than most, but the former option can be expensive especially if you have to import it, and the latter is vinyl and will inevitably be destroyed in six months or so if you're skating as much as you should be. Plus, your skates will probably need to be serviced at least once every couple of months, which involves expensive creams and citrus cleaners and sometimes specialised equipment. And if you break a truck the day before a tournament it will be a very expensive fix, too.

Cross-country skiing gets much more expensive the more competitive the race, because there are at least five hundred different kinds of glide and kick wax for different temperatures, different humidity, new snow versus old snow, what kind of snowflakes, and so on. These waxes are frequently $40-80 for 60 grams. Special "pure fluorocarbon" blocks (Jetstream) for extra speed can be $120-200 for 20 grams.

Rowing, dear god, rowing! The boats themselves (for the 8-person team) are $26k something for starter pieces of crap. A good boat will set you back approximately 40K with some of the upgrades. Even a single shell will set you back a few hundred at least. Then there are the oars, which go for about a hundred each on the low end. And the things are damn delicate too. If you accidentally bump the dock corner and punch a hole in the boat, there goes your paycheck.

Bicycling, anyone? Oh sure, a basic one-speed ride and a helmet can be had for under $200, but if you intend to commute by bike regularly, you're gonna need a collection of jerseys, shorts, socks, snacks, water bottles, a lock, and a seat that's actually sittable. And lights if you ride in the dark, and a bell, and maybe a little GPS or distance tracker. If you live anyplace with hills, you're going to need a multi-speed bike. And if you ''race'', well, budget a couple mortgage payments for the special race wheels, aero bars, an ultralight carbon-fiber frame ... did we mention the frame alone is going to cost four figures?

Bowling. Say you wanna buy your own pair of shoes and your own ball. Right there, that's about $75 to over $100, depending on the quality. You'll also need a bag to put these in, which is $40 to $80, again, depending on quality. Now you wanna bowl. Depending on the alley, it's either $5-10 or up to $15. Over time, you'll be bowling game after game after game, replacing your materials, and maybe owning more than one of each, which, at that rate, you're better off just using the stuff they have ready at the alley.

Black Americana. Ever since the demand for Black Americana skyrocketed in the eighties, items which are not even rare are often sold at 5+ times their original value (if adjusted for inflation). And if an item contains, in its name or anywhere on it, the word "n*** er," expect to pay 10+ times what you might have otherwise.

TV-Series on [=DVDs=] anyone? £35 a season isn't too bad, and £63.27 for an entire series is a steal. But oh, you want to grab the Classic Series of Series/DoctorWho? £15 a pop please. And do you want the super deluxe box set for ''The Key to Time?'' ''please.'' That's like 350 dollars! ''Oh Son of a BITCH!'' And don't get me started on the 100+ £12 a pop oh-so-shiny Big Finish CD's?

Want to start collecting swords? Go ahead, drop $40 or $50 for that 440 Stainless katana with the half-inch rat tail tang, wobbly guard, badly lacquered scabbard and cheap handle wrap. We've all done it. Once you realize, however, that you just spend that much money on a sword that would break if you tried to cut bread with it, you'll undoubtedly want a better one. Want higher-quality steel? Full tang? Rayskin handle? A scabbard that won't crack and break every time you sheathe the sword (because let's be honest, what kind of person owns a sword and doesn't take it out every now and then?) Better not have anything else worth a few hundred dollars that needs buying. Want a high-quality, battle-ready blade made by a qualified blacksmith? Some of the best will run you as much as a used car. Want to buy a "fantasy" sword with all kinds of ornaments on it? Just like above, a cheap one will run you around $50. However, buying anything from one of the more well-known dealers in fantasy blades, like Gil Hibben, will make you cry once you realize you just spent $200 on a replica of Sting from ''{{Lord of the Rings}}''. All this, coupled with the fact that swords are really neat and nobody can ever be satisfied with just one, will bleed your bank account dry.

Airsoft. First, you pick up the "basic set" which is $300 for an automatic electric BB gun and probably $100 more on other essentials. But then... then you absolutely need a sidearm (another triple-digits figure). Once you get it and love the whole "realistic look and blowback operation", you'll be getting more. Berettas, Glocks, Colt1911 and whatever. Ok, now some load bearing system ($100+ unless it's useless). Now another electric rifle (* for close combat* if the first one was m16 or *for sniping* if it was m4 or mp5). Now I could use a replica helmet, fancy military boots, hydration system... there is a point when you look over your gear corner and understand that adding a $2000+ real-deal NV Goggles wouldnt actually be this much more of a spend.

If you think Airsoft is expensive, have I got news for you: collecting ''real'' guns in the US is orders of magnitude more expensive. Basic semi-automatic pistol like a Glock 17, Sig 220, or Beretta [=PX4=]? $300-900. Authentic combat pistols like the Beretta M9, Colt 1911, Five-Seven, or H&K Mark23? $900, $1000, $1200, and $2200, respectively, and that's without any of the fancy accessories like supressors, which cost another thousand dollars a pop. A Desert Eagle costs upwards of $3000. Semi-automatic and bolt-action rifles run the gamut from the cheap end at $100 (for the infamously prolific Mosin Nagant) to upwards of $4000 for a quality sniper rifle (not counting limited-run collectors' pieces like the [=WA2000=], which goes for upwards of $75000, ''when'' it goes). An authentic Dragunov SVD from before the import ban took hold? Bidding starts at $10000. And if you want anything automatic? Forget it, unless you're willing to shell out for the obscene cost of getting and maintaining a Class 3 license, and another $15000-100000 for the actual gun. This of course doesn't include the cost of licenses, cleaning, maintenance, ammunition (if you plan to go shooting, a day's worth of bullets will set you back a few hundred dollars, easily), or insurance (for your obscenely overvalued guns).

Good news: The Civilian Marksmanship Program can help poorer gun-desiring tropers purchase functional battle rifles for under $1000! Through it, a decent M1 Garand can easily go for $600-$800!

Of course if you're not in the US, gun prices may vary. The lowest in the world is $30 for an AK-47 (usually in Africa.) If you're in a country that outright banned guns, you will need enough to bribe your officials.

Baskets.

Retrocomputing. Just retrocomputing. Grab an old minicomputer from your university's dumpsters... spend a bit on fixing it up. Then find out, all you have is a box of blinkenlights that can't ''do'' anything until you find some mass storage. Quickly followed by paying someone a pretty penny for their vintage hard drive that's the size of your fridge, and even more on the shipping. Now, you have all the gear, found an operating system (on BitSavers because that's where you found the manual), and... crap something inside it just exploded/sizzled/popped. After more money either on a replacement part, or fixing it yourself, you get the machine running. Yay! Oh holy hell my power bill is ''that''?

Coins. Dear God, coin collecting. It starts out ''so'' innocently when you sort a handful of pennies by year. Then you put them on a piece of paper and sort them by year ''and'' mint mark. Then you get one of those little penny folders they sell at the coin shop -- and, oh yes, this year's R.S. Yeoman Guide to United States Coins, you know, so you can be sure that you're not missing any pennies from the 1970s. By the end of the year, you're spending triple-digit figures for that ''one'' 1910-S Barber Dime (in a paltry VG-8 condition, no less) just to plug the next-to-last hole in your Barber Dime collection, and salivating madly at that 4-digit-priced slabbed-and-graded 3-legged-buffalo nickel. "It's an investment!" you tell yourself. Just keep telling yourself that....

_Full-size_ historic railway preservation and restoration: Heritage railways. Possibly the only thing on this page so far which can run *more* expensive than horses. People will devote all their free time and all their spare cash to a single engine or carriage rebuild and not be done after 30 years. On the upside, it's very sociable, people form societies to do what they can't afford alone, and they actually get charity status for the sole purpose of funding them, so you can get other people to help fund your hobby if you do it right. I think this and anything else where the collection-and-preservation cost is REALLY high probably ends up involving the creation of "charities"... after all isn't that the origin of most art museums?

Kimonos. They lure you in with $0.99 bargains - yes, for a perfectly wearable second-hand kimono - and sooner than you know you're thinking about giving up food so that you could get that A) gorgeous vintage/antique piece B) ''tansu'' (for your new lovelies) B) extra room (for your new tansus)...

Disney pins. If you want to look for new ones, you have to go to a Disney Park or at least to Downtown Disney. If you look elsewhere, you won't find much. But there are lots on sale on Ebay right? Well most of them are the cheapest ones. You'll just trade them, right?... Only to get other cheap ones... For the more expensive pins, you'll have to buy them. And it's pretty much impossible to collect them all as there are [[strike:hundreds]] thousands of limited edition pins, pins specific to certain Disney resorts, and new pins comein by the boatload each year. With $6.95 being the lowest price for a new pin, collecting them will definitely break your bank account.

Pipes. If you're attracted to the "elegance" of pipe smoking, or you just want to set off your best Sherlock Holmes costume, you'll probably want a pipe made of briar with a nice stain finish. Okay, that'll be $30. Of course, the bowl will be tiny and it'll heat up far too quickly to be any kind of enjoyable, and chances are it's so cheaply made that it'll burn through before you know it. Want a decently-smoking briar? You're looking at at ''least'' $65-75 USD. Want a name-brand pipe like Savinelli, Ser Jacopo, or Peterson? Bump that up to $80-95. Keep in mind these are the ''starting'' prices, and that the high-end models can run anywhere from $200 to thousands of dollars. Don't even start on meerschaum pipes; those things are practically antiques. Add to that the fact that most pipes are hand-made by artisans from briar blocks, and you can quickly see why the pipe smoking community has the term '''PAD''' - "'''P'''ipe '''A'''cquisition '''D'''isorder."

This Troper hath been collecting various types of antique ceramics/pottery for quite some time now and it doth get to be extremely expensive in the long run. Thou wantest something that art not a rubbish knockoff? Thy would be looking at mayhap $400-$500 if you happen to get it cheap when the quality is decent. To pay more is not uncommon, as there art many another whom would dare attempt to outbid you for the same things, so 'twould work out as being far more in the long run. 'Tis arguably not even worth the price, but at least it is undeniably better than being a fool trying to collecting something like Fabergé eggs and whatnot.

This troper's college is getting a ''beautiful'' Steinway piano, the equal of which is seen nowhere else in the state. The college had to raise ''150,000'' dollars from its alumni.

And then it gets dropped during the move to the college.

Guitars? Cheap? Excuse This Troper, but having spent more money on a single guitar than a semester of college tuition, he begs to differ. Sure, some guitars are inexpensive, but they have so many sound-quality and build-quality problems that it's better to save up that should-have-been-used-for-tuition money and get one that won't frustrate your attempts to play it. Same as the flute example above.

You're either going to a really cheap college, or really overpaid for your guitar. A high end guitar such as a Gibson can be had for $1300-$2000, and even custom guitars rarely run over $5000. Most state universities run at least $5000 a semester, and private schools run three or four times that.

This troper's dad spent a very unreasonable amount of money on a PRS Private Stock, and while it does sound noticably better than even his lower-model PRSes (which still run over £2,000), he still won't tell my mum how much it cost.

As someone who plays both classical stringed instruments (cello and double bass) and bass guitar, I'm going to have to agree with the tropers who say electric guitarists have nothing on classical musicians. Unless you're only into really top-of-the-line stuff or you have a ton of extra gear, don't ever complain about the price of your guitar to someone who plays an orchestral instrument unless you want to receive a well-deserved beatdown.

Which is downright cheap compared to the 1958-1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard which sells for upwards of $300,000. Only originally released during those three years and used by pretty much every "great" blues/rock guitarist you can think of.

Considering that the Troper two above was playing common instruments and not a collectors item, it's still very expensive.

This troper is a clarinetist and an oboeist, who dabbles in the saxophone. In between buying sheet music, new reeds and services, I have absolutely NO money left at all. And over here in the UK, they're considerably cheaper than in America as it doesn't cost so much to import things from Europe.

For all the complaining I did when I was simply a high-school orchestra kid about the price of music, when I got to college and became a composition major, I realized it was ''way worse'' for scores of contemporary music.

This trope is one of the main reasons why this troper dosen't think he'll be playing D&D anytime soon, as much as he would love to.

I am into really weird music, so much so that I donate sizable chunks of income in yen, AUD, USD, and euros to labels and musicians nobody has heard of or would actually want to hear.

EROGE. This troper has been a fan for many years, and her wallet's been suffering quite a bit at 10,000 yen each. God have mercy on you if you want a game that's out of print or not in stock at the few English import shops there are; custom orders often aren't answered, and shipping can double or triple the original cost. Luckily, there's always amazon.co.jp, which sells them used for a lot cheaper.

This troper browses /v/, who for the most part invert the "fanboy wants everything to be overpriced so that he's the only one who can afford it" mentality by thinking that they deserve everything for free and refusing to pay a cent on ''anything'' that isn't upgrading their PC so they can pirate more games. Needless to say, most /v/irgins tend to prefer PC gaming because of easy piracy and emulation, and can get very vocal about the "master race".

This troper has amassed quite the collection of TabletopGames over roughly seven to eight years. Roughly 30-40 games, most of them corebooks as I bought a lot of indie games, but a good amount of them are supplements for three of the four major editions of ''DungeonsAndDragons'' that I have (only editions I ''don't'' own are the original edition and first edition, if you don't count the Rules Cyclopedia) as well as supplements for my first major game, ''VampireTheMasquerade''. I must have burned through at least several thousand dollars during the course of building that collection, and there are gamers out there who have even bigger collections than mine. And that's not even counting the number of free games I have on my HD, including free-download retroclones of certain games I don't have. Yeah. It gets addictive.

First it was {{Pokemon}} cards. Then it was MagicTheGathering. Then it was D&D splatbooks. Now it's soundtracks with a side of MutantsAndMasterminds splatbooks. I only stop buying crack to make room for heroin.

Tropers/{{Excel-2010}}. I look back and still find it hard to believe that over the years I have spent hundreds buying and modifying arcade sticks.

This troper is interested in astronomy, drumming and firearms. To be specific: observing black holes; technical death metal; the-likes-of-M82. Translation: my own observatory, a drumset comparable to Flo Mounier's and .. an M82 (a piece of hardware designed for ''stopping cars by disabling their engine block'') which costs about $9,000 and a mountain of paperwork. Wish me luck. i mention i live in Bulgaria? Look it up.

Ahhhh death metal drumming. You tell yourself that those Pearl Eliminator Demon Drives or that one Ludwig Black Beauty (Or worse for us Europeans, Axis Longboards and Dunnett Classics) will make all the difference but in the end you're still paying for pedals with beaters and wood or metal tubes with skins stretched over them (And I play guitar, bass, saxophone and piano too, with all that sets me back).

This tropers cheap laptop... initial purchase was $150. EEEPC701. Ram upgrade, battery upgrade, extra USB ports, Bluetooth, better wireless, inbuilt GPS, more SSdrive, 250GBHDD, Case modding, Airbrush to paint case art, cables, tools... ended up spending maybe $750 on upgrades before realising the madness. the trigger? Contemplating purchasing an IBM thinkpad for $1000 in order to tear it apart for the intellipoint thingie. Still minor compared to all the other hobbies (if it is on the crack is cheaper page and isn't a sport, then I probably have dumped at least a months pay on it.)

@/FarseerLolotea is out of practice on the violin on account of not having had the spare cash for new strings and a new tuner in quite some time. And while she'd certainly like to be making stoneware, she's also in no position to buy a kiln.

Build your own electronics. It sounds like the sort of thing that could end up being a net income source, but then you end up with a few thousand different capacitors and square meters of breadboard. And the tools! Soldering tools, ''de''soldering tools, meters, oscilloscopes, frequency counters, power supplies, signal generators, logic analyzers?

Similarly, amateur radio. Basic hand held radio is $100. But that's not powerful enough. So you get the $200 mobile radio. But you just got an upgraded license. Soon, you're buying $15,000 towers, $11,000 base station radios and building an addition to your house for a "ham shack".

Amateur astronomy. A few hundred for good binoculars, a few thousand for a small telescope with electronic tracking, a thousand for a camera, another two thousand for the computer to control it and record your data. Then you'll want the filter to look at the sun, and all the hard-copy starcharts. Then there are those who grind mirrors for fun and spend hundreds of dollars on carefully sorted ground-up rocks.

You buy a cheapo chinese mp3 player. Then you want something better, so you get a brand-name player. But if there's something better than that, well, why not? So you get an iMod (special modified iPod). At this point, if the victim has more disposable income than sense, they then usually slide down the slippery slope of audiophilia. Fast forward a few months and they have all sorts of source gear, valve amps all over the place and expensive headphones by the dozen. And that's not counting the ones who waste money in such things as hyper-ultra-overpriced and overengineered super-cables made with $20 of parts and sold for ''thousands'' of dollars.

{{Cosplay}}. The idea of dressing up as your favorite anime, video game, or cartoon character can be lots of fun (as long as you don't take it too seriously), but is ''expensive''. Constructing the costume itself can easily eat up several hundred dollars - and ''lots'' of time - or more, depending on how strict you are about fabrics, articulation, etc. And if you don't know how to sew, be prepared to spend a similar amount of time looking for a costume shop that a) does their work in a timely fashion and b) won't totally rip you off. And you'll STILL drop hundreds of dollars on a commission!

And the more "mechanical" characters such as ''{{Gundam}}'' and ''KamenRider'' are even more cost heavy then just a standard anime character. If you want to dress comfortably that is, and with most conventions being in the summer, a do it yourself Gundam Cosplay will cook you alive.

Cosplay in general has left this troper living off instant noodles.

Conventions, Conventions, Conventions. An event for any fandom you could imagine. A 30+ dollar plus entry fee doesn't seem like much? Then you figure in Hotel and Travel costs. It's pretty easy to have dedicated several hundred dollars before you even get inside the convention itself.

OK, Con-goers, you know this one. Cosplay, food, hotel, transportation costs, all the stuff you will no doubt buy at the con...cha-ching!

Live-Action Roleplaying. Oh boy. Weapons, especially good ones, you're looking at about �50-�100 (yes, you could make your own, but to ensure it passes safety checks you really need to know what you're doing). These will often need to be replaced every few years too due to wear and tear. Armour, good leather armour already looking at about �100, chainmail, latex plate or full metal plate costs even more, plus other aspects of kit and make-up. And then of course, once you've bought all this new kit, your character will inevitably get killed, resulting in the need to buy completely different kit.

Where do get the stuff that cheap? In Germany: cheap sword 65€, good leather from a cheap vendor at least 250€ (a bad leather stains and cracks after one or two rains, or after a con where you really fight), good leather from a normaly priced vendor 400€. Granted these leather armors are whole sets. Want a chainmail, made for you, stainless (or coated or whatever), riveted (so you can maybe use it for life)? 600€ is a really good price, and thats just for your torso. Now thats only battle gear, you also need cutlery, normal clothing, better clothing, tents, furniture and so on. Be happy if the camp at your first few cons isn't intime, then you don't need to buy it all at once.

For this troper's {{LARP}} group, materials for a standard homemade sword will run you about $1 for foam, $2 for PVC, and a dime's worth of duct tape. Of course, you have to buy pipe and foam in 10-foot lengths, and you'll be swimming in tape (since you'll need at least one color of duct tape, two or more if you want your sword to look decent, plus strapping tape). This guarantees that you'll run out of one before the other, leaving you permanently between "I have pipe, so I should buy foam and make a sword" and "I have foam, so I should buy pipe and make a sword". Then there's the highfalutin' fiberglass and fabric swords, which'll run you $50 for parts. Add onto this between one and two hours to make a sword (once you get the hang of it - expect to make several dangerous, godawful three-hour messes before you figure it out) and just arming yourself starts to get expensive. (And make no mistake, swords break down pretty quickly, requiring you to basically remake them from scratch every several events.) Then you need armor, which as mentioned is very expensive (a cheap mail shirt can run you $100, and leather isn't cheap) or extremely time-consuming. Then you start going to events every weekend at $10-30 each, and then you start scrounging about in Goodwill for miscellaneous stuff, and then you find yourself living on the street.

Car customization. People will put thousands of dollars into making their cars look cool (see rappers) or go really fast (see all the teenagers who saw ''TheFastAndTheFurious'').

For some people, $1000+ arcade [=PCBs=].

Combat Robots. A good lightweight (60 pound) bot will run about 1000 dollars in parts, building the thing can cost even more. Unless you have a machine shop in your garage, expect to spend a few hundred at a local machine shop, minimum. Then you have to go to competitions, which adds up to a few hundred in travel and shipping costs. Then comes replacement parts, often half or more what you spent in the first place. A superheavy weight (320 pounds) can cost ten grand easily.

Renaissance Faires and the SCA. For people who aren't big on getting the garb period accurate and just looking about right you're talking $100 or so for cheap peasant garb. If you want accuracy then you have to buy real wool and linen which will, once you're done with something simple, cost over $300. If you want weapons you can actually fight with that's another $200-$300 for good battle-ready steel weapons with about $30 to $40 for leather gauntlets for the minimum - cheaper if you're in the SCA because they use rattan instead of steel - but there you need a lot more armor. That's going to hit at least $150 in materials. If you want to go all-out and do heavy steel-on-steel combat you're going to be in the hole at least a grand for weapons and minimal crappy armor. Of course some of these costs are mitigated if you make the garb and such yourself but that takes a lot of time and specialized equipment in the case of all the period realistic armor. The cheapest in terms of material cost is Chain Mail, and a hauberk can take up to a month to make. Then on top of that you have to buy camping gear (not too much) but you also need stuff to keep your metal bits from rusting, food and other consumables for a weekend at faire or longer, travel costs since most of these places tend to be a bit more remote where they host the big events, and that's JUST if you're talking a peasant or common soldier. For nobles you need to be pretty loaded, a Queen's dress can easily cost more than most used cars using synthetic replacements for the real thing, if you have someone who actually wants one that is full period, that runs very expensive.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils, along with perfumes in general. Sure, most of the BPAL is only $15 a bottle. Then there's the limited editions, the Lunacies (AKA the REALLY limited editions, 2 days a month then gone forever), the legendary scents that they released before you discovered it. Most of these will be more expensive. God help you if you fall in love with a limited edition one, you'll be searching down spare bottles of it for years.

LUSH soaps and perfumes. Natural, good for your skin if other stuff makes it freak out... you start with one tub of face cleanser and end up with a giant stash of perfume, cleanser, body lotion, soap, limited edition soap, discontinued soap, shower gel, limited edition shower gel, massage bars, Bath Ballistics bath salts, hand cream, foot cream, face masks, solid perfumes, shampoo, solid shampoo, conditioner, solid conditioner, etc, etc, etc. And passing outside a store leads to you going in "just to look" and coming out with �50 worth of goods before you even know it. And yet... you still come back. And back. And back. And wait in line for an hour for the Boxing Day sale. And you compare stashes with other people. And God help anyone who touches your special edition, seasonal or discontinued items without your express permission.

On that note, Sephora. High-end makeup...but this troper isn't so sure she can justify spending $20 for lipstick (when she can buy the same shade for not even half that at the drugstore a block away.)

Have a non-earlobe piercing? Want to buy some jewelry for it that won't irritate the crap out of your flesh/cartilage and looks cool? Well, get out your wallet! The cheapest you're going to get is likely $6.00 for one 8mm externally-threaded titanium barbell or captive bead ring at smaller gauges. Internally-threaded barbells (which are less likely to irritate the fistula of the piercing since the threads are on the ball end and not the barbell shaft) are going to run you around $25.00 for a 16-gauge piece (generally what's used in ear cartilage piercings), and larger gauges are even more expensive. Keep in mind that that's just ''one'' piece of jewelry? Want some cool-looking ball ends for that new barbell? Those are going to run you at least 99 cents for ''one'' externally-threaded 3mm ball. Generally you need two of them, so that's $1.98 per set of tiny easily-losable balls. You're probably going to want to get more than one set to switch up your look, and the cumulative price of those little guys adds up pretty quick. Ends for internally-threaded barbells are usually around ''$10 each'' - better not lose them! All in all, maybe you should have just left that starter jewelry alone.

Getting pierced is in itself quite expensive. And if you tend to heal quickly from injuries, for god's sake don't take the jewelry out for lengthy periods of time, even way after it's supposed to have healed, otherwise you may have to fork out more to get repierced. This troper took out her tragus jewelry after over a year of healing, and couldn't get it back in again after just 3 days.

Target shooting. Obviously, first you're gonna need a pistol. .22s are the cheapest for this, but if you want a decent one it'll still run above $150. Now you need ammo. I really hope you got that .22, because ammo for anything else is absurdly expensive right now - like $0.50 PER ROUND of 9mm ammo. Typically, you burn a bare minimum of 100 rounds on a practice range and even more at a competition, and if you want to compete you're gonna be practicing a lot.

Tobacco and alcohol are heading in this direction in the USA due to "Sin taxes". Yet another reason why poverty sucks.

Speaking of alcohol, what about the infamous Crystal? $300 for a bottle of champagne?! *faints*

Well, champagne has always been expensive. It's the fact that a pack of cigarettes that costs $3-$5 in Tennessee and $6-$8 in Indiana costs $10 in Chicago that really fits this trope. Also, alcohol has mostly escaped this for all but the highest price range ($20-$25 will still get you [=~Ke$ha~=]'s preferred brand of toothpaste in many if not most parts of the country).

Tattoos. Let's look at both side of the equation: ''Getting'' the tattoo done. A decent one will start at...let's say $100, and only goes up from there. Where are you getting it done? How big is it? How many colors will it have? How long will it take the artist to complete it (and god help you if you have to make more than one trip)? And how skilled is the artist? An amateur can do it on the cheap, but chances are it'll look horrendous and be subject to mockery by the entire internet -- if the artist has a good reputation, the quality will come with an ''even heftier'' price. And will you be satisfied with just one? Most people aren't. So lather, rinse, repeat as many times as applicable. Also, you better hope they have significant meaning to you, because if you decide after some time, "This tattoo sucks!", well too bad; they're permanent, jack tattoo removal is even more costly than the tattoo itself. And not guaranteed to be 100% effective. And for ''doing'' tattooing, the basic tattooing kits start at around $150 or so and go up. Factor in things like additional needles, replacement ink, rubber gloves, making sure your establishment is up to code with the board of health, and if someone gets some kind of illness from your establishment, it'll cost you... And this is all assuming you didn't take an apprenticeship or other training already.

Scale modelling. (The prices are approximate) To start you just need a few of paints ($2 each), a couple brushes ($2-$3 each), a pair of cutters ($10) and a hobby knife ($10). That's $30 and we're not even started on the models themselves. A new one is $10 or so minimum. And add some more colours. And a few more brushes, for small surfaces. Okay, you have spent $50 and finished your first model. It looks horrible. Now to the second one! Another 20 on just the basic supplies. After you get the hang of it GAS (in the form of kits to be made) kicks in. To have a decent supply stash, you need at least $250 (airbrushes aren't free ya ken). After the airbrush you need the compressor, canned air is too expensive (and bad for the planet) and seconds later you need the water trap. Now about those tools, perhaps a little drill? Dremel make some nice stuff, very nice stuff. A reasonable set of tools will come in nearer $500, but don't worry, you can buy it one item at a time. Eventually the kits become the cheapest part of the hobby.

Special mention needs to go to decals. With recent regulations concerning tobacco advertisements, trying to make historically-accurate versions of older racing cars will often cost you 2 times the price of the kit. One for the kit and one for the decal sheet (which are rare, expensive, or both). Aftermarket parts (photo-etched and such) are a similar case.

Fish keeping. Many newbies succomb to 'Multiple Tank Syndrome', where they buy a tank, realise it isn't big enough for their stock, then buy another and another and another.

Agreed. This troper was astonished on the amount of money she put towards caring for ''one'' little betta. Not even a show-grade betta; just a little veiltail from a pet store.

Alternative computing platforms. The Mac route seems tame once you start talking to Amiga diehards.

If you enjoy collecting UNIX workstations/servers, you can easily go overboard. Ebay, you say? Might be if you live in the USA or in Europe, but if you live, say, in South America, you're doomed. You can buy from Ebay, but those machines are large and heavy, thus raising the freight cost.

Learning to fly. Renting a small plane costs around $100 an hour, you need at least 40 hours (though 60 is more realistic) to get your license. About 3/4ths of that flight time will be with an instructor, another $50 to $80 an hour depending on your school. Not to mention charts and books (with updates times between six months to four weeks, though many now can be found online). All in all you're looking at spending almost five figures to learn how to fly all so you can a hundred dollar hamburger once a month.

Furries are given to this behaviour in the form of commissions. Most anyone who really gets into the fandom creates a character for themselves and a lot will pay artists to draw it for them. Sketches tend to start at $5 from a less popular artist, then double up for it to be cleaned up and inked, doubled ''again'' for some colour. At least. It's not uncommon for some furries to regularly pay upwards of a hundred dollars per picture and develop galleries full of them.

Model railroading, anyone? First take into account the prices of the track, engines, miniature figurines, scenery, and the effort to compile them all into a cool-looking display...and then you realize why all model railroaders are retired old men.

Some home fermentation hobbies can actually save money, at least at first. You can make a pretty decent kit beer or wine in your kitchen for a lot less than it would cost to buy the same amount, especially if you live in a location where alcohol is heavily taxed. But if you want to do anything beyond kits you need some pretty expensive equipment, and then of course you need more of it. Cheesemaking is the same way; if you only make unripened cheeses like neufchatel or feta you can still save money, but if you want to get into anything ripened (like cheddar, Gouda, Camembert, Roquefort, etc.) you need a cheese press and a cheese cave - basically a separate refrigerator that can be kept at an even 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cooking. Yeah, you heard me, cooking. Of course, plenty of people get by with cooking on the cheap. But when you start actually getting interested in making things beyond simple meals, you start hurting. You start eyeing better cookware sets that start at around $300 (let's not even get into the high-end ones). Oh, need a full set of knives, that'll be a hundred bucks or more. And you got to get a stone to sharpen them, don't forget (unless you want to blow more getting them professionally sharpened). And Gear Acquisition Syndrome hits just as hard for kitchen geeks - ice cream maker, standing mixer, coffee grinder, French press, griddle, Dutch oven, springform pans, cooking mats, food processor, immersion blender... the list goes on. And even if you go the Alton Brown route and try to make as much of that multiuse as possible, that's still not even getting into your actual ingredients. There comes a point in which you're tired of just grabbing the basic mass-produced stuff and go fancier. Why use Colby cheese in nachos when you can import some nice Mahon? Why grab a yellow onion when you can use shallots? Why not make a shepherd's pie with locally grown organic ground lamb instead of the store's cheap hamburger meat? Heck, the uninitiated tend to react in shock on the amount a dedicated cook can spend just on salt (oh, there's the kosher salt, the sea salt, the black Hawaiian salt, the pink Himilayan salt...). Oh, and let's not even get into deciding to bake with alcohol - as noted above, this can drain the wallet even quicker, and you don't even get to enjoy being drunk (since most of the alcohol bakes out of most foods, and you don't use much of it to begin with). On the bright side, at least you don't go hungry.

Oh, and the ''spices''! Keeping as stock of good spices can cost a small fortune all by themselves: take for example saffron, which can and does sell for prices that rival '''''gold'''''.

Let's not even get into what will happen when you decide to be as authentic as possible when making foreign foods, and then find yourself spending $70 (not including shipping and handling) on a little jar of anchovies from Spain.

Digital photography. You just dropped $1000 on a body, kit lens and maybe a consumer zoom, and a cheap flash, and $99 on a copy of Paint Shop Pro? If you're cheap, you'll spend a further $3000 on low-end primes, battery grips, and good E-TTL flashes, and $1000 on a copy of Photoshop plus a few "essential" plugins. If not, fast pro zooms start at $1500 and go up (and honestly, why waste money on slow pro zooms when they're no more useful than cheap slow primes - better pictures, but you still have to use a flash when the light is dim). Generally the same price for fast pro primes. Fsst pro telephoto zooms generally start at $2000, and fast pro telephoto primes can be over $8000 each. And we haven't even begun to discuss supertelephoto primes for sports and bird-watching. Oh, and you're going to want a better body or two, so say $2000 for the next step up, $3000 for a full-frame sensor body, $6000 for the top-end body. Oh, sure, ''film'' might be cheaper on top, but you try hunting down decent film and getting your photos processed, and it only gets worse when you decide you need your own darkroom. And all of this is just for 35mm, medium format and better gets much more expensive much more quickly. ''And'', to top it off, no matter how much you spend there's always some jerk with 30+ years of experience who takes better photos with his cellphone.

One word: computers. Sure, the computer itself is cheap (some are even less than USD$300!) But then you factor in the virus protection (although there are good free ones, especially the ones stating with an A), the word processors (Microsoft, I'm talking to you!), games if you're interested in them (for the kids, their learning programs, because you parents DO spend on them!), a better mouse if you don't like the one that came with the computer, a better keyboard if you don't like the original (doubly wallet-hurting if you want mechanical keyswitches like the old IBM Model M, Dell [=AT101W=], Northgate [=OmniKey=], and Apple Extended Keyboard lines commonly had before keyboards started becoming regarded as a cheap commodity), power cords if the ones that it came with get cut or otherwise damaged, computer repairs, external hard drives, external DVD drives, the CD and [=DVDs=] themselves (the blanks). Want more RAM for your computer? Get out your wallet. Want a better hard drive for more storage, or a solid-state drive for shorter boot/load times? Wallet. Oh, and don't forget when there is a new OS out there that most people don't have a choice on getting if they get a new computer. You COULD always not upgrade (which saves you hundreds of dollars sometimes), but then every one might look at you weird when you're still using XP and everyone else has Windows 7...and heavens help you if you're using a Macintosh, because most software generally won't support anything other than the next-to-latest version of OS X, if that! Or a [=PowerPC=] CPU, if you're still using one! (As of this moment, we're currently on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which some programs already do require, though most still work with 10.5 Leopard. 10.4 Tiger is largely being phased out, and just FORGET about running anything on 10.3 Panther or earlier! To further accentuate the point, OS X 10.0 Cheetah was released around the same time as Windows XP, and while XP just gets free Service Packs, the ONLY free upgrade for OS X was 10.1 Puma. 10.2 Jaguar cost $130. 10.3 Panther cost another $130. 10.4 Tiger...just guess. 10.5 Leopard...you know the drill, but you'd better be packing a G4 867 [=MHz=] or faster for it to work! 10.6 Snow Leopard at least subverts the usual wallet-hurting price of $130 for just $30, but you can forget it if you're running any form of [=PowerPC=] CPU - Intel Macs only! And you thought Macs were expensive enough up-front...)

And that's just one computer. Imagine how much many tropers including this one has spent on his HackerCave!

On another note: if you don't mind losing your social stigma, going Linux + [=OpenOffice=] + [=ClamAV=] will save you tons on software. Need windows compatibility? Again, Free if you're willing to tweak the latest pre-release of [=WINE=] by hand, or way cheaper than a real copy of Windows if you go the way of a commercial [=WINE=] release. Other software like games, tho, are the same, but be prepared to lose a lot of time tweaking [=WINE=] so a game will run in it.

Gaming, Modding, Benchmarking PC's. They generally work in a 'gateway drug' ladder, with each step even more expensive, for less improvement on actual performance in regular use:

First off, a gaming PC. You start by buying a big server tower case. Add in the best graphics card. An SSD. A high wattage power supply. Get as much RAM as you can fit. Get a high power CPU + Motherboard. You want 3D? Pay for a monitor that's twice as expensive as a non 3D monitor and glasses. Gaming level peripherals. High end gaming mouse, a high-end mouse pad, a gaming keyboard. At minimum, you want a 24" LCD.

Case Modding. Since you've got a 'pro' setup, you need to make it look good. Which means making it look as uniform as possible whilst hiding as many cables as possible. Extensions for short cables to give you flexiblity, heatshrink to cover exposed wiring, flex sleeving for every power plug, tools to remove power pins so they can be sleeved, cable ties and even a heat gun to use the heat-shrink properly. Then you ''need'' a cool perspex window to display it. If your case doesn't have one, then you'll need a jigsaw, blades and some perspex or to pay for someone to do it for you. And finally a lighting system with cold cathodes so people can actually see the work you have done.

This alone can start a whole next level of investments. You can become addicted to the actual modding and start doing more elaborate mods which require more expensive tools and work benches and materials.

These systems run ''hot''. So you dump another couple hundred dollars on filling every spot in the case with high performance case fans and a high end CPU air-cooler. Which since you've got an existing lighting system, need to be fans with built-in colour LED's which are usually three to four times more expensive than the equivalent non-LED fan.

Then do some benchmarks. Get addicted. Go add a second expensive graphics card. Start overclocking. Completely non-required unless you are gaming on a 27 or 30" monitor at resolutions above "Full HD" 1080p.

Damn, it's even hotter. Time to switch to water cooling. Water blocks for each graphics card, the CPU, motherboard chipsets, tubing, pumps, fittings, reservoirs, special water additives, radiators. That can all cost as much as a lesser spec new computer on their own.

After spending so much, most people would stop. Others go "I've spent this much already, might as well go all out", and basically go for the ultra-high end benchmarking systems, top quality RAM, triple or quad SLI/Crossfire (multiple graphics cards) and 4, 6 and 8 core CPU's and top end overclocking motherboards to go with it.

Lastly, some actual games to play. It's not hard to build a game collection worth thousands very quickly, especially with the advent of digital distribution, people will often keep buying games they have no time to play simply because it was on special or they plan to 'get around to it'.

Mobile computing isn't much better. Take the iPad for example. First you pick the model that has the memory and wireless options you want. Then if you want 3G service you have to buy a data plan. Then you need a screen protector...and a dock...and a cord to connect the dock to a power supply (because of course the cord bundled with the iPad is too short for anything but syncing). Then you need a case to carry it in or a sleeve to protect it in your purse. Then come the apps, and of course you can't return an app if it doesn't work as promised or if it just plain sucks. (Hint: [=WunderRadio=] is $6.99. Alarm Clock is 99 cents and does more.)

Bawls soda. A geek delicacy, many have claimed that this beverage is [=THE=] staple consumable of [=LAN=] parties. So, uh, you wanna try this stuff and see if it's any good? Unfortunately, there's probably an 80% chance you don't live anywhere near a store the stuff's sold in, you gotta order online. In bulk. With shipping costs that are half of the full price (Or even higher than full price if you can find a place that sells 6 packs) even if you pick the worst shipping option. Suddenly you probably don't wanna try it, out of fear you'll crave the stuff all the time and have to spend 60 dollars a month just to keep the stuff coming.

Rock concerts. I'm not joking. Sure, it starts out small enough, if you're lucky the local Irish Pub will have a free cover band, though you'll probably still be expected to pick up a couple overpriced pints of Guinness (even good ol' PBR or Tecate will be overpriced). Then a local band or DJ you like will be playing at a nicer place across town, but guess what: there's a cover, often with a two-drink minimum. Then you get to semi-famous outfits at slightly larger venues, and all of a sudden, they're charging over $20, you either need to pay an exorbitant “service charge” of like $8 each if you order through ticketmaster or go all the way to the box office and pay a slightly less audacious service charge, which changes depending on whether you pay cash or credit. The tickets themselves go up depending on A) the size of the venue, B) the popularity of the band, and C) both. Then there's stadiums, music festivals (want to spend all weekend there, and get access to the VIP beer garden? Say goodbye to good food and hello to instant ramen for a month!), the endless merchandise (Oh, I like that opening band, I'll buy their $20 CD and listen to more of their stuff. Ooh, concert T-shirts!), the concert [=DVDs=], certain bands who seem to drag out their retirement, suggesting that each tour may be the “last” time to see them (I'm looking at you, Rolling Stones), and to top it all off, after parties, often at yet another upscale bar. The good news is that in recent years some bands, like Pearl Jam, have either seen what a colossal ripoff ticketmaster is, or have their own reasons, and boycott it, but you still can't always buy tickets online there due to contractual obligations. Good luck fighting that line in front of the box office! Of course, you could always buy from scalpers, but that's essentially like taking out a mortgage to pay off your credit card.

Motorcycling, especially of the offroad/adventure kind where everything breaks all the time as a matter of course. You'll probably drop in three to five grand for a decent beginner bike (which is somewhat useless to non-newbies but essential for not dying in the learn-by-doing process). Then there's the minimal outfitting of that bike, with prices running into the hundreds for almost everything you can think of - tires, a good engine guard, mudflaps, windshield, luggage racks and luggage, GPS and maps (no, the walking/cycling one you already have will NOT do, as it's not ruggedized and weatherproof). Then you go out and crack your sub-frame (it was old and fatigued to begin with, because you got a cheap clunker of a beginner's bike, remember?) on a boulder that was sunk in mud - $800 easy, IF you install the replacement yourself. Then you start to find out the really unpleasant truths, like for instance that suspension components and fairings are just as consumable as gas, oil, filters, brake pads and tires. Speaking of tires, a set that is somewhat good for rocky terrain will set you back about $300 and be good for maybe 3-4000 miles off-road. Want to use your specialty tires on the road? Forget it - asphalt eats knobblies like there's no tomorrow and you'll end up washed out in a ditch anyway due to them having smaller contact patches on a flat surface - i.e. less grip - than street tires. So you buy a set of street/rain tires and a set of knobblies (your second one) and go out with the second pair stuffed in your bags and tire change tool-set on your next trip. Whereupon you quickly discover that changing even tubeless tires is a major PITA to the point that it's actually worth it to have two sets of wheels, one for roadtrips and one for the off-road. Bonus: if you want to go on extended trips camping gear is a must unless you want to go broke paying for shit accommodation in motels, hostels and roadside inns. Camping gear must be of the good, light, space-saving kind, since space is at a premium in your luggage, what with having to carry around a minimal tool-set, a few essential spare parts and full rain gear at all times. Want to see different countries? Factor in visas, highway taxes, traffic tickets or bribes to keep the local boys in blue happy. Thinking of a BMW as your second bike? Get a sponsor, or just take up smoking crack - it's cheaper and possibly better for your health. Oh, and if you've been paying attention so far you'll ask where in hell do you fit an extra set of wheels on a bike for carrying around. You don't. You switch as needed for the trip ahead on shorter trips. On longer ones, you just rent/buy a trailer and drive your bike around (you have a car too, right? right?), fitted with off-road tires, to where the fun begins.

Fire poi. See this? This is fire poi. Ignore the shirtless guy. As it's a rare form of dance and art, it is an absolute ''bitch'' to learn. If you're learning from someone else, that's one thing. But you have to be ''freakishly'' lucky to know someone else that you don't have to explain it to, much less know how to do it. Then there's actually making the things, which will have you running from hardware store to hardware store, looking for the supplies. While learning, there's a certainty (not a chance, '''certainty''') that you will hit yourself in your head/crotch/sensitive areas. Then there's the price of a single fireball, called a head, which is made from kevlar fabric. That's the same stuff they make bullet-resistant armor out of. One pair of pre-made heads cost $60. They'll be on fire for ''maybe'' ten minutes. Then there's fuel, which is usually keroscene, which can run up to $30 for a big can. It gets pricier if you try different fuels for different fires, let alone trying to ''find'' somewhere that sells said chemicals. And the chemicals tend to be bad for you to breathe in, which (potentially) can start running up your medical bills/insurance. And if you do it wrong, you can burn yourself, which leads to more med bills/insurance.

And if your Internet access is horrendously expensive, spending all day at Wiki/TVTropes could well become this, too.

Fashion. Wanna look damn good in clothes with labels that no one will see (that only other fashionistas will recognize at first glance)? I sure hope your wallet's a thick one. It'd better be authentic leather or possibly crocodile skin, at that. Who would settle for a $8 cardigan from Wal-Mart when you can get practically the same exact one, albeit designed by a gay Italian man for $''80''? Why bother letting your own cheap pair of jeans naturally age and degrade to achieve that rock star look, when you can pay 5 times as much for pre-ripped ones? You're gonna need some high-heel boots to go with that outfit while we're at it. Boots that cost more than your last car payment. It really starts to hurt your pocketbook if you're a fan of a particlar era in history (as touched on above with Renaissance gear), expect to pay out the arse just for the novelty of dressing yourself in fashions that went out of conventional style decades ago. Golly gee, it costs to look good.

An offshoot: makeup. The amount the average woman wears isn't too bad. But if you're particularly into it, want the best brands and stick to the rules about throwing it away and repurchasing more before it goes off, it's quite the expensive habit.

Vibrators. Expect to pay $100-200 for a vibrator that won't bust after a month and is made of something that isn't a breeding ground for bacteria. And for a tool that provides the a single basic purpose, there sure are a loooot of variations out on the market. You're pretty happy with that rabbit, until you see the g-spot stimulator. And it would be nice to have something big, and another something smaller, and this one with steal ball bearings, and ooh, here's one made out of glass...! And if that $150 toy doesn't turn out to be to your taste, there isn't a return policy for obvious reasons.

YourMileageMayVary. On her television shows ''Sunday Night Sex Show'' and ''Talk Sex With Sue Johanson,'' Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson always insisted that when it came to vibrators and dildos, buying cheapest was always the best route to take, as anything more expensive was usually just extra markup.

BDSM paraphernalia. You can get cuffs, spankers and the like relatively cheap, but spreader bars, electrostim toys, and proper whips, to name a few products, cost a pretty penny. The first thing I think of when I see a properly kitted-out dungeon is how envious I am of the owner's bank account.

Told in Finland as a joke, that if a normal thingamajig costs 1€, then an equestrian thingamajig will cost 2€, a fishing thingamajig 3€, a golf thingamajig 5€ and a yacht thingamajig will be 10€.

Children. According to this article, it costs over ''200,000'' dollars to raise one child to eighteen - and that's not including college/grad school expenses, emergencies...

SCUBA diving: Hmm...let's see...wetsuit, mask, air cylinder or rebreather, emergency backup cylinder or rebreather, dive computer, compass, flippers, dive knife, buoyancy vest, different kinds of gas mixtures, any specialized equipment, certification/license fees, classes and courses...Holy @%$&! This troper ''was'' going to join a SCUBA club at school her freshman year, but simply couldn't afford it.

Video games and video game collecting. You buy one of the current generation consoles? $200-$400, a lot of money for a kid to make. Games not included, $20-$100. If you buy an HD console, you might get an HD TV. $500+ Extra controllers? $30-$60 Cables? A shelf to put everything in? A hand held that can communicate with the console and is needed for some games? If you start from scratch, $2500 easy. Thank goodness for {{Nintendo}}. Now for collecting. You want an first generation console? You're in luck. The golden age of video games caused many people to buy consoles so now they're cheap. But because there where so many, there where many rivaling consoles. And many games. But say you want to go back even further. Arcade machines cost around $1000 cheap.

For those that ''really'' get into whatever story of the game they're playing, a lot of art books and guide books from Japan, ranging from concept materials to interviews to extra back stories and mercy knows what else, some books easily going up past 400 pages. Hope those shelves are made of good hardwood. And then there are game soundtracks, drama [=CDs=], animation tie-ins...

Americans are used to paying ~$60 for an AAA new game release. The Japanese are used to paying ~$95 for them... (2011) -jcdietz03

And then get ready for the NEXT GENERATION!

It's really not that expensive. For modern games, it takes ~$1000 per five years for hardware and then ~$1000 per year for the games. I spend about this and manage to have a large collection, though I do not focus on having a *complete* collection. You can save most of the annual cost with a game rental service subscription if you don't care about collecting. jcdietz03

If you enjoy eating beef jerky, holes will be burning rapidly in your pockets.

Belly dancing. The cost of the outfits really adds up...and that's not even considering high-end, custom-made outfits. Then you need to get music. And ooh, gotta have finger cymbals! And a veil! And jewelry to go with my outfit! And what about classes?

Tea. Let's say you were inspired to experiment with it thanks to a cultured starship captain or a retired Fire Nation general. You start with different varieties of tea that you can find at the grocery store. Suddenly that stuff isn't good enough for your palate anymore, and you start checking out specialty stores. Pretty soon you have no more room in your kitchen and you're spending hundreds of dollars on stuff from Teavana.

Lolita Fashion. Largely because you can't just buy a dress...you buy a dress, but it needs shoes, a petticoat, socks, a headpiece, accesories...this is just one outfit, and if you buy good quality clothes -especially from any of the big brands, ''esspecially'' especially "Moi Meme Motie'' or ''Baby, the stars shine bright"- it can cost well above $500. On ''one'' outfit. There's a reason Momoko in ''KamikazeGirls'' had to lie about her friend dying (and so on) to fund her hobby. If you sew your own clothes it's slightly cheaper, but fabric costs can get pretty ridiculous as well.

Chocolate, anyone? This troper has been to places where a single chocolate is 2.25USD, and that's just a truffle you pop into your mouth! Then there's the chocolate bars infused with Earl Grey tea, or that neat little shop in the boonies that sells amazing fudge that eats into your gas mileage going there, or ordering chocolate online, which demands express shipping so it doesn't melt on the way to your house... And oh, then there's the grocery stores that sell the 7USD bars from Voges, where you have things such as chocolate with bacon in it or goji berries and Himalayan salt in milk chocolate, or other brands. At least one of the local shops have ways to be merciful, such as a club that lets you have free samples every so often or buy one, get a small reward, or they sell small, cheaper pieces with caramel in it, another weakness for this troper.

[=AutoCAD=], and then if you include its road-sign design/road-marking manufacture add-ons [=KeySIGN=], [=KeySIGN=] Eire etc. (basically all the stuff covered at KEYTraffic.com or [=SIGNPlot=], it's expensive. That's for work purposes, by the way, despite the software's now PopCulturalOsmosis status (and general unavailability to public unless you work for British or Irish council departments).

In this case, however, it averts the WantingIsBetterThanHaving trope, according to some people.

This kinda makes it a SubvertedTrope in that employment is being turned into a hobby by PopularityPower, and British websites.