“Pushing three and a half grand”: The niche hobbies you didn’t know could cost a fortune.
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Samuel Clawley
Around the world, there are many hobbies that people have become accustomed to over the years, from sports, to collections, to parlor tricks, and many more. However, in this article I’m going to be exploring the hobbies that may be lesser known to the majority of the population and better yet how they can actually end up costing a huge sum of money.
Sam Morrey is a 20-year-old student at Harper and Keele University, and I was fortunate enough to get the chance to talk to him about a hobby that he has had since he was only 8-years-old, and that hobby is the game of Warhammer, which is a tabletop game in which two or more players battle against each other with "armies" of 25 mm – 250 mm till figures, speaking to Sam he told me that his first experience with war hammer was on his 8th birthday, he said: “I took my birthday money to the Warhammer store and juts basically decided to buy some oark bikers, I have no idea why but I haven’t looked back since”.
Sam was introduced to the idea of figure collecting by his father who was a collector of plane train and any automobile figures, however Sam decided to take another route, he said; “my dad had always been a big fan of models, but I quite like the idea of the sci-fi alien setting, so when I discovered Warhammer, it’s been a match made in heaven”
One of the main reasons that Sam and many other Warhammer collectors chose it over any of the other sorts from its genre is the vast superiority in the quality of the figures, Sam stated; “I’ve collected models from all different game systems, not just Warhammer and games workshop but from other companies, and as much as Warhammer is probably the most expensive of the lot of them the quality in my opinion is completely unmatched”.
When it got down to the true nitty gritty Sam explained to me how the pricing works are well as how much he has spent on Warhammer since he first began at 8-years-old. Sam said; “some of the smaller figures are about fifteen to twenty pounds but when you get up to the higher points is can get up to about ninety to one hundred and fifty pounds”, he then went on to reveal how much he had spent over his time playing and collecting, he said; “well over the 12 years I have been playing I am comfortably in the four digits, I would say around maybe four thousand, but nowhere near ten grand just yet”.
Some may see this as a throwaway of a lot of money, however, Sam went on to explain how Warhammer has helped him meet more new friends than he would have without it and how it has helped him come out of his own social bubble, so that he can be himself more often.
The second person I spoke to is 23-yearold Vlad Khvan who like Sam is also an avid Warhammer player, and he explained how it came about that he came across and came about playing Warhammer, he said; “well I basically just picked up a magazine one time and it had a cool figure and I just wanted to get into it, I then got super interested in the backstory of the game, however in Dubai where I’m from the game is practically nonexistent so I only started buying the figures when I moved to England four years ago”. He then went on to give a number for how much he has spent on Warhammer since moving to the UK, he said; “I would estimate between three hundred and four hundred quid”. Unfortunately, for Vlad he did have to move back to Dubai where Warhammer does not reside and thus has bought his spending to a halt however he has stated that one he gets back to the UK he will be purchasing himself a few new sets.
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The final two people I spoke to were 19-year-oldsNoa Bradshaw-Swann and Matthew Burnside who are student in Liverpool, both Matthew and Noa have both become infatuated with online gacha game Grand Summoners, a gacha game is a type of mobile game that involve spending in-game or real money to obtain random virtual items, characters, equipment, or units through a virtual lottery, Noa and Matt both got into the game around the same time three years ago, Noa said; “the way i got into it was there was an anime I really liked and they did a collaboration with grand summoners and this lead me to installing the app as you could get the characters from the show in the game”. Matt then went on to explain how he installed the game after Noa informed him of how the show they were watching at the time had done a collaboration.
Noa went on to explain how he started spending money on the game, stating; “after playing for a few months when I got properly into the game, I noticed that there were these deals that would enhance my gaming experience, but from there I enjoyed it so much and with the new stuff being released I ended up spending more and more, but I don’t regret it as I still play regularly, and I play with me friends and we all have fun”. Matt then explained how he got into spending on the game; “well like more and more cool looking characters came out and I was like it can’t hurt to spend a tad bit of money, but here I am now and I’ve spent a ton, but I don’t regret it”.
I then asked Noa and Matt how much they had each spend on the game, Noa said; “well I have over three years of login days on the game now so I’ve been playing for a while, an di fi have to say how much I’ve spent id defiantly be pushing three and a half grand” Matt then went on to state that he had spent around “one point five grand”, however both of them had displayed no regret with any purchase.
Adding up all four of the people’s spends, who I had the pleasure of chatting to” we would come to a whopping nine thousand six hundred pounds, a huge number that could afford so many luxury items, however luxury is all in the eye. Of the beholder and these niches were a luxury to all of the people i spoke to.