Special interests are too expensive

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I understand how you feel. I have collected original Transformers since they first came on the market. Most of mine were either presents or bought at garage sales from others. I played with most of them, so I only have a few in their original boxes unplaced with. They gave me great joy as a kid and I remember them fondly. I probably have at least 150 of them, with several duplicates of the very important (ie rare) ones. It took me many years of searching to get an original metal Megatron. He was only on the market for a short time before Hasbro pulled him due to some unfortunate accidents. It looked too realistic as a silver pistol, so they changed him to a plastic cannon (Galvatron).

My pride and joy to my set is two part. I have a very high grade Transformers #1 comic book (1st print) that is currently out being graded. It will likely grade at least a 9.6 or higher. The second part is an original Reflector. You had to send points (cut off of the boxes) away to get him. He goes from a camera to three robots when transformed. Most of them for sale on the market are copies of the original. I got mine back in late 1985 along with my Pepsi version Optimus Prime. I will never sell what I have of them, as they will get passed on when I die.

Last edited by QuantumChemist on 23 Apr 2022, 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Materials for canoes is a very big subject. One of the best is still what we call hydrocarbon fiber - wood treated to bring out its best qualities. The key is to keep it totally encapsulated in epoxy, so that it stays very dry. For a boat bottom, that usually means adding one layer of fiberglass cloth to absorb any scratches.
I built my boats using the stitch 'n' glue method, which can be done in any available room with just a few tools. There is no framing. Sheets of marine plywood are cut to exact shapes, and then assembled with light sewing or just strips of tape. Once the shape is established, epoxy is fed into the seams and allowed to set. The temporary fastenings are removed, and a fiberglass tape is applied inside and out, making the seams stronger than uncut plywood. Then, there is more coating, sanding, and varnishing to finish the boat.
As well as being lightweight, wood is pleasant to work with, and beautiful if clear finished. The process produces very little waste, whereas a fiberglass canoe usually needs a mold. If you want one, the molds can sometimes be rented or borrowed.

Harry Potter was my special interest as a child. Since I was a kid, I didn't have access to money, but I did have access to imagination.
Most of my time was spent rereading the books over and over, reading the books in different languages, memorising trivia, making costumes, watching the Potter Puppet Pals videos online, making my own Potter Puppet Pals videos, writing fanfiction, drawing fanart, making comic strips..
This felt far more immersive than owning merch. My only 'merch' at the time were the books and a bedsheet I used as an invisibility cloak.

Spent way too much money on a very nice cloak made of really nice velvet (which looks cool when the light hits it) for my wife at the Ren Faire. My daughter wanted one. She studied the expensive one and learned the pattern. Made her own cloak out of a forest green bed sheet with a bit of nap to it. Then made one for het little brother. And one for a couple of her friends. Talented young lady, my daughter.

My special interest of fashion includes high fashion brands (Chanel and Dior) and I just buy the perfumes because they are the only things that I can afford.
Not being able to buy as much things as other people is perfectly valid and you're not less of a fan for having less merchandise than some other hardcore collectors.

Most of my special interests aren’t that expensive.

Playing the piano is, though, because pianos are expensive. I have an expensive digital piano. When I move, I will rent-to-own an acoustic.

^ One of the best long term purchases I ever made was my Yamaha upright grand. Took 10 years to pay for it. (First choice was a Steinway grand, but had neither the money nor the space.)

I was thinking about going in that direction although my first love was a Charles Walter. It had a mellow but rich tone. It broke my heart when my parents had to get rid of it.

It felt like somebody close to me had died.

This may be outdated advice, but one piano seeker recommended looking in old churches with dwindling membership. There may be several pianos that nobody has thought about for years. They had a page of advice, such as checking that the tuning pegs had not been hammered in too far, or had the peg area stained from treatments.
I have been stalled with the too-many-choices on important chores, and generally distracted with a continuing work in progress. So, I chose the project with the most special interest resonance to get me out of this chair, and I'm feeling a lot better and more confident for it. Plus, I get another nice thing to use and enjoy every day, and there's a bit less scrap metal in my estate.

I could go in that direction but I think I’m going to splurge and get something I really want.

I spend far too much money on books which I order from around the world.
Then I spend far too much money on bookcases.

Thanks to HighLlama I've discovered some nice used bookshops near home.
I also got some beautiful antique bookcases from a thrift shop.

^^ Ahh, that Is a minor interest here. I recently added a book shelf beside my bed to supplement the table, and it is a big improvement. I've made and sold quite a few pine bookcases. When I moved here, I sat in a sea of boxes for a week, until I put up an upper wall of bookshelves from rough lumber and got the books off the floor. With room to move, the rest was resolved. Sadly, the books will probably never be read again.
Poking around the back rooms of the British Museum one day, a fellow remarked on a nice set of bookshelves in one office. "Oh, yes. Those are the ones that Darwin had made for his papers from the Beagle voyage."
Two of my best books are from a certain used book shop in Victoria, BC. The owner was a rather gloomy looking fellow, who never seemed glad to make a sale. It turned out that he was only selling, grudgingly, his least favourite books. He had the basement of his store full of better ones, and, it turned out, every store basement on the whole block as well! Now THAT'S a Collection!

Oh wow about Darwin!

I'm glad to know I'm not the lone bibliophile here! Your pine bookcases sound really nice too. I have a pine hutch and pine blanket box that I stained by hand but I didn't do the carpentry myself.

My latest two finds were this one which was free:





I'm not sure what the wood is ^ but I think perhaps walnut?
Those are some old children's books inside along with some tall books that didn't fit elsewhere, and some kitty toys at the bottom along with one of my kitties


...

and this one which was $20. I think it's pine.




It's filled with a bunch of books that I had in storage at my mother's house because I'd run out of bookcases here.
It's mostly Canadiana inside to go with the pine, but there's a bit of British overflow as well.

Elsewhere I have my philosophy books, textbooks, my primary Brit collection and an entire cabinet of Brontëana.

Usually there are ways to enjoy ones hobby without spending too much but it requires thought.
I hve lways been mad into model railways and railway related stuff. These days I have taught myself to specialize and to part with the stuff I am not using as it is far too easy to end up with so many things that one can hardly move. Haha!
But what I did to specialize came at a point in my life when I had no income whatsoever and during that time model railways here in the UK hiked up in price as the prices doubled in a matter of a few months. (They have since doubled again and then some though I account the "Then some" part which is due to inflation. The rest was due to the two largest companies going on a rampage and buying out every smaller company that they could to between them try and monopolize the market not just in model railways, but other associated similar markets as well using cheap loans to do so... Remember the loans that caused the last recession? Oh... And then recession hit so financially they had to double their prices... Hence the first rise that I saw).
Anyway. I was already involved in what was known as the "Budget" scale and gauge over here which was 00 (Similar to H0 elsewhere) and there was no way that I could see how I could continue as for me, the not being able to obtain more of what I wanted with no visual hope (I am a picture thinker) of being able to buy more was depressing. I sat in my bedroom of the house I once had surrounded by trains (Though in my cupboards as I was inbetween layouts) and I was almost in tears and then I felt prompted to look at something. It was a kit that I had bought just because I loved the look of it. It was not in the scale that I collected but ran on the same gauge of track so that being in a scale of nearly twice the size, it was a narrow gauge locomotive and was designed to be built onto the cheap little 4 wheel locos that Hornby made which I had as I would normally sell them on (As I collected the British Rail blue era diesels) but I had one that I could not find a buyer and I was not using... Ideal!
So I looked and this kit and started to slowly build it. Tears were coming from my eyes as I was watching thelittle loco come into shape. For the first time in years I really really loved what I was building as it became personal and not just something I bought.
I then went to look to find ways of building some waggons to go behind it. In my spares box were some old Triang wagons with their cast metal chassis and plastic wheels. Ideal! I took what was left of their 00 bodies off them and thought of a way to make a new body and a thought came to me. In the back lane was a small offcut of mesh that the cars had been driving over and it looked rather battered. It was absolutely perfect! I just cut the corners off so I could bend it upwards and there I had a waggon body which with a little wire to hold it onto its chassis it looked like a well used narrow gauge waggon. Excellent!
I found another mesh offcut so I made a second, and I saw a complete new sheet of mesh for just a few pounds and I could afford it, so I ended up with a small fleet of little waggons.
I then quickly taught myself how to make other little waggons that hardly cost much to make. The two largest potential costs are the couplings and the wheels, so with a lot of thought and experimentation, two and a half years later I designed my own couplings which cost pennies to make and worked fine! The wheels I had to buy for now though I do have some thoughts on how to build them.
I totally lost the desire to buy or collect in 00 gauge and I slowly started selling off my collection. Money raised went to pay bills and anything left was invested into little hobbyist machine tools to help making things a lot easier! Were not essential, but are nice, and extra gadgets were sent my way for these little machines via a very generous lady who wanted to help and I sent her some 00 gauge trains which she loves too! We both have some fun in this hobby!
But what I am saying is there are usually ways around this so one can enjoy ones hobby without the expense. Think of stamp collecting. All you want are examples of each stamp that you can find, and what is wrong with finding online pictures of the very expensive stamps you have no hope of affording, and copying, and pasting and then printing some lifesized copies just to add to your collection? (Mark them on the back that they are copies but why not? It is your collection. You are enjoying. You are not hurting anyone else and are not trying to commit fraud by selling them on (And if one does sell them on state which ones are copies so no one is decieved). Why not? Just be open and honest and enjoy!)

If one collects coins, why not make copies out of resin and paint them? All sorts of ways to enjoy a hobby on a budget! It only becomes fraud if one tries to openly decieve. If one states that copies are copies because the origionals are too expensive then no one will be decieved, and there is a joy to be had in the process of
making things oneself.

^ That’s a great story, MG. How inventive of you.

Dear_one, I admire you for the ability to get yourself moving with a “project with the most special interest resonance” to get moving again. I have believed this would help me, but still have that voice that says you’re supposed to be doing (whatever necessary thing needs doing) rather than something I would enjoy.

So, I hope your experience will give me the push I need to try this.

When I built bookshelves, "#2 Pine" was fairly cheap, and we found the knotholes attractive. Once, I even arranged a knot to make a corner more dent-resistant. Here, I got the whole load of rough lumber for $100, and the books don't mind.

The only trouble with doing the most enjoyable work is that it tends to keep me up too late. When I did it full time, I slept three or four times a week, because if I slept before finishing a project, I'd come back with more ideas and lose more money making it better than the estimate.