For example, I’m sure the average joe doesn’t know just how expensive calligraphy pens can be, or how deep the rabbit hole goes on video game speedruns.

  • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I am still amazed about how much money you can spend on making coffee at home. 300€ for a manual grinder - “that’s the cheao chinese stuff” wtf

  • Dharma Curious@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    Maybe not as expensive as the others, but crochet/knitting/sewing all start off fairly cheap, and then the next thing you know you’re offering to service old men behind a Joann’s fabric because you need this particular fabric and you need an entire bolt of it, and it’s the one fabric in the entire fucking store that isn’t on their amazing buy one get 73 free sale for the week.

      • Dharma Curious@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        It’s a wonderful habit! Don’t listen to me. Haha. Fiber crafts are seriously awesome. I’m a total novice at crochet, an intermediate knitter (Portuguese style), and I sew half way well. It’s so much fun, and so worth it. … Just read your coupons carefully.

  • Canopyflyer@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Skydiver here.

    It’s not just money, it’s not just skill that makes you a successful jumper.

    It’s a certain type of attitude and the ability to think when you’ve aimed yourself at a planet. Not everyone can do it. To be blunt, there is a large part of the population that shouldn’t do it, because they have terrible decision making ability.

    As far as money, I went through the student program in the mid 90’s and it cost me about $1200, if I recall correctly. My first rig, used, was $4000. My second rig, new, was just over $8000. I have 4500 jumps most of which I paid ~ $20 each for. I don’t want to do that math.

  • southernbrewer@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ll do the reverse - I think most people would expect homebrewing beer to be quite hard to get started with, but for $50 you can get everything you need to start making a really quite good beer, and save money at the same time (homebrewed beer is usually much cheaper than store bought)

    If you want to get started search for “brew in a bag” and buy a kit beer mix. You’ll need a handful of equipment like a brew bag and fermenter, but that stuff is really cheap.

    Then you can indeed go down a massive rabbit hole of refinements, but it just amazed me that the first beer you make will already be a good one.

  • CustodialTeapot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Magic: the gathering.

    There’s several different styles of play known as “formats”.

    The Cheapest being “Standard”. Which is the latest 3-5 sets released. The deck of 75 card deck can cost upwards of £500.

    Then the most popular format, modern, which is the last 20ish years of release. The average deck there can be upwards of £1,500.

    Then there’s legacy and vintage where decks are in the high 4 figures and some even in the 5 figures.

  • PapaTorque@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Gymnastics. The skill part is obvious but monetarily its more than i expected. I thought it would be like going to a regular gym but its usually much more expensive to use the gyms and thats if you can find a time slot where adult males can train.

  • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Probably more well known but with the whole ‘live edge’ fad from a couple years ago now, some people don’t realize you can spend upwards of 20-30k on a single piece of some types of raw lumber.

    • RagnarokOnline@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      I feel like woodworking is one of those traditional “this hobby is expensive” things, but I was shocked by just how hard it is to do some things (like hollow out a bowl-shaped divot in a piece of wood) without the proper tools. And the proper tool is sometimes a single hook knife that’s $89 dollars.

      You can get 8 foot of pine from any hardware store for $10, but if you want to do anything other than cross cut that pine to different lengths, you’re going to need to drop some cash.

      Of course, the skill ceiling for woodworking is enormous.

  • figaro@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    Racing drones.

    It turns out when you crash your $500 drone into a brick wall at 50mph, shit breaks and you get to spend more money if you want to fly it into another wall

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      This has both, really. People also have no idea how hard it is to pilot the quick, expensive little bastards. You’re gonna spend a good chunk of time in the simulator before you can do anything with a real one. But hey, at least you can fix them, unlike DJI stuff where at the smallest little thing it’s bricked.

      • figaro@lemdro.id
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        1 year ago

        Oh definitely. DJI is good for photography and some types of video, but that’s about it. I’d avoid DJI for just about everything else.

  • jackoneill@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    3D printing! You can start out cheap but you can get STUPID expensive, and it’s the biggest most meandering rabbit hole I know of

    • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      3D printing really isn’t expensive, especially since you can create a lot of stuff for cents. I’m considering a new extruder for my Ender 3 (Looking at the LDO orbiter v2) and that’s €70, which sounds expensive for the printer, but compared to any other hobby that’s peanuts

      • Aux@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, €70 is not much for an upgrade for a hobby. That’s the price of a mid-range chain for a mountain bike and chains are not upgrades, they’re consumables, which you buy at least once a year, lol.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      3D printing can be expensive, but I disagree that it is stupid expensive.

  • nottheengineer@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Keyboards are generally known about, but the ergo part of it is a rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. Some people literally design, 3D print, wire up, solder and program one-off keyboards because they don’t like the ones made by other people.

        • demesisx@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          Not yet but I am seriously considering building a badass ergo keyboard at some point once I see a good enough design to copy.

  • Platomus@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I feel like a lot of people might think miniature building/painting could be easy - or at least quick.

    It isn’t.

  • jastyty@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Modular synths, eurorack is where you find the most accessible modules than the other formats. Sometimes you go and spend 600€ in a module without batting an eye.

    Also you have to count the case, patch cables, etc.

    It gets expensive quickly if you can’t fight the GAS (gear acquisition syndrome)

    Also it is a musical instrument so you need to practice many hours to play it affectively.

    It is really cool, I do enjoy myself playing with my modular, but would love to have more time to spend with it.

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      From what I’ve seen, modulars tend to attract people that love to tinker but aren’t necessarily very musical. They spend 30k and years on their setup but when they actually play something it’s just space soup. There are exceptions of course, some respected producers do use them, but that’s just my casual observation.

      • SpinDrift@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Absolutely. I love audio design, synthesis and making music, but I have rarely released anything. It took a long time for me to realize and accept that I do this for my own entertainment and not to be a successful musician. Its just a hobby.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          And there’s nothing wrong with that! Music has also always remained something I did for fun, I have a different creative field as my day job and I don’t want to do the same with music nu-hu.

  • Idontoah@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Rock climbing. To start out you basically just need $150 worth of shoes and some $5 chalk. Trad climbing or big wall climbing can be 5 figures and a dozen years worth of experience. And the skill ceiling is probably obvious, but it’s become an Olympic sport for a reason.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Bouldering here in the Netherlands can start pretty easily:

      • € 10-15 entry
      • € 5 to rent shoes, although you can bring any clean sport shoes yourself

      And that’s it!

      You can look into buying shoes and memberships if you’re really into it, but even then € 150 for shoes and € 40-60 a month for a membership is cheaper than my idea of an expensive hobby, like Magic the Gathering or PC building and gaming.