[Michael Pikula]

As work comes to a halt for a few days and I embark upon my next adventure, my thoughts turn to planning. I realize that this may be a highly personal request, or something that may not wish to be discussed publicly however...

More or less, what is a yearly budget that members of this community usually spend, or expect to spend, on this hobby/interest?

I will be offline from Wednesday until early next week so please be patient with my lack of timely response to this thread.

Thank you very much in advance, and I have an interesting concept that I am assembling and hope to present early 2014.

[William M]

If your new concept is anything like the fantastic little seax, then count me excited!
I put down my budget as the 100-500 as I really don't spend much at all on modern stuff due to it being a bit of a sunk cost.

[Mike Capanelli]

I end up in the $1500-2000 bracket, though a disproportionate amount goes to training equipment. With a blank blade waiting for me at Albion, a commission with that blade waiting on the blade, and an order from Szymon Cherbloski (sp) in the queue my budget is pretty much blown for the rest of the year. I'm planning a big purchase or two next year for my collection as most of my personal training equipment is squared away at this point. I'd like to squeeze in a spear and pole axe but my wife may shoot me if I do (And they're a little too big to hide).

[Tyler Keich]

As it sits for this year, 1500-2000, though not intentionally. New to the hobby and trying to pace myself, but sometimes something just too good to pass on comes along and, well, there goes the budget! (I'm sure many of you have experienced this ). Putting other really nice toys i would like either on the backburner, or to look at others avenues. Ie; making it myself.

[Joe Fults]

Voted where I voted because I have more than one hobby. So what I can play with for any one gets spread about a bit. Also some medical things over the last few years have caused a bit of belt tightening here and there.

[Jean Thibodeau]

The $1500 to $2000 sort of covers a lot of the less expensive pieces that I end up buying at a rate of once a month or two on average, like mid range to better production pieces and even a few low cost gems worth a lot more in proportion to their actual price. ( Things like Del Tin in the Kult of Athena " pre-owned " that are often half the price of new pieces )

Now, the above is sort of the average yearly budget that I " plan " for, but the occasional custom piece or special treat might add another $2000 to the total for 1 or 2 pieces ..... I rarely go over $1500 for any one piece in any one year.

I don't think I ever spent more than $5000 in any one year, even in my more enthusiastic early years of collecting when I had custom designs made for me, as opposed to buying a ready to ship custom piece where I didn't contribute my own ideas for the design.

[William Swiger]

For me on average, it is about 5k or more a year but I am retired from the military and still working full time.

A couple of custom swords a year and one or two higher end production swords add up rather quickly.

I am sort of buying what I want for now as the US Government has been reducing civilian personnel at a very high rate over the last few years and I am very aware that at any time, my hobby budget could go away in the blink of an eye.

[Chad Hanson]

I voted $1500-$2000, but honestly I will most likely go far above that for the next few years, since I have a suit of armor to buy, and a custom project I'm trying to finance for my brother's 40th birthday in a few years. Speaking of that, I really better start getting to work on finding a smith to make it for me.

[P. Frank]

I think I keep it at 500-1000USD, which probably has to to with me mostly buying training grade swords at the moment.
I hope a project like the little seax will come up again at one point. It allowed me to get something from Michael, which I usually could not afford that easily.

[Chad Arnow]

You had no option for $0-$100, so voted for $100-$500, though it's a stretch for me to find money.

[Luka Borscak]

I put 500-1000 although such a budget for me often includes money from some item I sold to buy something new...

[Bryan Heff]

I voted for $2000 + but there is a qualifier on that amount for me. I just started re-collecting, in earnest I suppose, about 1.5 - 2 years ago. As a result of my rekindled interest in Arms (to be specific, swords) I have spent quite a bit in that time, way more than I ever thought I would. I don't see that level of spending being a yearly AVG though, because if it was my wife would probably kick me out of my house.

My guess is going forward, it will be $500-$1000 with some of that money coming from selling older items to finance newer items.

[Jonathan Blair]

I wish I had as much to spend on arms/armor as some here did. Unfortunately, I'm closer to Chad's position of $0-100.

[Roger Hooper]

I put myself in the $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 area. Buying custom swords would put me higher than that, but I've decided to stay away from them, for awhile at least.

[Julien M]

My budget has been non existent this year, or even in the negative range as I sold my one Albion recently and the scabbard I had made for it.

Regardless of what I earn, I always try to balance my hobby spend: I sell in order to get new stuff, so I maintain things flat.

That said, if you look closer, I do spend a bit on equipment for DYI (tools, materials) and books (a few month ago, I got a copy of Armi Bianche Italiane for instance, which is quiet a treat as it cost as much as a sword).

I also spent almost $1000 on moat and bare blades over the last 4 years.

So I'd say on average I spend around $500 a year.

J

[Tim Lison]

I put down 2000+ as the last few years have been that but will likely be in a much smaller bracket coming soon as I am being downsized at the end of this year. This will impact my fun money for a while...

[Robin Smith]

I have pretty much zero interest in production swords, so any budget I have will be for custom projects pretty much exclusively. My goal is to do one good project a year. But the kinds of things that interest me (blade inlays, inlaid hilts, historic construction/metallurgy, etc... ) these things almost by necessity move me into the top bracket.

[Dan Howard]

I'm the same as Robin. I'll invest in one custom project every year or two plus maybe one or two lesser items that catch my fancy. I said $2,000+ in the poll but that includes materials for my own projects and an occasional book on the subject. However, all of my hobby budget comes from writing royalties and selling stuff that I've made, so if I don't do any projects to earn income, I don't have an arms & armour budget at all.

So if you want to keep Dan in arms and armour projects then buy my books. The latest two are here.
http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Bronze-Age-Mil...nt/p/3272/
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/114817/Compact-Castles

The castles book turned out to be even more work than the Bronze Age book.

[Iain Norman]

I am in the upper end, but that's rarely "new" money. Other things are sold to finance the purchases, at least that's what I tell myself, oddly enough everything new seems to cost just a bit more than what left the collection.

I am more or less exclusively into antiques, which eases the process a bit as the depreciation is perhaps a bit less.

[Scott Hrouda]

I'm currently in the lowest bracket. Years ago I spent more. but children, sports, a house, and a recent period of under employment have severely cut into my discretionary spending.