How do you financially support this hobby?

[RetroJames]

"I was young and I needed an ArcadeVGA Card...."



My wife commented tonight that I was becoming pretty creative in figuring out how to scrape together funds and find deals in order to support my hobby while not dipping into the household income.

[sasuke_kun12]

I work and i find loss change around the house, hey i might beg for money when i get back to school! . nah i'm thinkin of hackin game pads for a living might do that for school kids

[RacerX]

For me it's easy.  I'm single.   

[DrewKaree]

Excellent way to save (kinda.....it's not really "saving", but until you give this a try, you'll NEVER realize how much you could actually NOT spend) up or set aside money for stuff...here's what I do:

NEVER EVER EVER when paying for something give the change, and at night, put your change into some secure location (if you have kids....or the wife ganks your change) like a lockbox piggy bank

Example:
Your total is $1.99, you pay with 2 dollars.  the .01 goes into the bank at night.
Your total at Starbucks is $4.37, you now have .63 in your pocket.  You go to Target, your total is $11.63, you DON'T give the cashier the .63, you pay in whole dollars, and now you have a total of $1 in change in your pocket.  You go to the gas station, pick up a soda, total comes to $1.50, now you have $1.50 in change....and so on, and so on.

You'd be surprised at how you end up budgeting your money and how quickly all that change adds up.

[Apollo]

Buying arcade machines and parts and reselling them has financed a fair bit of my hobby. Apart from that I just put it on the Visa and the wife is fine with it so far.

[Gunstar Hero]

Scrimp, save and salvage. 

[mozzer]

Usually if I give my wife a couple weeks notice on the parts I need,  it seems to get budgeted in.

Also whenever I get something new for my hobby something new seems to pop up in the house; new curtains, decorations, clothes for her etc...

One bright spot is the upcoming tax season. Since we bought our house about a year ago this will be the first time it is on our taxes. We should get a pretty hefty return. Hopefully!

[fredster]

I have been going to auctions and buying old scrap machines for like $20 and boxes of boards.  I sell them on ebay and fix up some of the machines and re-sell them at the auctions.

So far I have paid for everything and I have machines on the street.  I've been doing this for the last 4 years.  Every machine I have is now paid for in full.

Ebay is great.  I sell parts all the time there.

I do exclude the computer I have in the mame machine.  I don't think that counts because I can switch it out.  I didn't modify it for the application.

[SirPeale]

When I need something, I figure someone else is going to need it as well.  So I buy extra, and sell it on my site.

[RetroJames]

I have been going to auctions and buying old scrap machines for like $20 and boxes of boards.

[missioncontrol]

loose change and I take on a few jobs helping people out for a little extra cash............

[versapak]

I buy lottery tickets.


It hasn't been able to support the hobby yet, but it will. Oh yes. It will.

[Chris]

I just try to keep the expenditures so far apart that the impact of each expense is very little. 

I have noticed a tendency for diminishing returns in this hobby, though.  I built my cabinet originally for $300, half of which was in the monitor.  Since then I have put another $700-$800 or so into it, but although I've increased the cost by 200% I'm certainly not getting 200% more out of it.

My downfall was the lightguns. Once Maximum Force and Area 51 were emulated, I had to have the lightguns.  That meant I had to upgrade from DOS to Windows.  That necessitated a change in motherboard and CPU, and when that motherboard didn't give me the performance I needed, yet another mootherboard.  The CHD's needed a bigger hard drive.  Then, of course, if I have Windows, now I have to have Daphne and Visual Pinball.  But the USB guns didn't like the serial trackball, so I needed a new trackball.  The new trackball didn't fit the old space, so now I needed a new control panel.  That trackball wore out quickly, so I got a Happ trackball, which required yet another new control panel. And then I had to try 3darcade, which required another hard drive upgrade to hold all the models and a memory upgrade for performance.  And I still have a pair of Pole Position wheels in the garage and a Pole Position shifter, and I'm wondering if it's time to start the madness again....

And the irony of it all is that I hardly ever play Maximum Force or Area 51 now.  And I could probably sell the guns if I hadn't modified them to be removable and have the guts of both guns on a single board.

--Chris

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I wh0re myself out to lonely arcade operators...it's brutal...*sniff* but I..I....don't mind.

mrC

[RetroJames]

I wh0re myself out to lonely arcade operators...it's brutal...*sniff* but I..I....don't mind.

mrC

"I'll tell you what...you get your little friend over there, we'll go back to my shop and have a little party...thhhheeennn you'll get your Pac Man cab...."

So do you take tokens and quarters?   

[mr.Curmudgeon]

So do you take tokens and quarters?   Grin

ROFL!  ...Tokens!

mrC

[patrickl]

I have more trouble finding the time than I have getting the money.

[RetroJames]

I have more trouble finding the time than I have getting the money.

Ahh feel yur pain...

[Quarters]

NEVER EVER EVER when paying for something give the change, and at night, put your change into some secure location (if you have kids....or the wife ganks your change) like a lockbox piggy bank

I use an arcade machine for this. 

[Tritoch84]

It's hard, as of right now me and the wife are kinda broke, and with a court date for a speeding ticket (Not Guilty, but who's gonna belive who) we are watching what we spend.

I just save money on little things here and there, and hope I can get the money to slam back into the account before she notices it's gone 

It's all about once piece at a time.

[Sephroth57]

"How do you financially support this hobby?

easy... all those nights with your mom!!! OHHHH



Sorry.. had to do it 

[Samstag]

How do you financially support this hobby?

Uh, I work for a living?

Seriously, an arcade is a luxury/entertainment item.

[RetroJames]

How do you financially support this hobby?

Uh, I work for a living?

Seriously, an arcade is a luxury/entertainment item.

[crashwg]

The initial investment was made with last year's tax returns.  I think I spent somewhere in the $600 range or so...

Since I haven't worked full time since Sept 2003 and haven't worked at all for about 3 months now, I don't buy any arcade related stuff. 

Heck I've found myself and my GF waiting for rebate checks and selling stuff on ebay so we can pay our rent/phone/cable bills!

Spending any of this year's tax returns on anything other than a car is out of the question since we're only getting $700 and on top of all that we have a little over $200 in hospital bills that probably won't even get paid!  God it sucks being poor!

[Sephroth57]

bum, get a job! 

[Samstag]

Some of us, like me choose not to dip into household income for this or other hobbies.

[RetroJames]

Some of us, like me choose not to dip into household income for this or other hobbies.

[Samstag]

Some of us, like me choose not to dip into household income for this or other hobbies.

[RetroJames]

Doh!

[Samstag]

LOL...just hope she doesn't call you from Interpol needing to be bailed out!

[Mameotron]

How do you financially support this hobby?

Uh, I work for a living?

Seriously, an arcade is a luxury/entertainment item.

[DrewKaree]

I kind of enjoy the thrill of finding things, too.  I helped a friend put a new roof on his garage and I got the leftover plywood to make my cab. 

DUDE!  The extra roofing felt prolly saved you money on painting your cab black too!  Or at least you had a nice CPO material.

[RetroJames]

So I went to my little focus group.

[JonnyBoy]

I bus at a fancy hotel dining room. The job itself sucks but the money is fantastic. I get minimum wage plus I get tipped by the servers. Some nights I make 50 bucks in addition to my actual paycheck. Not bad, considering I'm sixteen.