My signature is not totally up to date but it's close. I recently did some calculations...

Going by full retail I own $2,085 worth of plastic Star Wars ships.

However I always buy from MM at two/thirds cost, which is $1,397.

BUT a lot of it has been given to me as gifts over the years, so I've only personally spent between $900 and $1,000.

That's outrageous, right? Well, I've been playing since January 2013, which is a total of 32 months. That's only $31.25 a month.

Still, I don't have cable or internet at my apartment, and $30 a month would fix that. But is it really so much money? Think about it this way.

That's ONE DOLLAR A DAY. All the days. For ALL THE SHIPS. Forever.

I can't love $$$...

I used to do ballroom dancing... what's the link? None really, but my contracts were around 6 to 7k a year, competitions, shows and shoes not included. Compared to that, playing X-Wing is very affordable

Compared to 40k, everything else is affordable.

I've stopped trying to rationalize my buying. It's a waste of time. Just don't overspend and bankrupt yourself, or get stuck with things you never use.

I drive by a golf course to get out of my neighborhood. A lot of those guys are lugging around over a thousand dollars worth of clubs and are paying $75-$100 dollars to play 18 holes, or $55 to play until it's too dark to do so with an early evening tee time.

That always makes me feel much better about the $400-500 that I've spent on X-Wing.

If you're enjoying it and having fun it's probably worth it. If it's troubling you and causing you to doubt yourself, then maybe it's not worth it.

I will never add it up but I know it's excessive. Who really needs 4 starter sets, 6 of each small ship release (more qty of all TIE variations) and 2-3 of each large/huge release? I knew my friends wouldn't invest in a ton of stuff so I have enough for 4 players at once (either in an Epic game or two normal games) with a lot of options!

Makes their head spin. For Armada, they had a difficult time assembling a fleet just from two starters and 2-3 of the Wave 1 ships. So for X-Wing we're going back to the beginning and will play games based on the wave releases but with any current upgrades. So, for our next games they will be TIE's, TIE Advanced, X-Wing, and Y-Wing and that's it.

MSRP is around $800, actual is in the ballpark of 500. That includes gift cards and presents, and not to mention, I love sales...

Anyway, that's over about 25 months playing the game, includes every non-epic ship ever released with multiples of most. A buddy told me he spent more than that on his first 40k army, and then quickly learned he hated that faction. It is, admittedly, an expensive habit, but there are far more expensive ones even in the same field.

I skip normal spending equal to x wing spending. I can do without eating out for a few nights.

I think people only really pay attention to cost so much in miniatures games for the reason that when you get into them, you usually pay a large upfront cost or you look at it from the fact that everything COULD be bought at once.

But when you step back and compare it to other hobbies or break down the cost, like you did, you see it's not all that much for a hobby if you really enjoy it.

Right now, I only have 1 of each expansion, excluding Epic. I'm ok with that, and won't be making any more large orders soon, but will pick up additional stuff I want over time.

The other great thing about miniatures games is that, unlike video games, you can resell them a little better. Plus, you can't even resell some games, whether it be due to being worthless or because it was purchased as a download.

I'm probably around $700 at this point (one of every small and large ship, the Aces packs, Most Wanted, Imperial Raider, and a couple extra small ships), and I've only been playing for about 4 or 5 months. However, now that I've got most of my collection in place, my rate of spending is going to drop off almost entirely except for new wave releases, I think. My end goal is to have 2 of every small ship, 1 of every large or huge ship, and 1 of every Aces-style pack, which is more than enough variety for me and my friends to play around with.

I spent too much and I rationalize it simply because it's Star Wars.

It's like a bad report card of a tree falling down in the woods. If you haven't seen it, does it really exist? Has anything really been spent?

Retail, I've spent $1010 for my current collection. However, of that, I've won quite a bit, worth $180 retail. And of the remaining $830, I've gotten basically 20% off, so my actual investment should be closer to $664.

But you have to add in the cost of all the events I've gone to, and the lodging and travel expenses (just for regionals/nats), which seem to be about $400/yr for the last 2 years, bringing my X wing expenditures up to ~$1500 thus far. But I've sold off most of my winnings for around 3k, so while Ebay and Paypal steal a large portion of that, I'm still about $1000 gained.

Or at least that's how I justify it to the lady!

I've spend just over $1600.00 in ships alone. To get a True Cost, I'd have to factor in the PlayMats, tokens, Maneuver Templates, KickStarter Campaigns, Battlefoam, Plano Boxes, card plastics, binders, etc. I'm not sure I'd be willing to put the time in to make that calculation. Either way, I don't rationalize my X-Wing spending. It really doesn't need justification. It's a hobby, it's something that I have fun participating in and I don't have to sacrifice anything to stay active in x-wing.

Spent around $500 between MM, CSI, retail and discounted prices to get what's in my sig (I also have an official Starfield Playmat).

I used to be into Heroclix. I was playing it for fun and competitively for 8 months. I bought over $1.1k of figures. It was an addiction and an escape from my job at the time.

I've been into X-Wing since March 2013 when I picked up the Core Set, Y-Wing and TIE Advanced at Megacon for online prices.

Spent $500 in 2 years, my friends all like it, the game isn't pay-to-win.

At least I'm not spending it on alcohol.

Usually, I rationalize purchases by saying I have to get one hour of fun per dollar spent.
And that's per ship. So if I play 30 games with twin falcons, they're justified.
On top of that, I share my ships with my friends, and I let their fun count towards that too.

With X-wing, I'm probably still not playing enough to rationalize these guys, but I'll make the exception for Star Wars

I've no idea and don't really want to count, but let's just say I'm currently on my third X-Wing Miniatures collection. I bought into the game when it very first came out, didn't have anyone to play with regularly and sold up just before Wave 2. I then started again, bought into it heavily getting four of every ship before selling up again at the time the first Epic ships were released because while I had someone to play with, it was only every couple of weeks. I felt like I'd wasted a fairly large chunk of cash for something that I only played for a couple of hours each fortnight.

I then started this third time just over a year ago when I came across a fairly large gaming group close to my home which means that I can get to play regularly a couple of times a week and get involved in tournaments etc. Got a 'full' collection again of at least two or three of every ship and I'm feeling good about it this time and have never enjoyed the game more :-)

Compared to my main hobby of film (DVD & Blu-ray) collecting / home cinema & photography which I'm also into (which is a crazy money pit), X-Wing seems quite cheap by comparison.

Compared to 40k, everything else is affordable.

I've stopped trying to rationalize my buying. It's a waste of time. Just don't overspend and bankrupt yourself, or get stuck with things you never use.

This is very, very, very true. Since quitting my 40k habit a few years ago, no joke i've been able to afford a nicer car.

My rationale is that I'm investing into a game that most of my friends play at least casually. It's a game that everyone seems to be able to enjoy, even if just as a board game.

Currently, only 3-4 of us have large collections, and the rest own 1-2 ships. It works out because everyone shares or proxies what they're missing.

I also only buy ships in singles to get a feel for ships before I go all out. I also don't play Epic, so that helps the bank.

I've spent a LOT. I've won some stuff, and completed out my FFG collection of acrylic tokens on eBay. I also play MTG fairly regularly. Its easy, I don't drink/smoke. I'm at a point in my life where I've got some money in savings, a good job, and have the spending cash. Many people judge me for my spending habits on this game, but in the end I can think of 100's of worse (detrimental) things I could be doing with my cash. I can also think of better (more boring) things. So I think I've hit a great point and am happy for such a fun game!

I don't rationalise it, because frankly, I don't care. I work bloody hard, pay my bills, donate to charity, spoil the wife and kid when I'm flush, and buy a crap ton of miniatures, which keep me out of the pub/casino/bookies/crack den.

I have at least one of everything, with 4-6 of each small, and even more of some, and yet I've spent a teeny fraction compared to my 2 40k factions, 2 soon to be obsolete Warhammer factions. I've probably spent more on infinity too.

Tldr: work hard, love hard, play with teeny tiny toys hard.

It's hard to say exactly because some of my ships were gifts, some were tournament winnings, and I've made purchases both at and below retail. It's somewhere in the realm of $1000 US, though. As far as rationalizing it, well, others have already pointed to how there are certainly far worse vices. I'm also a recovering MtG player and my card collection easily had 10x the dollars sunk into it (although that was over close to twenty years in the hobby, whereas I've been playing X-Wing less than a year).

Oh, and I'm a snowboarder and a mountain biker as well - my bike is easily worth more than my car, and my boards get close. So basically I'm used to expensive hobbies and there's no quantifying joy, adventure, and camaraderie, at least in monetary terms.

Ya this beats 40k any day i spent over 10,000$on 40k and my army is not even playable . i spent 2500 on xwing 2013 i began. playing andi still use ever granted the powerr creep sucks in any game

How much have you spent and how do you rationalize it?

TL;DR: Lots, and generally I don't.

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Here's what I have from FFG (that is, not counting tokens or templates):

At MSRP, that's $1,565. But I didn't pay retail for all of it, or even much of it: it's accounted for by gifts, store credit at my local store, store credit at FFG's web store, and online purchases (including the usual 30% or so off, as well as deeper discounts--like B-wings #3 and #4, which I got for like $7 each at Miniature Market IIRC). I'm certain I've spent less than $1000 all told, and probably less than that.

As for justifying it--seriously, why bother? It's something I enjoy, and all of my needs and my family's needs are met. Just scratching the surface of other hobbies, I could buy a new video game every month, which would be more expensive (36 months x $60 = $2,160). I could go to the bookstore twice a month, rather than the library, and pick up a new hardback and a new paperback (36 months x 2 x $35 = $5,040). I could go scuba diving once or twice a month instead of once a year (36 x 1.5 x $lots = $ ).

X-wing just isn't that expensive, relative to my interests and discretionary income.