I can almost hear the seagulls crying and the creak of the standing rigging.
That man should have taken his wife to sea.
Lake fishing dealers out number car dealers in my area. And the local TV commercials fill with Bass fishing and backwoods stuff if you are not already on Cable or Satellite.
Possession has its roots in insecurity. The more deeply you attempt to grasp something , the more insecure you are about it, and about other things. It also generally means you are avoiding dealing with other important issues, and want the pleasure and excitement, fleeting though it always is, associated with awaiting something that you desire. For some, it is an over-the-counter purchase (instant), while for others it is awaiting the package from a shipper.
Purchasing is an act of power, but as most of us know, it has, or ought to have, limitations…not the least of which is a firm commitment to a budget.
So, yes, personality is an important factor. So is the addictive component associated with intermittent reinforcement, such as the occasional win one gets while gambling…or the occasional arrival of a desired package in the post.
It is a small wonder, then, that some of our friends have a compulsion to re-acquire the ephemeral pleasure that one gets from a purchase, and that they will do this time and time again, even at their peril. The stark sign of such a thing is the drawers and boxes of unopened, seldom used, and simply hidden railroad items that number far more than they can rationally use.
I have had other intense interests, but due to family finances, never gave in to seriously incautious or purely self-centred spending…thank God. Now, on the other hand, I am retired, making much less, and am hanging on by the barest molecule at the end of a single finger nail.
…aaaand loving it. [:D]
A long time ago, I got myself maxed out on the credit cards but that was in the late 1970s when we had double digit inflation and you could deduct credit card interest on your tax return. I was paying them back with inflated dollars which weren’t worth as much as the ones I borrowed from them. Factor in the tax savings and I figured I was paying very littlle for the use of their money. Then the tax laws changed and eliminated the credit card interest decuction and the Fed got inflation under control. Suddenly it didn’t make sense to carry large balances anymore. I got myself a debt consolidation loan and when I got that paid off, I made a vow that if I couldn’t pay off the entire balance at the end of each month, I wouldn’t use the card again until it was paid. I’m proud to say that was 25 years ago and I’ve never been unable to pay off my balances at the end of each month. Carrying a balance on a credit card is like burning money. To me credit cards are a convenience and a financial management tool. I don’t have to hit the ATM more than once a month and I am able to track most of my expenditures easily. I rarely pay cash for anything any more, even when I eat at Mickey D’s.
Yet another one of those threads that point out other people’s faults. I prefer to discuss problems with our hobby than to discuss problems with people.
Welcome to real life, Aloco. Think of the thread as not “pointing out other people’s faults” so much as a reality check for all of us in the hobby - that we don’t let it “consume” our time, priorites, committments, and relationships with others.
Tom
I seen alot of this type of behavior first hand. I owned a baseball card shop from 1986 to 1991 and seen alot of collectors spend way to much on their hobby. They would be driving a junker on bald tires; come into my shop think nothing of dropping a couple hundred bucks on the latest rookie cards. The pursuit of the hobby was more important than the essentials of everyday life. But still a large majority of us know our limits, approach the hobby with a passion for enjoyment, sharing that enjoyment with others and the realization that it is not a game of one- ups-menship. I have had the pleasure of belonging to a RR Club for over 25 years, the fellowship between myself and others that have the same common interest has been priceless. I have seen many drift in & out of the hobby over the years, & as others have posted, most of these people put quantity over quality, in their approach to the hobby. This causes very fast burnout. The same people most likely will go into something else and repeat the same behavior. Oh well thats my 2 cents worth…
Amen Tom, Amen. If the internet had been around when I was in my 20’s and 30’s (60’s and 70’s) and I could have read AND benefited from threads like this, well… if only it had.
JaRRell
Add another amen. What is the hobby except people? Trains is just the conduit for our insecurities, yearnings, and a lot of money. They represent the medium, but the medium would be meaningless without the person. So, threads about people should rank right up there in this hobby.
Hello, my name is Bill, and I’m a model-holic.I used to have about six hobbies, Boating, fishing, R/C planes. woodworking ,woodcarving, model trains, stained glass, art classes, russian language classes, oops thats ten. I’ve managed to cut back to woodworking,woodcarving,and model trains. But I added model ships. So how’re my chances of recovery? I have no credit card debt. Only owe money on the house. I feel good!! I am sort of an addict to Selectors term “intermittent gratification”. The thing of it is though I love the anticipation, once I acquire whatever ,the feelings gone and I have to reorder. Wasn’t it Peggy Lee who sang. Is that all there is? Anyways try to keep a lid on it folks and enjoy.
TA462. Isn’t the concept of a Visa card, that in an emergency you take the card to a bank card machine and take out money, that’s the way they work in Canada and I believe that was one of the features of owning one.
Or a Credit Card to be financially “Agile and Mobile” to grab an item such as the out of production 4-4-4-4 from BLI. I had charged it to the card after sunrise monday am one of several copies availible. The model arrived a few days later. The credit card company was contacted and transferred that payment directly from my account. By the end of the week when it was all done and paid for I paid ZERO interest and still had ZERO credit card debt at that time.
THAT is how you use a credit card.
Unfortunately due to my ZERO interest charges Im known as a “Deadbeat” to the credit card industry because I dont support them with income via interest. They do however get the occasional over the phone charges as income.
If I had to get this model with conventional check, cash or via the hobby shop it will be long gone to someone else with a electronic charge to a credit card over the net or telephone direct to BLI.
Now.
I am learning that there are cell phones that can accept and generate a radio signal or Barcode that can be swiped across a grocery store scanner or any similar point of sale device.
Also there are credit cards being issued with RFID short range broadcasting so you are charged when you pass within a few feet of a sensor inside a store. The problem with these is the signal is sent “In-the-clear” and can be picked up by any old sensor equipped scanner in someone else’s pocket a few feet away.
I do have a problem with that. Not all technology designed to make payments easier without cash is “All-that” as we used to say back home.
Everyone seems to have an answer to this but honestly if I had more money I am sure that I would spend more money on my hobby. I would probably get way involved and do the similar. The more money we get the more we spend. Then the problems grows out of hand. Before you know it all you want to do is spend every dime on the new engine or rolling stock or even every Walthers kit.
I don’t like your attitude Mr. I think you have a personality problem. Lets discuss it now [;)]
I personally went through a phase a couple of years ago where I bought almost everything that I saw and liked, and must have spent several thousand dollars in one year on model railroading stuff - a lot of which I’ve since resold on ebay. I’ve now settled down, and only spend an average of about $50.00 a month. There’s still a few items out there I’d like to have, but like I said when I created this topic, there’s no way I’m going to go into debt over the stuff…
Tracklayer
I think there is a point somewhere along the line at which a hobby participant spends for everything he or she sees. I have experienced that briefly some years back. Now with constant oversight of my finances I know to the “Penny” what I can spend from week to week without hurting the rest of the budget at all.
Yes there is more income to spend but it gets put into savings or towards paying off bills first. Always that first. Trains are last. Wife is second after the house needs. She gets into the finances as easily as I do and sometimes I get surprised by a small charge on her part when she goes out and gets something for herself from time to time.
Now if I was living alone and single… well… I probably will bury myself in trains if I dont know any better. Way back in my driving days, Ive learn not to buy what I cannot carry; everything has it;s place.
not true. They handshake in mych the same way that your web browser handshakes with a secure website (albeit it is a hardware handshake), so someone would need to commandeer a RFID reader, and THEN set themselves up as a business to even think of stealing your money. not to mention after that, the machine doesn’t even look at your CC# (well, in full) it uses some other identifying number that is also attached to the CC# to actually do the transfer…
or at least that is how i understood the technology’s implementation when i talked to the MC people about it (i MADE them put someone on the line who knew about it before replacing a CC with one of the RFID ones)
I worked with a woman who had declared bankruptcy several years before I knew her, and she was still dealing with the repercussions; i.e. her bank would only allow her to open an account that had high fees and penalties, because she was a bad risk. She spent her money on all sorts of hobby and craft junk, and didn’t even have a valuable collection to show for it. After going through all of that, she still spent beyond her means. I couldn’t get through to her, because spending gave her a high, and she used it to avoid her problems.
I’ve never spent much on my hobbies, much to the frustration of my LHS owner and the credit card companies. I never felt safe if I wasn’t saving money. Now that I find myself disabled (something I never expected to happen to me), I’m really grateful that I saved like I did.
As others have said, if you use a credit card, pay the balance in full every month, period, otherwise there’s no reason to have one. I use it for convenience sake, and because my card has a cashback feature that pays me a small amount on my monthly balance. If I can make a little money paying bills and buying the essentials, why not? It adds up.
Hmm–
Retired from teaching three years ago. Retirement pay, Social Security, the bit. Credit cards all paid off. Currently single, house paid for, enough to be comfortably, if not spectacurlarly financially solvent. Neat hobby in the garage, the Sierra Nevada and a railroad–mostly Rio Grande steam and don’t ask–crawling all over it.
Got called by another high school, even though I was retired. Went back to work–suddenly had an additional income.
Okay. IMMEDIATELY went nuts, bought a BLI E-6 A-B-B CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO diesel set (I’m steam, BTW) that I needed like a hole in the head. Bought a train to go along with it. Then I suddenly got greedy, needed the BLI California Zephyr (yah, sure!). 11-car set at $64 per car, PLUS the Rio Grande F-3’s to haul it. Now I’m very busy building the 1950’s transitional ROYAL GORGE complete with steam power (a brass Key 1800 Rio Grande 4-8-4, which I already had, thank God), mixed Budd streamline and Pullman-standard heavyweights, plus those clever second-hand Chesapeake and Ohio ‘Chessie’ domes (that nobody seems to produce, so I’m going to have to do them, myself if I can find the right paint and decals).
Oh, yah, I need a couple of more brass Rio Grande L-131 2-8-8-2’s. One can NEVER have enough of those little puppies!
Credit cards are NOT maxed out, nowhere even near.
But I can pretty much understand people who get absolutely zeroed in on this hobby. Luckily, I’m at the age right now where I can kinda-sorta afford it everytime I go Bonkers.
And this is a VERY easy hobby to go Bonkers about.
Tom