Asklemmy

Hobby electronics?

Need a small part? Better buy 10 in case you break one and because it's only marginally more expensive than getting one. Now repeat for every project you do

Some asshole Transformers action figure sellers on eBay who DISASSEMBLE THE FIGURES AND THEN SELL EACH PIECE SEPARATELY. Fuck those people, seriously.

Collecting stuff is basically the ultimate hoarder hobby.

Junko pop

Warhammer.

Pinball. Because a lot of the classic pinballs are 25 years plus old they tend to have extra of everything in case something breaks.

If you own a pinball machine, you have a whole lot of other stuff too. Ramps, decals, balls, fuses, you name it.

Plus hardly anybody who owns pinball machines owns only one. Four or five seem to be the norm, and I know several people who have a house with 20 or 30 in it. That's 20 or 30 full size pinball machines in a normal house.

Model Railroading.

It's not the worst, but it requires all the key ingredients - you need to own a home large enough to have a 'spare' room, which means you've got disposable income. And displaying the trains is almost as much fun as running them, so you end building shelves and shelves, which then sprawl out to the rest of the house. Only to realize you're missing the 'key' one from that set, got to go find that, obviously.

And then of course you can't throw away the boxes, because that would lower the resale value, so you need to rent a second storage unit. Not that you would ever sell them of course. But your kids will be sitting on a goldmine!

And that's just the collection portion. It's a crafty hobby, from making scenery & waterfalls & little trees all the way to the special paints to make the engines look aged. That will need a room as well.

And now that we've got the train shelves in the kitchen, you know, I could put a food themed railroad on the table there. Yes I already have the desert themed one in the train room and the prairie themed one in the living room and the snow theme layout in the hallway, but I don't have a silly one. No of course the Halloween theme one doesn't count.

Cycling can get bad. Some dudes have a garage full of $20k of bikes.

I am on the low end of the bike hoarding spectrum. I have two very modestly priced bikes (one road, one fat) and a 20” box of parts and accessories. You could count the 4 water bottles in the cupboard, 4 bike shorts in the drawer, and 6 bike jerseys in the closet as well. 2 pairs of bike shoes, a hook of tires and tubes in the garage, oh god never mind I have it bad.

My first answer would have been retro game collecting, but that's already been discussed, so I'll posit custom PC building. That's a hobby rife with keeping spare parts "just in case".

Source: Self

I would actually love to know what hobbies don’t have some sort of hoarding aspect! I’m trying to think on it and I can’t come up with any at the moment.

I’m sure one of you can help me?

Oh man, woodworking is pretty bad. Tools galore, scrap wood everywhere, and half-finished projects all over the garage.

Is this a place to cast shade or self reflect? In the former experimental scientist. They have closets of oscilliscopes, vacuum pumps, cryostats. Enough to furnish 3 or more labs. They always say they'll use it, but the pile only gets bigger.

For me, I have the opposite problen in general. I throw everything away and end up buying or making new shit. Worst is probably code. Fuck making a repo. This is a one off. I can write the same code 3 times before I keep it, but I like to say that is what makes me a decent programmer. And I'll keep telling myself that until I die.

Any “retro” collection. Old video games, for instance. In many cases, the barrier to entry is sky high, because there are very few old consoles or games on the market; The collectors have bought all of them, and are never planning on selling.

Fishing. 5 bucks here and there, it adds up. Even more so, fly fishing. I have some many materials

Cars because they are so big, and ugly when in disrepair. Small scale hoarding is a small scale problem.

Backpacking. I have a big plastic bin filled with equipment that I decided to go another direction with.

But makers are the kings of hobby hoarding, just look at Adam Savage. He has parts for things he hasn't even thought of building. He has a plethora of tools that overlap entirely just because the set of tools is closer to a given work aspect. Walls of bins with various degrees of filled because he bought 100 of something a decade ago that may have a future use.

The "hobby carpenter" and handymen sort. Guys who like building stuff and own land to do it on. So much crap and sub par materials. Hundreds of salvaged half rotten 2x4s that might be enough to hold a person with a couple dozen of them. Shit tons of insulation just getting soaked outside, tons of random cinder blocks and bricks, etc. Add in a side of drywall, random carpet scraps, tons of various wiring, and a massive assortment of tools that have probably seen more house dust than wood dust.

Not taking a dig at these guys, but you have to be realistic with what you can accomplish. Unless its a crazy good deal/find that you know you will use or be able to give away, don't touch it.

For the sake of space and organization, just buy materials for the project RIGHT before you build it, and AFTER you plan EVERYTHING about it. Account for EVERY piece you need so you never need to buy a bunch extra "just in case".

antique airplane restoration. So many parts, so many unreplaceable parts, soo many tools, soo many large parts as well.

Mini DIsc enthusiasts