Rant-a-palooza or, why does every hobbyist suck butts?

What is with hobbies lately? All of them seem to have been overrun with greedy n'er do wells that want nothing more than to gatekeep, jack up prices, and ruin the fun for everyone else. 

Take any collectible as an example. From shoes, to gaming, to bmx, prices are absolutely absurd and anything new is immediately gobbled up by flippers only looking to cash in on the fad. I regularly have to search a half dozen sites to see if any given item I'm looking to buy is legitimate, fairly priced, and even available. Everyone seems to have found some sort of rare elusive pot of gold that they're only willing to part with for a kidney and my first born. It's insane. 

Then there's the toxic personalities. These appear to be most prevalent in two hobbies I've pursued over the years, ounballt, and more recently firearms. Pinball has long been a secret passion of mine. I love playing in the wild, finding a rare or well kept machine and having a few games. It's seen a resurgence in the past decade or so, and that's been great, except everyone sucks. Machines have become me absurdly expensive to the point of being unapproachable from a purchase standpoint, if you dislike something everyone has a hard on for, you're right out berkeleyed (I'm an outspoken advocate against the dad rock pins currently dominating the market, especially guns n roses. It's terrible. And it has fat axl on it ). It's just not fun. I also made the mistake of wandering into a glock reddit to look at some stuff for a thing I'm allegedly building, and Jesus berkeley those guys.....

Maybe it's just me, but is there a hobby left that isn't totally full of sad sacks and wanna be elitists? Even the disney people have gone insane. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Find hobbies where doesn't matter as much helps. But yeah, people suck.

That said, you're in FL right? My grandpa has been doing pinballs since the 50's and has a selection of machines over in Titusville for not-insane prices if you're looking for one. He does not like the new stuff, either. 

Every hobby is going to have shiny happy people.  I think a problem is the more obscure or formerly "nerdy" ones are the worst when it comes to gatekeepers.  Just need to look at comic books and video games for a great example of that.

Thing is, there's also a lot of great people in a lot of hobbies, just need to find them.  With the lockdown, so many people have had time to get into something new, and that also means a lot more are trying to profit off of them.  The great people are probably a bit more wary than usual.  Things should settle down eventually.

Edit:  Medieval Madness is one of the greatest pinball machines of all time.  Fight me.

In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :

I am in fl. I'm trying to buy a house right now so I have you know, room for a machine, but that could be very relevant to me. 

In reply to eastsideTim :

Mm is second. Afm is #1. A hill I am willing to die on. 

This has always happened, just people trying to carve out space in the pandemic to keep themselves fed, occupied or relevant. Pick any one of those. 

I have been into RC sailing for years and years. I do not compete even tough I could wipe the floor with the locals because they get very rule interpretation happy anytime someone new and under the age of 70 comes along and takes the win. So I just go off and do it on my own. I am happy and they can share the lake. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Eight Ball Deluxe was my jam in college. 

Mndsm said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

Mm is second. Afm is #1. A hill I am willing to die on. 

I have not played Attack From Mars enough to judge it, will have to dump some more money into it next time I get out and play.  

I promise I have other hobbies and talk about stuff other than guns.  I wrote a long rant but figured y'all'd heard enough from me and deleted it.

A kind of interesting observation, I got the '21 Blue Book last week, it's been available for < a month, and none of the prices reflects the current market.  I know the Blue Book isn't the end-all-be-all of pricing, but it's usually a decent guide.

The firearms market is nuckin futs, and doesn't seem to be letting up.

Two of the more accepting-to-newb hobbies that I've seen, that are both affordable: Golf and Fishing. Golf may surprise people, but it really is pretty affordable if you do a tiny bit of research. Stay off of the swanky courses and it is very accepting as well. 

Mndsm said:

Maybe it's just me, but is there a hobby left that isn't totally full of sad sacks and wanna be elitists?

Pretty much everybody I've met that's into home brewing is cool about it.

eastsideTim said:

Mndsm said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

Mm is second. Afm is #1. A hill I am willing to die on. 

I have not played Attack From Mars enough to judge it, will have to dump some more money into it next time I get out and play.  

It's mm with aliens. All comes down to theme for me. 

Homebrewing is a good one.

It depends a lot on where you're at, but skateboarding is a surprisingly welcoming group. I've gotten the same sense with the late-night roller rink crowd.

I've been getting into vinyl and high end stereo, and that's a weird mixed bag.

I hear amateur motorsports you can find the odd forum here or there that isn't completely filled with shiny happy people.

Lee said:

The firearms market is nuckin futs, and doesn't seem to be letting up.

Seriously if I could sell my 9mm stock I could make enough to but a car. I bouht something like 15K rounds for practice when it was 0.13c a round. I must have 5K in 223 as well that I will never use. I am sure I could do it in California with a FFL but man would it suck to do in little chunks. 

Ever meet the Rivet Police? Those berkeleyers killed plastic modeling and trains for me. Instead of welcoming a kid who's into aircraft  & armor, they whittle it down so you end up ashamed of a model you poured your heart into.

I recently rediscovered my love of model trains.  Specifically narrow gauge. Most everything is custom built or kit bashed. Even better is micro layouts. Because of the compact space requirements, you have to get creative.  Exaggerated almost comical trains, and structures prevail.  It's more laid back than any modeling I've ever seen.

I recently took a 50 foot HO gondola car and sliced and diced it to 2/3rds its width and only 20 scale feet in length.  I came out as an awesome HOn30 car because I wasn't afraid. It was a $3 junk Life-Like car that the Rivet Police would never touch. 

berkeley em. If I have to buy an orphan 4 door classic car to afford to play,  berkeley em. If I keep my FR-S relatively stock because that's what I can afford,  berkeley em. If I never get another vintage bike because UJMs are now priced to the moon, berkeley em, I'll ride the 200cc Murdercycle till the end of time.

I'm getting too old for this E36 M3.

Take up knitting.....easy to do and you can always donate stuff to charity for fun. 

Get a 3d resin printer, learn to make molds and models, drag SWMBO into the hobby.

The problem with so many hobbies is that you have to deal with people at all. 

ckosacranoid said:

Take up knitting.....easy to do and you can always donate stuff to charity for fun. 

Careful, my Grandmother used to knit socks for guys at the VA hospital.

She used some super slippery type of synthetic material...wonder if the Admins. at the VA ever figured why the broken hip rate went up 700%  

 I've seen the same problem with firearms, but thankfully I've just been listening to friends I've made through discord about them.

Anything that involves "Repurposing" or junkyarding tends to have a userbase that's super-open.

Beer Baron said:

I hear amateur motorsports you can find the odd forum here or there that isn't completely filled with shiny happy people.

Yeah but that GRM place is just fulla DICKS

In reply to Appleseed :

The problem with 4 doors is that shiny happy people would be like "nobody wants these, I'll give you $50 and part it out and demo derby the rest".

Which is why it's so much easier to find a convertible than a four door or wagon.

Skaters are generally a very welcoming crowd. I always found it to be good exercise and a very valid form of self expression as well as a way to be creative. Sadly I cannot do that anymore. At least not for a while. 
 

music? Poetry? Painting? Are you looking for a social hobby? Something solitary?

Wife has recently taken up needle felting, which I didn't know was even a thing. She makes some pretty cool stuff. 

Any sport that has essential equipment (motorsports, golf, fishing, biking, tennis) and so on are going to have equipment snobs. You know, the ones that have to have what the collective "best" equipment is, and they'll look down on anybody not using that level of stuff. They're the easiest people to ignore, especially if you're able to do better than them with the budget equipment. 

The firearms hobby has a lot of other baggage it's carrying around, too. It's also a *horrible* time to try and get into the hobby or stay very active in it. 

As for hobbies in general, the shiny happy people usually make the most noise- especially on the internet. If you stick with the hobby and meet the regular people, odds are good that their behavior and willingness to welcome people are going to be better. The trick with that is that you're going to have to put in the time on the local forums or in person to figure out who is worth hanging out with. 

 

barefootskater (Shaun) said:

Skaters are generally a very welcoming crowd. I always found it to be good exercise and a very valid form of self expression as well as a way to be creative. Sadly I cannot do that anymore. At least not for a while. 
 

music? Poetry? Painting? Are you looking for a social hobby? Something solitary?

Wife has recently taken up needle felting, which I didn't know was even a thing. She makes some pretty cool stuff. 

I'm not really sure. I'm just tired of everyone sucking. Makes fun not fun, you know? 

Appleseed said:

Ever meet the Rivet Police? Those berkeleyers killed plastic modeling and trains for me.

Preach, brother.  They killed any sort of organized or club based scale modeling for me as well.  I've purposedly avoided any sort of club based model railroading because I won't deal with those types again, ever.  

Geocaching? Amateur astronomy?