What are the Most Expensive Hobbies in the World?

Trust us when we say that playing online casino games is probably the least expensive pastime you can enjoy!  We quite often hear the words ‘you should get a hobby’ if someone feels we have too much time on our hands – yet some hobbies come at a great financial cost.

Hobbies that Rank as Some of the Most Expensive

Although the list is extensive, including hobbies such as rail transport modelling, trap shooting and sneaker collecting – and more obvious ones like golfing, skydiving, scuba diving and art and vintage car colleting – let’s look at a few others that top the list.  Some are not necessarily the costliest... but they do make us go ‘what?!’

Cosplay

Online casino games with fantastic themes are part of the parcel at Springbok Casino and our players can enjoy an immersive experience on their phones or PCs.  Let’s start with the obvious question – what is cosplay?  It is essentially the practice as dressing up as a character from a film, book or video game.

That doesn’t sound too expensive, right?  Well, depending on how serious the cosplayer takes it, it can be a very costly affair.  The initial cost comes with, you guessed it, the elaborate costumes.  There are actual custom cosplay designers and the craftmanship that goes into a single getup can be anything from $500 up to $1000 – or more.

The reason for the exorbitant price tag is accuracy, materials – and more often than not, the props that go with each outfit.  If you want to outplay your fellow cosplayers at a cosplay event, you want to get it spot-on… and make no mistake, serious fans take it as seriously as it gets!

Although each to their own, we do recommend checking out our fantasy, sci-fi and literary-themed online casino games.  The difference between cosplay and playing slots at Springbok Casino is that you actually have a fair chance of turning a profit – rather than just turning heads!

Drone Racing

As you’ll find with many of the hobbies on our list, some people don’t only enjoy these for entertainment purposes – but also as competitive sport or careers, and high-paying ones at that.  Drone racing is no exception.  What do you need to get going as a hobbyist or a professional drone racer?  For starters, a drone…

The cost for professional drones suited for racing hover anywhere between $1000 to $10,000 and upwards.  Many of the drones are custom-built – and that drives the price up even further.  Here’s the thing though… go pro or make it a career, and you can legit sustain yourself off the returns.

Professional sports league drone racers are now getting contracts in the region of $100,000.  Should you go the freelance drone pilot route, you can make a lot of money, provided you gain momentum in a fairly saturated market.  Get the job and do it right and you could earn between $800 and $1200 – per day.

What’s even more interesting is that – as with playing online casino games – you don’t even have to leave your house to turn a tidy profit.  There are online drone flight simulation contests where one winner took home $75,000!

Record Collecting

There has been a massive revival of LPs since the late 90s and many famous musicians are ditching conventional CD production altogether and producing vinyl records alongside their digital releases instead.  The price of an LP has now surpassed that of a CD with a 490% increase between 2007 and 2017.

For a newly released vinyl, you’re looking at around $30 – to round it off.  Still, the real value lies in the vintage or the rare records, which are now considered highly praised collectors’ items.  That said, you can hop onto eBay or the likes and easily sell any vinyl for between $100 and $1000 or more.  Old does not necessarily mean gold in this instance though…

The most expensive vinyl ever to be sold was “Wu-Tang Clan: Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”, fetching $2 million in 2015.  This was the only copy ever produced that same year.  The album comes with an interesting backstory though…  It stipulates that “the buyer may not attempt to sell or make money from the record for 100 years” – along with a few other things.

In a twist of events, the buyer turned out to be Martin Shkreli, the controversial CEO of Turning Pharmaceuticals.  Since the sale, Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and the LP was confiscated by the Feds – rumour has it that it is still in their possession.  The best part of the story is the legally binding clause that Wu-Tang included in the contract, which reads as follows:

“The buying party also agrees that at any time during the stipulated 88-year period, the seller may legally plan and attempt to execute one (1) heist or caper to steal back Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which, if successful, would return all ownership rights to the seller.  Said heist or caper can only be undertaken by currently active members of the Wu-Tang Clan and/or actor Bill Murray, with no legal repercussions”.  Now, if that’s not hysterical, we don’t know what is!

Other far less controversial record-breaking record sales include the first copy of “The Beatles: The Beatles (White Album)” bearing the serial number 0000001, which The Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr kept.  He went on to sell it in December 2015 for a whopping $790,000.  Elvis’s “My Happiness” sold for $300,000.

Poker

Last on our list of expensive hobbies is poker.  If you play at Springbok Casino and choose one of our regular poker variants from our online casino games menu, you should be able to stretch your bankroll with our flexible betting options.  When it comes to high-stakes poker though, you need guts – and a bank account to back it up – as a typical stake exceeds $1000.

With an average of 25 hands played per hour, it can be the quickest way to envision your assets evaporate.  As with drone racing, however, the ante is upped once you go pro.  In fact, professional high stakes poker players earn between $500,000 and $10 million or more per annum.  To consistently maintain this, you need to truly be the best!

Stick with Online Casino Games – A Budget Friendly Hobby in Rands and Cents!

At Springbok Casino we offer a vast collection of online casino games.  They might not be collectors’ items but they’re sure to bring you endless hours of entertainment.  If you’re a poker hobbyist, head over to our Table Games menu and try your hand at Caribbean Draw, Caribbean Hold’Em and Caribbean Stud Pokers.  They all come with an additional progressive jackpot of more than a half a million bucks!