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Is Geocaching possibly the most expensive sport/hobby to get into


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Used is always a cheap way to go... but look at SCUBA diving (and I love that one). Or photography, another one I love. Better, combine them into underwater photography! Now if you want to be really expensive, try underwater videography! Now add kayaks or a boat to get you where you are going!

It's really easy to spend money, especially being married to gear man.

 

But it's all what's in the bank and it's all fun!

 

;)

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Are you kidding me! Geocaching has to be one of the least expensive hobbies around. You need a GPSr for minimally $100. That's really it. One could enjoy geocaching with just that. I did my first few hundred caches with just that. Of course there are several things you could get to make it easier, such as a premium subscription to GC.com, software like GSAK and perhaps a PALM. A few months ago I made the switch to paperless caching with a used PALM that I bought off of EBAY for around $20. Compare that to equipment and membership fees for any other sport or recreation. Golf, boating, flying, RC vehicles, photography, backpacking, softball. All these cost much more than geocaching. Let's take my other favorite activity running. A pair of good running shoes cost about $100. I get less than 6 months of milage out of a pair of shoes. Entry fees into a race can run from $20 to $100 depending on the distance run. 5K races are usually about $25 and marathons are about $75 these days. Enter several races a year, like I do, and even running is more than geocaching. Don't give me the argument about needing a computer or car for geocaching. Those are secondary items that you already have. I have never heard of a person buying a computer or car only for geocaching. Using that logic are you going to include the cost of your clothes and food you eat while geocaching? Face it, geocaching is one of the cheapest recreations you can have.

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Of all the hobbies I have ever done, geocaching is the cheapest. Here are some I haven't seen mentioned yet. I'm a railroad nut. In May I drove 660 miles to attend the annual meet of a railroad historical society that I'm a member of (the meet is in a different city each year). Four nights in hotels, 1400 miles worth of gas, food, and meet fee = $700. By the way, I did some geocaching on this trip also - the cheap part of the trip!

 

Now about model railroading: I have several locomotive models in the $100 to $150 range and several a bit less. It is possible to spend maybe $3,000 for a hand-built brass locomotive model (I don't have any of those). Throw in many RR cars and a layout to run it all on. I estimate I may have around $4,000 total in all my model RR stuff.

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Garsh!

 

GCing is the CHEAPEST of my hobbies!

 

Shooting sports, expensive

Woodworking, expensive

Home-ownership (Is that a hobby :D ), ex-pensive

 

I like to cache because it costs me nothing since I already had a GPSr I bought for something else and I already had a car and boots. All I need to spend is on gas maybe a snack on the way home.

 

Its really really nice to have a hobby that doesn't keep on costing!

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My other hobby is roller derby, and it's a LOT more expensive:

 

skates ($100 for a decent pair, $300+ for a pair that will last you awhile)

pads and helmet (again, $100 if you want them to be sturdy)

 

Plus team dues, uniforms, insurance, etc. My caching habit is a lot cheaper than my crashing-into-girls-on-a-rink habit, for sure. :laughing:

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I think that Geocaching is possibly one of the most expensive sports to get into i think, next to paintball at least

 

- You need a GPS (at least a $100 one) plus if your serious you can spend up to $500

 

- Paper and ink or a palm pilot

 

- Lots and Lots of gas

 

- A car if you dont allready have one (I myself am hurrying up on buying one cause im tired of borrowing)

 

- Goodies

 

- Materials and things to create your own caches

 

 

Sorry, but Geocaching does not even come close to the cost of some other hobbies such as skiing, golf, photography, etc.

 

It is not cheap, but all you really need is a GPSr. You need a car or transportation for almost every other hobby, and you don't need a Palm Pilot for Geocaching.

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Not even remotely close. To start geocaching, I didn't have to spend a dime because I already had everything I needed...because I bought the equipment for other hobbies (hiking, mountain biking, canoeing). I have probably $3000 invested in mountain biking gear, $1500-2500 in hiking gear, and $1500 in canoeing gear (though that will increase over the winter as I outfit my new -to me- canoe). I think I've got about $100 invested in geocaching (caching software, TB stuff, and cache supplies).

 

And overall, I've done my hobbies relatively inexpensively. I bought a used canoe. Very little of my hiking gear was purchased anywhere close to retail (I worked in outdoor retail for a number of years and became familiar with employee discounts and pro deals, so my gear is probably worth over $3k new), and my mountain bike, while nice, cost me $1600 new plus the cost of some upgrades in the 4.5 years I've owned it. I've seen $10,000 bicycles, people with entire rooms with shelves full of hiking and camping equipment, and $5,000 paddlecraft (along with $300 paddles).

 

And all that even is still not that expensive when you compare it to the aforementioned sailing and flying hobbies. A hobby involving classic cars or refurbishing/modding cars is also a pretty capital-intensive hobby.

 

Still, geocaching is more expensive than some hobbies. I'm trying my hand at craft brewing, and the initial cost of the equipment I need to produce mead is going to cost me in the vicinity of $60-$70. Afterwards, the only expense I'll have will be ingredients. Not bad, on the whole.

 

My parents' hobbies include motorcycles, boating, SCUBA, and photography. My dad enjoys underwater photography. They've got close to $20k each invested into his boat and motorcycle, about $5k currently invested in SCUBA gear (he only just started into it 2yrs ago), and another $5k invested into photography equipment (including a fairly inexpensive kit for underwater photography, digi SLR, color laser printer, laminator, lighting, lenses). Oh yeah, and my parents had to buy a vehicle specifically to tow the boat (and haul the people they're going boating with), so they had to buy an SUV rather than a car.

 

Nope, geocaching is a pretty cheap hobby.

Edited by mtbikernate
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Nooooo.

 

I mean, a little.

 

But ... try amateur radio. I do not do this, but my husband does, and I could just about take out a second job for that. :laughing:

 

I keep convincing myself that really, geocaching only cost me what I spent on my GPS units and swag. I have conciously figured out the gas $$, or I would go instantly insane.

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Not all that expensive when compared to other activities. I initially used my GPSr for bush walking & then discovered geocaching. However it can turn out expensive once you get away from urban areas. Here in OZ it is nothing to travel 300Ks (180 miles) & find all 3 caches you were looking for. In October I'm off to the Coolah Tops get to-gether & along the way will be looking for caches relatively close to my route. After the event I'm heading up to Toowoomba & then out west (the Outback) before heading home via Lightning Ridge. In all some 3200Ks & only 92 caches on my list. I own a UAV (Urban Assault Vehicle) ie a 4WD. Diesel is anywhere between $1.30 a litre to $2.00 per litre (4.5 litres per gallon). However I get to see some great country, meet new people, travel on bush tracks & camp in remote locations.

 

BTW - given you had a War of Independence how come you still use Imperial measurements?

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wow... this is my most inexpensive hobby..... biking, scuba diving, shooting, and photography have cost me way more money than geocaching. scuba diving being the most expensive... drysuit $1500.00 AND THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE THE "UNDERGARMENT" or the regs tanks mask or any of the other eqipment needed. Yeppers geocaching is cheap in comparison!

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Compare the costs to golfing. Price a decent set of golf clubs. They make any GPS look cheap. Then in San Diego you are going to pay $50-$100 each time you play a round. Then you still have to drive to whatever course you are going to play. Finally you need to practice so add more gas and a few $7 buckets of balls to the cost each week. Finally speaking of balls, if you are a hack like used to me, add buying new balls into the mix. So geocaching is a very cheap activity. :laughing:

 

When my husband whines about my $3 a month for my geocaching subscription or my spending $20 or so on swag, I like to remind him that his golf membership costs hundreds of dollars a year, he spends hundreds more on cart fees and greens/cart fees at other courses, and his balls/tees/gloves alone cost more than I spend on caching in a year...not to mention what his club set and all those new clubs he just has to have cost.

 

You can let caching suck you in and end up spending quite a bit of money on it, but you'd have to be one of the spendingest cachers out there to compete with what a golf fanatic spends.

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Compare the costs to golfing. Price a decent set of golf clubs. They make any GPS look cheap. Then in San Diego you are going to pay $50-$100 each time you play a round. Then you still have to drive to whatever course you are going to play. Finally you need to practice so add more gas and a few $7 buckets of balls to the cost each week. Finally speaking of balls, if you are a hack like used to me, add buying new balls into the mix. So geocaching is a very cheap activity. :laughing:

 

When my husband whines about my $3 a month for my geocaching subscription or my spending $20 or so on swag, I like to remind him that his golf membership costs hundreds of dollars a year, he spends hundreds more on cart fees and greens/cart fees at other courses, and his balls/tees/gloves alone cost more than I spend on caching in a year...not to mention what his club set and all those new clubs he just has to have cost.

 

You can let caching suck you in and end up spending quite a bit of money on it, but you'd have to be one of the spendingest cachers out there to compete with what a golf fanatic spends.

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I think that Geocaching is possibly one of the most expensive sports to get into i think, next to paintball at least

 

Surley this is a troll post..... I just made the comment the other day that I was so happy that geocaching was such an economical activity. ALL of my other hobbies are WAY more expensive: boxing, motorcycles, snowboarding, powerlifting...... Geocaching is definately the CHEAPEST hobby that you could ever get into!!

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Not all that expensive when compared to other activities. I initially used my GPSr for bush walking & then discovered geocaching. However it can turn out expensive once you get away from urban areas. Here in OZ it is nothing to travel 300Ks (180 miles) & find all 3 caches you were looking for. In October I'm off to the Coolah Tops get to-gether & along the way will be looking for caches relatively close to my route. After the event I'm heading up to Toowoomba & then out west (the Outback) before heading home via Lightning Ridge. In all some 3200Ks & only 92 caches on my list. I own a UAV (Urban Assault Vehicle) ie a 4WD. Diesel is anywhere between $1.30 a litre to $2.00 per litre (4.5 litres per gallon). However I get to see some great country, meet new people, travel on bush tracks & camp in remote locations.

 

BTW - given you had a War of Independence how come you still use Imperial measurements?

Kept the language, didn't we? 'sides, the measurements weren't created by the Dark Empire...hands are a much better way to measure a horse. Why do you spell 'litres' like the french? I'm just saying.

Edited by Uberquandary
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I used to fly 2 or 3 times a week when gas was cheap and airport/airspace security wasn't as much of a show stopper. After 9/11, I started motorcycling more and flying less. I've had a GPS since the early 90's, but only got geohooked in the last year. My biggest cost is the gas/mileage that I wouldn't have racked up if I weren't out looking for camo. Now, motocaching (geocaching via motorcycle)... there's a fun weekend! A few bucks for gas and swag, but still cheaper than $90/hr for a Cessna rental!

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Well for me skydiving was and still is an expensive to get into and still do

Initial training: about 1200 bucks (to get to self supervision)

gear:(about 2500-3000)

jumps: are range from 10-24 CAN dollars

after 200+ jumps it starts to add up :sad:

 

The main thing for geocaching for me is gas. I live in a rural area so find caches nearby is hard to come by 60 within 50 miles. So now I have to drive upwards 100 miles to go caching. :)

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I think that Geocaching is possibly one of the most expensive sports to get into i think, next to paintball at least

 

- You need a GPS (at least a $100 one) plus if your serious you can spend up to $500

- Paper and ink or a palm pilot

- Lots and Lots of gas

- A car if you dont allready have one (I myself am hurrying up on buying one cause im tired of borrowing)

- Goodies

- Materials and things to create your own caches

- Etc Etc.

 

Im not complaining I gladly spend the money but would you agree that Geocaching is probably the most expensive sport to get into?

 

Try hang gliding:

 

My new Wills Wing Sport 2 starts at $4375

High Energy Harness: $750

Reserve parachute: $550

Full Face Helmet: $200

Ram 2500 MegaCab 4x4: $45,000

Lumber rack to carry a 16 foot glider: $600

Lessons so you don't go splat: $1000 (could be more or less depending on how fast you learn)

 

Ok, I already had the MegaCab, but all the other stuff is a must!

Edited by GPS_Runner
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I play golf and Geocaching is slightly cheaper than green fees and equipment. I can tell you that both golf and Geocaching are far (I MEAN FAR) less expensive than paintball. My wife and I not only played rec. ball, we played tourneys. It is nothing for me shoot a case or case and a half of paint at an event, by myself. Using the event paint was about $80 a case, entrance fee would be at least $20 a person, my marker was expensive, but my wife shot an Angel ($1000 plus), with a Halo loader ($100 plus) and a compressed tank ($200). With barrel upgrades, and the constant cost of air fills and paint for practice, the other equipment (mask, pods, pod packs) paintball is one of the most expensive hobbies out there.

 

A friend who used to play paint ball with me introduced me to Geocaching. I have found a couple of caches made from old paintball pods. It appears Geocaching has ruined a few paintballers.

 

However, since my tax dollars have already paid for the billions of dollars worth of satellites, it would be financial folly for me not to spend an extra $200 so I can enjoy them.

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Ha Ha Ha

 

Next to Disk Golf my time spent vs Dollars spent ratio in Caching is less that $2 per hour After only a couple months and I don't have much else to buy really. Unless I start collecting those coins... The only hobby activity I do that has a lower time/$$ ratio is Disk Golf. A few years ago I was playing computer games online and that worked it's way down to pennys per hour but that was way to much time gaming...

 

One of my other hobbies truely is costly. High Power Rocketry. My latest Rocket cost $1800 and took 200 hours to build. The related components that I already had in order to use this rocket probably cost another $1500 all together. And then the last time I flew it the fuel cost $400 and that was a good deal. Total flight time 1 minute 29 seconds. Hows that for a cost/hr! Of course just one High Power Rocket isn't anywhere near enough. I've spent $200 a year just on little rockets! And then there are the travel expenses......

 

My wife has a couple horses. That's expensive but more in time than money really.

 

A couple months ago I told my wife I'd like to try this geocaching thing. She said , "Oh yea? What does that cost?" I said, "well I think I'd need to spend about $400 all totalled in GPS, and Maps." She said. "That all? Your full of BS right?"

 

Over-all I see caching as a very healthy and easy on the budget hobby. My 8 year old likes to tag along and to me that's priceless.

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I think that Geocaching is possibly one of the most expensive sports to get into i think, next to paintball at least

 

(stuff deleted)

 

Im not complaining I gladly spend the money but would you agree that Geocaching is probably the most expensive sport to get into?

 

Nahhh, not at all. Try SCUBA diving . . .

 

$70-140 - Mask and Snorkel

$100-800 - Wet Suit

$40-100 - Fins

$200-900 - Boyancy Compensator

$450-900 - Tank and Regulator

$50-100 - Weight Belt

$60-200Gear Bag

$370-1250 - Guages, Dive Computer, Knife, Light

Of course, there's classes to get started and trips to someplace warm, like Cancun, etc. etc. :)

 

Or try hunting, fishing,

 

Geocaching is pretty inexpensive!

 

JohnTee

 

My vote is with John, Geocaching costs far less then my diving habit. The good thing is once I am at my diving spot I can look for nearby caches too. I am going to Aruba next year for diving, but there are also 15 or so caches there. Now I doubt I would fly to Aruba for caching, but it will be a nice bonus while I am there.

 

Also for the record the numbers he quoted are conservative, the costs an go much higher. Geocaching is a bargain by comparison even with the cost of gas.

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Now, I have to say that geocaching is the most expensive hobby we've come across, timewise that is.

 

We love doing it so much, that we spend the only thing in life that is worth anything, time, on it like we're drunken sailors.

 

Best part tho, is that S and I do it together. The most funnest thing we do, vertical or otherwise!

 

- T of TandS

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Why do you spell 'litres' like the french? I'm just saying.

That's also the English spelling.

They spell it like the french.

 

"litre" is the most common spelling, even in the anglo-saxon world but true the US spelling is liter, same for "metre" which is spelled "meter" in the US.

 

Note that metric units which are not derived from a person name like Ampere, Volt, Tesla do not start with a capital letter.

 

Fortunately the values are the same, not like the US "gallon" and the Brit "gallon" which spell the same BUT are NOT the same, not to mention the various "grain" "once" and even the "inch", not the same between US and UK (not a lot, a few microns but enough to pose problems when you started to need accurate parts like ball bearings, it is why they defined the inch according to metric units in the late fifties and got rid of it in the seventies)

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Why do you spell 'litres' like the french? I'm just saying.

That's also the English spelling.

They spell it like the french.

 

"litre" is the most common spelling, even in the anglo-saxon world but true the US spelling is liter, same for "metre" which is spelled "meter" in the US.

One more and I'm done being so off topic...

In French, 'litre', 'theatre' (with that pesky accent :D ), 'metre' etc. are phonetic. In English, that spelling isn't phonetic. They borrowed it from the French.

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Scuba was my bank buster. My wife and i are both divers. I got tired of renting gear and dumped some major $$ to get our own stuff. Then, of course, there are the weekends at the ocean, the dive boat charters, the food, the tank fills, the trips to the caribbean, etc.... Geocaching is cheap compared to many of my other hobbies. Once you get your GPSr and a reliable computer connection, it is basically just time and gas.

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For all of you that have said boating is an expensive hobby....you are correct. But, I would rather spend my money on boating, than spend it on gas for geocaching (no offense). When I ask the kids, "hey, lets go geocaching", they will say no. We have done that and it's not fun anymore. But if I say "hey, let's get the boat out", they will ask when we are leaving. In the summer, geocaching falls to the wayside for us. We are a boating family. We love it and our kids love it...WAY more than geocaching. Is geocaching inexpensive? It depends on how much you put into it. If you geocache 24/7, you are likely to spend as much money as we do boating. To each his own. I personally like to spend my money on a sport that my children enjoy. Check out our profile. You can see.

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Geocaching is the cheapest hobby I participate in! All you need is a £100 GPSr and access to the internet.

 

I also do a motorsport called banger racing, it's similar to demolition derby, for this I rent commercial yard space at £125 a month, and have about £1000 worth of kit including tools, welding equipment, trailer, safety gear etc etc. Then add the price of getting hold of scrap cars to build into race cars (I get through one car per race meeting, I'll maybe get my money back on the car when I scrap it at the metal recyclers if I'm lucky).

This season I'm going to use a Range Rover 4x4 to tow with, that's another vehicle to tax and insure alongside my everyday car.

 

...and banger racing is often advertised as the cheapest form of motorsport that is accessible to everyone!

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dont know bout more expesive than my other hobby but it sure is less strenuous..my other hobby is swimmin fer trout..them critters is purdy fast in the water..i useta hunt savage injuns here in PA. but i got most of em and the huntins dried up..mostly juss swimmin fer trout n geocahin now....now all you trout activists dont go gettin yer back up..when i swims fer em i always give em a 10 yrd head start juss ta make it fair....

Edited by team lagonda
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I know it's been said before, but I'll say it again.

 

SCUBA.

 

I have about $10,000 in gear in one very small corner of my garage. I don't even have a dry suit or rebreather. Drysuits cost several thousand, HID lights $600-$2000, rebreathers, $3-6000.

 

Thats just basic diving. Working into deep, technical wreck diving. That's about another 10K including helium. UW photo/video is easily another 10K.

 

On top of all that, I live in OK. It's a 4 hour, one way drive to the nearest divable water.

 

Naw, this geocaching is the cheapest thing I got!

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Just like most hobbies, you can get by on the cheap, spend as much as you can afford or go whole hog! It depends on you. I've been in several different things (ham radio, show dogs, photography, computers, etc.) and caching is probably the least expensive of them. Any hobby involving animals in some competition can get out of hand quickly. My sister started skeet shooting a couple of years ago and the fees for shooting, club membership, traveling to competitions (not to mention the cost of the gun, shot, seminars, bling for the gun and the new rare wood stock she's lusting after) got into the thousands quickly. I've started this late in life and my husband isn't interested at all, unlike our prior hobbies, so I'll probably never spend a lot on the hobby nor travel to exotic places to cache. However, as long as I'm interested in it, there will, hopefully, always be caches within the areas that we do travel to with the RV and that I can access for as long as the body and mind hold up!

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I know I'm being redundant but geocaching has to be one of the cheapest hobbies I've EVER had.

 

You spend a ton more just going to the MOVIES than you do in the same amount of time geocaching! (Considering one goes geocaching more than once and doesn't invest in GPS just to go out one time.)

 

As mentioned previously, I am also into scuba and photography and I dabble in other things as well.

 

Geocaching is WAY cheaper than those hobbies and I have the GPS, the PDA and the telescopic hiking stick and gear bag. I even bought a patch and a few stickers. Heck. I'm almost official!

 

:sad:

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well i you figer the gps,4 wheel drive,the computer,the preium membership,gasoline aka liquid gold,the computer monthly payment,time lost galavantin all over the woods..i guess its kind of pricey....oh,theres the fortune in ammo cans,swag,travelel bugs that get lost also....it aint like grabbing a cane pole n some worms an walk down to the local fishin hole,no....

Edited by team lagonda
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well i you figer the gps,4 wheel drive,the computer,the premium membership,gasoline aka liquid gold,the computer monthly payment,time lost galavantin all over the woods..i guess its kind of pricey....oh,theres the fortune in ammo cans,swag,travelel bugs that get lost also....it aint like grabbing a cane pole n some worms an walk down to the local fishin hole,no....

 

I am guessing the majority of people into geocaching already have the vehicle, already purchase gas, already have a computer, and already have an ISP. That leaves the membership ($3.00 a month OPTIONAL), the GPS (less than a hundred bucks or more if you want), and the ammo cans, tupperware TB's, whatever...OPTIONAL at your leisure).

 

Just a show of hands in case I'm wrong...has anyone actually gone out and bought a car or a desktop or laptop computer (and didn't already have one) or hooked up with an ISP just for geocaching?

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