^So many great yo-yos at any price point. And, you raise a good point, that not only is there a great $10 yo-yo, there is variety within that $10 - $15 price point. I was throwing my Velocity today, and it amazed me that for $15, you just turn the dial and you have versatility with convenience. These days, there is variety at any price point. I think there is a price range to suit everyone in the hobby, and variety within each range. The beauty is, that even the kid who accumulates 7 cheap plastic yo-yos, can sell them as a lot on Ebay for $50 and buy a Shutter. I think with making smart trades along the way within the hobby, even a kid who does not have a lot of money can eventually get his hands on the better brands. Iāve seen reputable traders looking to unload more expensive metals, mint, for $45 on the BST. I think it is a hobby that has taken those with less financial means into great consideration.
Completely agree! Trading is so effective. But shipping costs bite u in the butt lol well added up over many trades.
I shall tell you about my experience, any opportunity is good to talk about myself :
I started throwing in March 2010. After 6 months, I tested my very first high-end throw, a YYR Sleipnir. It was love at the first throw. From then on, I bought EXCLUSIVELY YYR throws, and I didnāt have a job, only my scholarship (yeah, thatās a shame, in France we are paid to go to college). It went on for the next two and a half years. Only high-end japanese throws. I only got other throws thanks to trades.
But what I had in mind when I started yoyoing was to become the next HS, and since I first tried that Sleipnir, it was carved in my head that only the highest quality yoyos could bring me to the top.
But a few weeks ago, I realised that after 4 years, I hadnāt become what I wanted (yet). The best I did was 6th at French nats, worse, I saw people who started with me getting better than me (the most horrible thing for a competition-aholic like me). So I decided to get rid of all my metal throws, and a few days ago, I sold my very last throws (Echo, Vosun 2S, WYYC 2012 Phenom, MVP2 and FG Avalanche) for 75$, shipping included. Laughable, isnāt it?
And I decided that in 2014, I would only throw plastic yoyos. My current collection is: Phenomizm, Crazy-D, Diffusion, OneStar, Speedaholic, OG Speeder and I have an Addiction, an Alpha Crash and an Ifuji Diffusion coming in the mail. Iāve been throwing only plastics for 2 weeks now, and I admit that I enjoy throwing like Iāve never enjoyed since I started. Especially my Diffusion which, even if itās the biggest disappointment Iāve had this year (letās be honest, itās waaaaaay below what could be expected from a 2012 YYR plastic throw, especially at its price), is the one I throw the most, even if itās as vibey as an old beaten up Lyn Fury.
What was that for? Itās just to give you the point of view of somebody who disregarded almost everything produced the last 4 years that was not at least 150$ worth, retail price (even if I really couldnāt afford them), and who finally opened his eyes on the essence of yoyoing: fun.
This hobby is a small fee compared to other hobbies or sports. My other hobbies are collecting guns, and rally racing, and each are more expensive than the next. A $100 yoyo seems reasonable to be compared to a $6000 supercharger, or a $900 ar-15, before even ammo or fees for racing the car for 3 passes.
Itās not the $100 you have to think about. Look at how cheap string is and reliable the hobby is that you do not have those things that add up quick to make it expensive.
If I was a lot younger, I would not be able to have the luxury of the collection I have currently, but I would of not of played as many video games, and at $60 a pop, it turns up being more expensive.
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You donāt need a $100 plus yoyo to improve your skills. There are plenty of much cheaper yoyos available that work just fine.
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When most yoyos cost less than 50 cents, a house for a family of 4 cost maybe $15k-$20k max.
Try looking at it this way.
If you went to a movie you can realistically spend $15 for maybe two hours of entertainment. So then if you went to 10 movies, you would be out $150 for 20 hours of entertainment. How many hours can you get out of a YOYO? I canāt even count. Not a bad value if you look at it that way. For the same money as 10 movies you could have two, maybe three fantastic yoyos (or more) to keep forever!
I love yoyos, I love collecting them, I like spending money on them. But yeah one day I was looking at my 300$ bike and realized that there are some throws that are close to that amount really blew my mind. Probably like 50x the amount of aluminum went into to that bike plus all the other stuff. Itās pretty crazy.
My wife loves for the family to go to the movies. We go a lot. As Iām at the counter handing over that 60 dollars I think to myself " damn, that could have been a yoyo".
All the time when Iām buying food for me and my gf or something that I didnāt really wanna buy I always think about what yoyo I couldāve bought lol
Yoyos are only expensive if you donāt have a job and try to collect every single new release. In contrary, guitars are quite a bit more expensive, and good ones tend to cost upward of $700 per guitar. There is also a lot more maintenance work involved in a guitar. Good cables cost $15+ a pop, and Tube amps cost upwards of $600, with 100w amps generally costing about $1500 for the head alone. You also need a speaker cabinet for that. When you compare that to yoyos, it is very easily many times more expensive.
When I was younger the only thing I spent my money on was console video games and trading card games. Video games are substantially more expensive assuming you finish games relatively quickly and TCGs are about on par with ānormalā yoyo purchasing if youāre playing the TCG at least somewhat competitively. Of course itās quite subjective. As I said in my initial post, you can spend $100 one time on yoyos and have a great throw along with a tube of silicone and a mountain of string, you can get near endless enjoyment out of a monthly fee for an MMO and you can build enjoyable extreme budget decks to play casually with friends in TCGs. Or you can buy every CLYW release, every new console when itās released and build top tier decks with all the bling money cards.
As I grow older, the vast majority of my spending is related to social interactions and living expenses. I eat 90%+ of my meals at home and they probably cost $5 each to prepare. A completely boring run of the mill meal out is $20-40, they add up to a few yoyos really fast! The two most expensive yoyos Iāve purchased were $360 and $500 whereas Iāve paid more $300-1000+ dinner bills than I care to remember. I love the social aspect of fine dining with friends or girlfriends but it can add up quickly and there is no tangible object left over after the meal, unlike yoyos which you can continue to enjoy. As much as I want to cut down on my yoyo spending, itās not because itās āexpensiveā so much as thereās simply no need to acquire so many when Iām much more aware of what I look for in a yoyo and if I wise up just a little bit in all of my spending endeavors, Iāll have a much healthier cushion as the years go on.
tl;dr: āexpensiveā is very subjective. That said, yoyos are an extremely inexpensive hobby relative to just about everything else.
The most I ever spent on yoyos (yes, not one, but 4 yoyos, string and other stuff) was $55 shipped. It was a sale to.
And now I am chilling with a G2 Triton, a CLYW Chief, a Strix, Rally, Speedaholic, Alpha Crash, the list goes onā¦
I have been lucky to get small free things, and never giving up to trade that cheap thing for something else.
It went from a FHZ-Code 2ā¦
And my cheif? I got a amazing deal from my friend Logi, 4-5 yoyos for $47. Ended up trading 2 for an Arctic Circle-Cheif.
Also, I have given away some nice yoyos, a Dibase to name oneā¦
Why, when I was a kid a Duncan Imperial and Butterfly cost $1 each and strings where (I think) 5 for a dime. Of course that was before the minimum wage started and a kids allowance was between 10 and 25 cents. Wow, a dollar? that was expensive!
What oops said. I sit there thinking āI really shouldnāt spend any more money on yoyosā, and the next thing I know Iām shelling out:
$300 on car repairs so it can pass its MOT
$65 for a full tank āoā gas
$80 on dinner out with mates
Within the space of one day. Donāt get me wrong, money isnāt tight (otherwise Iād be way more thrifty) but a lot of these annoying necessary expenses are where the dent to your paycheque really goes, not a couple of $100 yoyos here and there.
Compared to everyday living expenses (rent, food, bills, car), the price of a yoyo really isnāt that much. Just wait until you have to insure your first carā¦
I agree, In the grand scheme of things, yo-yos are the least of my budget. I have to ask Donāt you guys in the UK insure the car for the entire year upfront or something? We have the option to do it here, but I believe most people pay monthly. :-\
Yep. My first years insurance on my 1.3 Ford Fiesta (USA! USA!) was roughly $3000 up front. No wonder so many people dodge insuring their carsā¦ that much money when youāre 19 is a serious chunk. 
A lot of people do it monthly, but I think it works out cheaper if you do it for the year.
Yo-yoās are quite expensive but worth it. I mean iāve gone thru a few cheap Yomegaās and a few old duncans. The most Iāve ever spent was $135 and that was getting the new Bonfire. Yes it seems like a lot of money. It is. A yo-yo is a toy but more of a hobby.
I look at it this way. I can pay $135 for an amazing yo-yo. Play for more than a few years whenever and where ever you want.
Or you can pay $550 for an xbox one. plus $50 to play xbox online for a year and 1 game that will soon be outdated and nobody will play it anymore. Then you can only play it at home and most of the time the average person spends there summers outdoors when not working.
Thatās just my opinion.
There are two different hobbies here:
- Yoyoing
- Collecting Yoyos.
Many people do both. Some people do one or the other.
Yoyoing doesnāt have to be expensive. There are plenty of excellent cheap yoyos. Get the Yoyojam Surge if you are on a budget. Itās an excellent throw.
If you have a little more money, get a Rally. Best metal/plastic hybridā¦ period.
These yoyos will get you by. There are plenty others out there if these donāt fit your style.
Collecting yoyos doesnāt have to be expensive if you stick to cheap yoyos.
Once you start getting into collecting metals, watch out! That can really eat up your salary if you donāt set a budget.
My recommendation is if you must have a metal, try a few out first and then stick with it until itās destroyed. You really donāt need another. My first metal, the Big Brother Juvenille Offender is all I ever needed, even though Iāve purchased tons of CLYW, One Drops, General-Yos, G-Squareds, etcā¦
I work for a manufacturing company that makes equipment for the oil and gas industry. We make (machine) a lot of our own equipment, and many components are comparable in size to a yoyo. I can tell you without a doubt that if we made a yoyo, itās list price would give a yoyo buyer a heart attack. Obviously we have more overhead than yoyo manufacturers, but there is so much that goes into the manufacturing process of any precision machined piece of metal that most people donāt understand. If you look at a metal yoyo as a general toy, yes, it is expensive. The reality is that while it is a toy, is also a precisely manufactured tool. A tool with relatively low demand. While this might sound a little over the top, it explains the cost perfectly. What most companies charge for yoyos is completely justifiable. To get a great playing metal for $60? Thatās a steal if you ask me. Just my 2 cents
Amazingly inaccurate view of object value/cost in relationship to consideration of cummulative process in getting Final Yoyo product to Consumer.
Unrealistic and shallow depth of understanding in differentiating what things: could cost, would cost and should cost, in direct relationship to performance/price resulting from all aspects of product design, development, packaging, marketing, markups as products move through system and finally get into your hands.
ā¦ āSmall metal objectsā are, small metal objects. Yoyos are not simply small metal objects. Good yoyos are functional and purposeful objects. And attempting to devalue their worth by describing them in simplistically innacurate ways, is an unfounded untruth.
Opinions are fine, but drawing conclusions based on lack of knowledge, is pointless.
Yoyos may seem expensive in relationship to your ability or willingness to afford them. But in relationship to the steps it takes to get yoyos into the final package, ready to sell, they are a Deal by any measure, compared to many other equipment based endeavors.
ā¦ Or something like thatā¦ Yup