Is it money well spent is an interesting question.

For example if you take a modern console game about 70 pounds. Lets say you play that for a week 35 hour and complete it well the value is around 2 pounds an hour. Which depending on how you view life is pretty cheap. That is perhaps an extreme example as most games like fifa people spend 20 odd hours a week for 12 months.

If you apply that to this hobby. You have the building of a mini, then priming and painting. Even if that is not fun for you it is still for most part of the hobby. So lets say 10 space marines is 30 pounds, that is 3 pounds a model. Each model takes 7 hours from build to finish painting that is 42 pence an hour.

Then the best part is you get to play with in a game and they last for ever. I have a metal eldar army over 30 years old which I can still use to. The cost of the models vs the value I have had of them so far and way beyond that hopefully into the future.

So as Rickabod41 suggest 1,000 might seem a lot of money but if you value that over the countless hours you get from the hobby are you getting value for money. Yes certainly so.

Perhaps that explains why people are more willing to spend a little extra because you are not buying something that is consumed and lost. How much money do we spend on a night out and consider the value of that evenings cost which is often a fleeting moment. ?

I always look a hobby as the way same people drink or smoke or have takeaway food, even TV sky sports, football tickets. These days  I would rather spend 50 pounds on more models than going out getting drunk on a Friday. Largely because I cannot cope with 2 day hangovers and having no weekends. Models seem to win but not every week.

A lot worse ways of spending money than buying models from GW I guess is the answer. I dont think you can question if we get value from the models it is certainly a case of yes we do.