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That happens in every hobby. There was just a thread on Reddit about cheeky names for people who spend too much on gear. Apparently, mountain bikers call them 007s: 0 skills, 0 style, $7,000 bike.

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I think for coffee in particular the GP is missing that a lot of people are buying lattes every other day for 5$+. In a year that's +900$ which is definitely enough to get excellent gear.

My mignon grinder and rancilio silvia set me back 1000$, but I have been using them daily for 4 years to make lattes for my partner and I. That's over 2920 lattes at an average of 0.34$ each!

Sure, a bought latte every day is expensive. That doesn’t mean you have to chase the expense with your own spending

Are you ignoring the cost of coffee and milk? Even modestly priced coffee ($14/12oz) ends with each shot being roughly $0.75 in just ground coffee. No idea what milk costs for you since pricing can be so variable, but in actual raw components you can quickly get above $1 purely in cost of goods. Even easier if you're drinking expensive or special stuff. Expensive coffee truly can have raw material cost exceeding $4/cup, although it would be unusual to use that in a latte.

In photography it is a little less derogatory... GAS. Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

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