I’v been looking into starting a private VEX IQ team and was wondering roughly how much you guys think it would cost.
I already own my own field and pneumatic’s so that can be deducted.
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Kits start at 250$. And, I know you said this was private, but team registration is 100-150$, and a competition is around 70$
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Your most expensive setback will be the competition starting kit, which comes from here. This will set you back about $680 USD.
Also, you may also want to get a field case to help with transportation. This will set you back about $31 USD as well.
If you prefer to use physical notebooks, instead of digital, maybe also buy the notebooks, which cost about $12 USD for a 5-pack.
All this totals out to about $723 USD.
And, as @CasualSide stated, registration and competitions also cost money.
Hope this helps!
-Echo
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You will need workSPACE, a room/garage/workshop/etc dedicated to this.
work table
storage boxes/shelves/etc
MANY extra iq parts (long 1x beams, odd length beams, corner connectors, etc)
spare kit for you can prototype a new design w/o tearing down your working bot
computer for programming
just to be clear, I’m talking about prices to have plentiful of pieces where I won’t really need to worry about parts.
I’d say if you want to save on costs, ask a local school if you could register a team under their pre-existing organization. It’s what Riley and Oscar of 15X did last year. It’s not saving much, but maybe around 50 bucks for registering a team.
wdym? Could you elaborate on that?
I believe that it costs money to seperately create an organization, and 15X was established under Riley and Oscar’s old elementary school if I am not mistaken.
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That is correct. We established it that way for both the team number and the price savings.
Yeah not gonna lie, the team number was fire 
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We started a private team this year (local elementary school didn’t have one when we moved here and my son wanted to continue doing VEX like he had at the school we were at prior). I told him if he found some teammates that I’d be happy to coach and we can host the field and meetings at our place.
In addition to the registration fees (both for the team and for events), as well as the annual game kit to add to your existing field I agree with @turbodog that you’ll want LOTs of extra parts and you’ll require FAR more than what comes with the competition kit.
For instance, this year for the 23-24 Full Volume challenge for a brand new team with a highly competitive robot, here are all the costs we incurred from buying stuff from vexrobotics.com:
- VIQRC Full Volume Full Game & Field Element Kit - $135
- IQ Competition Kit (2nd Generation) - $650
- VIQC Field Kit (Full 6’x8’ Field) - $320
- VEX IQ Field Case (x3) - $90
- TONS of extra parts (beams, shafts, connectors, +1 brain battery, etc.) - $711
TOTAL - $2,138 (includes taxes, shipping etc.)
Again, this is for a brand new team from scratch (you already have a field and we don’t have pneumatics). Also, we don’t have enough to make a second robot…that would likely require at least another brain, some more wheels or just get one more VEX IQ Competition Kit and you could then reduce some (but not all) of the other miscellaneous parts purchases encompassed in the $711 above.
Thankfully, most of these are year 1 expenses only. So for the 24-25 IQ challenge we hopefully just need the Field Element Kit and maybe the investment in a second VEX IQ Competition Kit so we can heed @turbodog’s excellent advice about
spare kit for you can prototype a new design w/o tearing down your working bot
But also so that we can build two robots to practice team challenges with!
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thank you so much, this was very insightful.
No. That’s what the 3rd kit is for.
Ha…VEX filling their Scrooge McDuck vault from us buying all these pieces! 
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If that’s the case, you will need far more parts than just come with the kit. TBH it’s going to be very difficult to achieve that up front. As the season prgresses you will think of new ideas and have needs for equipment you don’t already have. It’s just not cost effective to have parts of every type in abundance on hand so you will likely end up ordering parts if you aren’t willing to work with what you have in the kit. Over the years you could build up a surplus of equipment, from ordering extra parts, keeping parts from previous games’ field elements, etc…
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I’d try to gather at least 2000 dollars imo.
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If you already have a field - that’s a good start. If you are smart and efficient - it can be done on a light side.
We run a private team middle school team with my son and his friend. Biggest investment was the field. The rest we are trying to buy off ebay, for fraction of cost new. At the start we found ebay lot with 3 brains, two controllers, and huge bin of parts for like $200. We buy motors at ebay, but some other things (gen2 brain/controller, gears and odd parts) from VEX directly… I don’t really run a tab, but I’d say I’m under $1500, including field. Events registrations are usually from $50 to $150, not that big deal in my view. World registration will be painful though.
We currently have two robots of different designs, and we mostly win everything here in state of MI. We have like 5 invitations to State Championship in March. Not having any limits on creativity and time spend and best choices for the team - is really priceless 
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As @BotsFTW said, it’s a good thing you already have a field. Then there is the actual robot, which can cost you for around up to $369-679 depending on how many pieces you have. Then, of course, there is the fairly high cost of actually registering the team and going for competitions. Hope this helps!
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We are a private team based in Tennessee, and spent a lot on pieces. So really out of anything, pieces are going to cost the most. You will constantly need to by replacement parts.
You are not wrong! They must have single handedly stocked it with the money from our team.
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