Is airsoft getting too expensive ?

[sniperslucky]

just looking again at the American sites:

Evike Vector AEG $449:00

UK site : Vector AEG Estimated £450:00

Q: surely apart from the demand if there is as sites quoting 10in stock delivery by 1st April why are we getting ripped off again. Now i know that there would be import taxes from USA but this gun was meant to retail around £350:00 WHY SUCH A HIKE, Do they not want to sell these???

 

[Lozart]

It's not cheap, never has been. The fact remains that you don't HAVE to spend £450 on an AEG, there's plenty of perfectly good ones for around the £120-£150 mark. 

As for price increases...EVERYTHING has gone up in price. A tippmann A5 now is more like £150 for the most basic version and they go all the way up to the £500 mark so it's not a fair comparison to trot out the "back in my day" comparisons. I certainly don't think anyone HAS to buy a new gun every few years "at least" unless they're just buying crap guns - 

* Yes yes - buy ammo in bulk, don't buy crap guns. But shhh, I'm making a point.

Indeed but it's not a valid one.

I don't know that airsoft has EVER tried to be cheaper than paintball. My personal experience is that it never has been, the appeal lies elsewhere. If you want to do it on a budget you most certainly can. If you want to play paintball in full tactical gear and spend £1,400 on a marker you can do that too.

 

[Tommikka]

just looking again at the American sites:

Evike Vector AEG $449:00

UK site : Vector AEG Estimated £450:00

Q: surely apart from the demand if there is as sites quoting 10in stock delivery by 1st April why are we getting ripped off again. Now i know that there would be import taxes from USA but this gun was meant to retail around £350:00 WHY SUCH A HIKE, Do they not want to sell these???

Remember that prices in the US typically exclude taxes, when they go in a shop and something is labeled $50 they don't end up paying $50

Here we display prices including VAT

Cross borders and you get import duty (for ease this is typically set at the rate of VAT)

The US market is a different size, we are tiny by their standards.  In many commodities there has always been a $ to £ match on prices irrespective of how the exchange rate fits.   Back in the day £1 was about $2 meaning a $100 dollar item in the US was £100 in the UK instead of £50 - so we were paying twice as much

Different country's are also just different because they are, one thing maybe cheaper and another vastly more expensive

An importer can bring things in more efficiently than an individual, but has the challenge of a smaller customer base

 

[RussAFO]

Just noticed whilst looking for a site in florida USA most site other there are a lot cheaper to walk on. So why does it cost so much over here ( although it is relatively a cheap day out ) but still sites in UK are over twice the price of of walk on in USA.

Prob the amount of taxes?

The problem in the UK is that land is at a premium. Brown field sites, agricultural and or derelict sites are often ripe for investment with regard to housing, rents are getting higher and higher if you can actually identify a site. The US effectively just has more land to spare. 

 

[Lozart]

The problem in the UK is that land is at a premium. Brown field sites, agricultural and or derelict sites are often ripe for investment with regard to housing, rents are getting higher and higher if you can actually identify a site. The US effectively just has more land to spare. 

Plus insurance costs, staff wages and likely numbers that will attend all play a part.

 

[skarra333]

Indeed but it's not a valid one.

I don't know that airsoft has EVER tried to be cheaper than paintball. My personal experience is that it never has been, the appeal lies elsewhere. If you want to do it on a budget you most certainly can. If you want to play paintball in full tactical gear and spend £1,400 on a marker you can do that too.

Yes it is. The thread is titled "Is Airsoft getting..." When you look at the way prices for Airsoft have increased some reflection and a 'back in my day' are quite acceptable thank you.

I've just looked and a days Paintball for own gunners at the site I used to attend is £65 which gets you 2000 balls, game fee and air refills. That is exactly the same as it was when I stopped. The Airsoft games that run on this site now charge £30 per day, and £9 for ammo. While still cheaper than a days Paintball, they are now approaching double what it was when I started. I reflect on this, bobbies being on the beat, pothole free roads and wonder...

And Airsoft has indeed tried to be cheaper than Paintball. The folks running Fireball Squadron as well as players in attendance there, and at Hilton Park said as much to me my first few games. Plus, JD Airsoft (or part of Airsoft Armoury as it was then) used this as a pitch when I got my first toys. Maybe they were the only 3 places in the whole wide world who peddled such notions then, but I bet you 1 X Bic ballpoint that they weren't.

And then there's the fact that UKAPU, First and Only's and Airborne Airsoft are 3 websites that still cite airsoft's being cheaper than paintball as a selling point - I bet you a further 1 X Bic ballpoint these aren't the only ones still doing it either. 

 

[Lozart]

Yes it is. The thread is titled "Is Airsoft getting..." When you look at the way prices for Airsoft have increased some reflection and a 'back in my day' are quite acceptable thank you.

I've just looked and a days Paintball for own gunners at the site I used to attend is £65 which gets you 2000 balls, game fee and air refills. That is exactly the same as it was when I stopped. The Airsoft games that run on this site now charge £30 per day, and £9 for ammo. While still cheaper than a days Paintball, they are now approaching double what it was when I started. I reflect on this, bobbies being on the beat, pothole free roads and wonder...

And Airsoft has indeed tried to be cheaper than Paintball. The folks running Fireball Squadron as well as players in attendance there, and at Hilton Park said as much to me my first few games. Plus, JD Airsoft (or part of Airsoft Armoury as it was then) used this as a pitch when I got my first toys. Maybe they were the only 3 places in the whole wide world who peddled such notions then, but I bet you 1 X Bic ballpoint that they weren't.

And then there's the fact that UKAPU, First and Only's and Airborne Airsoft are 3 websites that still cite airsoft's being cheaper than paintball as a selling point - I bet you a further 1 X Bic ballpoint these aren't the only ones still doing it either. 

I would personally say that if someone is promoting airsoft as cheaper then they're talking about game day costs - as you say a days paintball is circa £65 and if you need more ammo it is expensive (doing the standard buy an extra 100 rounds onsite at a stupid price). As a Total Cost of Ownership exercise, I would argue that saying airsoft is cheaper is misleading at best. 

Thing is - it costs what it costs. I've never seen airsoft as a cheap hobby, certainly not with my rampant case of G.A.S (Gun Acquisition Syndrome) and for me I'm of the opinion that if you can't afford it, go find something cheaper to play. Yes, some may say that I have it relatively easy - well paid job, no kids etc but you cut your pattern according to the cloth you have, right?

 

[Sacarathe]

Just noticed whilst looking for a site in florida USA most site other there are a lot cheaper to walk on. So why does it cost so much over here ( although it is relatively a cheap day out ) but still sites in UK are over twice the price of of walk on in USA.

Prob the amount of taxes?

The amount of vacant land.

 

[Sacarathe]

Well first of all, your have a very airsoft internalised perspective. The retailers peddle UKARA to make money and it does help them, go to any retailer and ask "should I get two tone CM16 or hire?"

If I could go around and start airsoft again I'd have picked the two tone gun. The way RIFs are glorified ensures, I would be willing to bet, that many persons which would otherwise have hired one game and walked away, will stick around at least until the 2nd game and then decided whether to quit or wait for the 3rd game and ukara. I suspect very few people quit after one game.

 

[jcheeseright]

Airsoft can absolutely be cheaper than paintball. £120 for a combat machine (less for a CYMA AK), £30 for some respectable eye protection, £20 on a battery/charger and you're good to go. Only cost from that point is game fees and ammo (which IS cheaper than paintball!).  We CHOOSE to make it more expensive; no one needs to have all matching camo, red dot sights, lasers, helmets, etc. None of those things improve the 'game', they're affectations and nothing more. 

 

[AshOnSnow]

My local walk-ons are either £20 or £25, I go once or twice a month.

The real money ends up coming from new gear. I got into airsoft around august/september time last year, since then I've gone through a P226, P09, 2 M4s and a pricey JG Bar-10. And of course you buy a gun, then there's the mags to go with it, holsters, pouches, rigs, optics, BDU, eye pro... it all adds up. Now I'm adding an action cam to my gear to film games, and it's all costing more and more - gotta get a helmet, NVG mount, spare battery, new protection case for the camera itself.

To be honest, if I could go back and do it all again from scratch, I'd probably just buy a lightweight rig, some spare M4 mags, decent eye pro and a budget BDU, and then just go with the hire kit. 3000rds of ammo and an M4, AK, G36 or RPK, £45, sorted for the day.

Of course with this whole UKARA debate, if you stick a £40 action camera on your head, you don't need it, because then your VCRA defence becomes film.

 

[sniperslucky]

This would not be my sons 1st gun, more like 3rd but he thought that when they stated £350:00ish that it wouldn't be an extra £100 how does the market research get it so wrong or are they just passing more charges on to the paying customer due to the lateness of this gun>

 

[jcheeseright]

This would not be my sons 1st gun, more like 3rd but he thought that when they stated £350:00ish that it wouldn't be an extra £100 how does the market research get it so wrong or are they just passing more charges on to the paying customer due to the lateness of this gun>

Are you sure this is the correct thread? 

 

[sniperslucky]

Are you sure this is the correct thread? 

Yes as long as it doesn't go anymore sideways. The point  i was trying to make is that i don't think the retailers help with the prices as as a sport gets more popular they put the prices up to make the most of it. And in the Vectors case they quoted £350 now due to delays i'm thinking that they are just covering their costs. So for a premium gun Yes i think its getting expensive.

 

[jcheeseright]

when were you quoted £350?

 

[Mike W]

I think compared to other hobbies airsoft is quite cheap. It only gets expensive if you let it . I go every week and would go more but I have to work lol. Plus my wife could my nuts off lmao. I think it starts to get expensive when you play it more and start to buy more gear. But as for initial setup costs I reckon its quite cheap to get into.

 

[TheFull9]

I'd imagine the question is more "are site organisers price gouging" and at the rate I've seen game day prices rise vs general inflation/cost of living, I wouldn't have said so.

If paintball days have not gone up in price across the board over the past 10 years or so... well that seems really odd and surprising.  But I'm not seeing airsoft site staff/owners rolling around in lambos that much is for sure.  BBs have gone up a few quid in a decade.. yeah, I mean what else would you expect?  Ammo wise this is a mega cheap game.  I use about 250 BBs in a day of CQB, maybe 6-7 hundred in woodland, I don't personally feel like I hold back on the trigger either I just only shoot at what I have a good chance of hitting.  Quite literally cannot remember the last time I had to buy BBs, it's been years.  A bag of 4k quality beebs lasts me ages personally, similar story with gas and shotgun primers.  I use a big can of colemans maybe once every 18 months and my 100 pack of primers will probably last me the next 5 years at this rate, I'm extremely wary about chucking something as heavy as my TRMR so it doesn't come out much for safety's sake.  I get this varies a lot person to person and I only play about 6 times a year on a good year because of work and logistical issues getting to games, just my take on things.

 

[tomo9992]

I would say airsofting is pretty cheap considering, well not cheap, but not over expensive either, aside from the initial outlay obviously, which is common for most hobbies/activities that anyone would engage in. Up here in Scotland its typically £20 green fee + £15 for hire for a full day. Compare that to go karting which is effectively £30 for 45mins total racing. Obviously that's one example, but I would say airsoft is probably on par, popularity wise, with go-karting, yet on a time to price basis much much cheaper.

 

[Sitting Duck]

Well it depends on your budget/wallet and all that

BUT sod buying this stuff - even if I won the lottery

over TWO GRAND on a toy gun ???

http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwolf/airsoft/GBB_Rifles_SMGs_Airsoft_Surgeon_Airsoft_Surgeon_Magpul_Metal_Man_AR.htm?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=RedWolf Airsoft Specialist Ltd&utm_content=

Sorry but I'd be blowing that kinda of dosh on a lot better things than just one toy gun no matter how great it was made

Holiday, hookers, I could think of quite a few things I'd blow that amount on

 

[skillfulmmd]

Airsoft can absolutely be cheaper than paintball. £120 for a combat machine (less for a CYMA AK), £30 for some respectable eye protection, £20 on a battery/charger and you're good to go. Only cost from that point is game fees and ammo (which IS cheaper than paintball!).  We CHOOSE to make it more expensive; no one needs to have all matching camo, red dot sights, lasers, helmets, etc. None of those things improve the 'game', they're affectations and nothing more. 

I agree to a point but I have found the more gear I get that fixes and issue allows me to focus on playing the game without worrying. A sling for instance so I can draw my pistol quickly or even just take the weight of the gun off my arms a bit, or a nice mag pouch that makes getting mags out quick and more efficient. Sure all that will add but I have found getting your gear perfect lets you focus on just having fun and shooting people and not worrying or feeling annoyed in certain situations.