Many and Cheap Vs Few and Expensive

[HuttArmouries]

I have owned a lot of guns and my current collection is quite large but only one of those was more than £400 with most of the rest being around the £100-150 area. Most of my guns are jg and cyma and would be considered budget guns However I have found these guns far more fun to use, even stock than the more expensive ones I have owned. The only pricey gun to stick in my collection and not get sold off is the pkm and that is because it sort of fits in its own unique role (and has a bit of wow factor which when we come down to it is what 80% of airsoft is about). Another factor that may affect my choice of collection is that I am more than capable of repairing or modifying my own guns so breakdowns are not much of an issue. 

My question to you is which do you prefer? having a larger number of cheap guns or a few expensive ones?

 

[AK47frizzle]

Few and expensive for god damn sure. It's strange though. Most people would think £100-150 is expensive for a pistol and that the quality would be amazing. But in reality, it's just cheap pot metal that's been reused in many other models. Even stuff in the 200-300 range. Just re-branded shit. Quite sad really. It's really difficult to find proper quality products these days.

One of the worst experiences of that was the WE desert eagle. Looks cool af, and it's very expensive. But then I disassembled it and found a shit tone of molded seams and irregularities and realise that it's just cheap pot metal again and will shatter if you drop it at ruler height. Sad times.

My Noveske M4 is like £1k+ worth of parts that I put together myself. The externals alone are like around £500 and that's some decent quality stuff. Pretty much the only personal aeg I've used for many years so far, until I finally complete my 3d printed one )))

 

[FreeFrag.UK]

To be honest I don't think that just because something is expensive guarantees that it is high, or even good, quality. I think a lot of it falls down to researching what you're investing in. A good example of this would be to use the MP5 platform. If memory serves last year Umarex carried out a licensed release of an MP5K variant over in the USA and many people automatically assumed that VFC were the OEM, however, it is reported that it is just a H&K licensed CYMA. Now there's nothing wrong with CYMA, they actually make some great MP5's, but due to the release coming from Umarex buyers were paying a premium for the Umarex "brand" and for the licensed H&K markings.

Unfortunately there are more and more companies within airsoft adopting exploitative practices where they are rebranding or buying distribution exclusivity to drive up the price. ASG has done this to some extent although they aren't bad when compared to many of the others out there, Nuprol being some of the biggest thieving tossers in Europe.

While I think there are definite examples of "you get what you pay for" within airsoft, I also feel as though there are many examples where this simply doesn't hold true. There are so many companies which fail in terms of the most basic quality control levels that it is simply astounding and these issues are further exacerbated by frequent occurrences of bad customer service.

Just as a quick note. Credit where credit is due to ASG, they have brought platforms such as the Cz Scorpion Evo and the Cz Bren 805 to the market, both of which are excellent guns and the Scorpion has received a number of design revisions which is beyond rare in the world of airsoft.

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

It’s the same old - same old ,  no matter what the hobby......

First off with me it was Paintball , a grand on a marker was the norm , then your air system & hopper..........

Motor bikes  ,  I was nothing without the newest R1 and a grand worth of exhaust on it 

Then Downhill Mountain bikes , my suspension cost more than on my R1

I have one decent airsoft RIF , A Krytac, was the first gun I bought , bought it used , got it at what I still see as a decent price

I now have a few “budget” brands 

A JG Works , A cheap spring shotgun & a Umarex UMP

I get more smiles per pound from the UMP because it looks different to all the usual M4 derivatives out there , and it was half the price of my Krytac

My JG G3 is still to get played with , I can’t wait to get out there and look even more different

I love the look of fear in the safe zone when other players don’t know what you have ?

I mean really , just how far can you chuck a .28 bb ?? ??‍

 

[EDcase]

I'm budget driven.

That's to say that I enjoy researching the best bang for buck gun and then finding the best price for it.

I've found some second hand bargains with decent brands like LCT but the most expensive price I paid was for the Alien pulse rifle (M41A) new at £299

I enjoy collecting about as much as playing so I can't afford expensive guns.  (I also share my budget with biking)

Luckily the lower to medium brands like JG, CYMA, Classic Army up to Specna Arms give decent enough performance to have plenty'o fun in games. ?

I like using different styles from MP5 to L1A1 and I used all of them except a couple of impractical collector ones such as DL-44 and M41A.

I tend to take 2 or 3 to a game and switch around during the day.

 

[BigStew]

joys of being single and childless, I buy what takes my fancy but i like pistols more than I like long arms so relatively cheap.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

I think the beauty of this hobby is there's room for both.

I sit halfway between, some of my guns have parts lists that no sane person would be willing to admit the price of, others sit very much in the budget category.

What i will say is with a few exceptions at the ultra high end (eg umbrella armouries) it takes a lot more than just throwing money at a gun to extract performance and the diminishing returns curve is steep. I very much agree with the premise that a well dialed in jg or cyma can be a barrel of laughs.

My collection isn't massive, but it does at least cover a lot of the main categories. Never really understood the whole having a collection of exclusively ar variants with glock pairings. Of course space is a limiting factor as is the ability to be able to use them regularly.

someone mentioned in another thread they'd buy guns they liked regardless of wether or not they actually perform all that well, whereas whilst i love the weird and wonderful i cant face owning something that performs so poorly i cant skirmish it. Neither of us are wrong methinks.

 

[Sitting Duck]

define "large number of cheap guns"

put it this way - I think I got a problem

(no more space left)

buy what you like, but save some money to seek help if it gets out of hand

 

[heroshark]

My collection sits at polar ends of the scale. I have about 80-90 odd springers. 2 or 3 would be considered very expensive for what they are but very rare and precious to me. One ngrs only aeg I have. Then a load of gas pistols. A few for practical skirmish not cheap cheap, mildly upgraded tms nothing crazy. Couple of cheap odd balls. The rest rare, old, collectables not cheap too really not cheap. As said price is not always an indicator of quality especially when it comes to picking up rare old guns. 

 

[Zarrin]

I have a sort of quota or list of guns that I either own or want, which in all honesty is probably based on my film and computer game preferences of the last 20 years, so I would say there is probably a limit to the number of RIFs I will ever own... ofc if money was no object and I had an entire rec room to dress up Burt Gummer style, well then that would be a different story ?. 

I think i have bought 2 guns which have been over the 300 quid mark: my CA M15A4 which was my first decent AEG and my G&G GKM (akm) which I only bought as I wanted a quick replacement for my stolen AK47.

I've built quite a few of my AEGs from scratch using parts bought off eBay and the various forums - I always try and budget as much as possible, it's rare for one of my builds to go over 200; typically 100-150ish. Having said that it's been many years since I did an AEG build and the price of components has certainly changed; gone are the days when you could pick up a Dboys metal receiver, new for 30-35 quid.

Some builds in the long run work out fairly pricey I suppose because I'll start with a cheapish base gun like a JG or CYMA and then either over time or in a single project upgrade the parts; I've often ended up completely re doing internals and buying a CA or G&P body to finish up. Funny thing is some of them hardly have any stock components left.. The MP5 started off life as a JG SD5, it's now in an A3 config with a torch grip, CA body, some other bits and pieces - GB shell cracked a couple years back so that's now gone too.  The only remaining parts are probably the gears, AR latch and COL, the rear sight block, body pins... and that's about it. If I am correct the gun probably cost 100 quid when I got it from action hobbies 15 or so years ago, the parts I've put into it, probably another 100 quids worth.

Now, it does actually work great, solid build, very smooth GB, accurate and consistent, only ever failure it had was the Systema Magnum pinion gear turning to mush (RIP Tom Andrews from EAG who replaced that pinion for me.. he had to angle grind the little git off)... anyway I'm wondering what I could have got for 200 quid at the time instead - a second hand ICS or CA I guess, but you cant put a price on all the lessons learned and the technical knowledge you gain on a project gun like that.

I have another similar project lined up for the future involving a JG G3A3, CA body and perhaps a CA A4 sliding stock - would love an LCT but I don't think I can justify the price tag! 

After thought - come to think of it the Magnum motor would have driven the price up on the MP5 another 50-60 quid, in the end it's probably a 250 quid gun. 

 

[Noobmaster69]

So for a newbie like myself after I get my ukura do u got experience to start or keep it in the 150 range kinda like the idea of a m4 or m16 and mod it!

but i guess depends on your budget with if u like loads of cheapish guns or 3 or 4 top of the range!

 

[HuttArmouries]

Thing is I get lots of cheapish guns but I only get ones which interest me. I own 1 m4 in a collection of 15-16 guns and its done up to be a colt 9mm smg with a conversion kit. Everything else I have is something unique however all of them use variations on the standard gearboxes which means I can repair any issues easily. I love jg guns simply because they do a lot of the stuff other companies ignore in favor of m4 variants. I have one of their sa58 fals and one of their g3s. Both work just fine, not amazingly but more than well enough. 

 

[Skara]

Few and expensive for sure.

By expensive I don't mean the base price of the gun, but the overall cost of the base + upgrades.

I'm not a hoarder and I hate having unused stuff, so I'd rather pimp the fuck out of my current guns than buying loads of new ones.

Unless I'm looking at a specific look (say a MK18 or a Val).

I don't get people who have 5+ ARs that are basically copycats of each other or endless streams of glocks popping out of their drawers.

I mean, you only have 2 hands, you can't possibily field 6 pistols at the same time  or........can you?

 

[EvilMonkee]

Being a primary GBBR user with an interest in historical airsoft and Cold War in particular, I would have to say few and expensive because GBBR are expensive and also because the guns I buy have to fit that period and arent the usual run of the mill AEGS M4.  I like unusual stuff, that tends to be expensive.

 

[Cr0-Magnon]

Defintely fewer high-end than loads of cheaper. Afterall you only have one pair of hands. Although when I state "high-end", I really just mean strong performing, you not necessarily expensive.

 

[Shaydee]

Few and expensive for me, though sprinkle some cheaper projects in amongst that (like my clone mk23, a KJW mark 1 I just picked up and maybe a boneyard project). I'd rather splurge on nicer externals and upgrades on a few things I'm actually using as opposed to getting an armory big enough to supply a small militia and then not use half of them in a game (I am however still guilty of this owning a GHK GBBR that I very rarely use ?).

 

[Zarrin]

I don't get people who have 5+ ARs that are basically copycats of each other or endless streams of glocks popping out of their drawers.

So this is my defence for this as I certainly qualify...  like I said for the most part I collect the guns that I like from movies and games n stuff... most of mine represent a certain era, conflict in history or go well with certain kit.

- M733 - Because: BHD/Heat/Blood diamond - goes really well with 80s and 90s gear and webbing which I have quite a bit of.

- M16/m203 - Because: Predator/BHD/Bravo 2 Zero - one of my favorite looking combat setups of all time.

- M16VN - Because of all the various VN flicks - classic looking RIF.

- M4A1 SOPMOD - triangle front sight, knights quad rail, acog, peq2 battery box, basic LE stock - almost classic at this point, typical US 2000s kit.

And then these two less justified but I like um all the same...

- MK18 mod 0 ; originally built as an M933 - this is sort of my all around primary, If I don't have enough time to think or plan a cool setup for a game I'll grab this - it's also a bit of a transformer gun as I have a long inner barrel and hop unit set aside to use with my QD suppressor or barrel extension - hot swap it within seconds if need be.

- SPR MK12 Mod 0 - this is the oddball tbh which I probably dont really need, but I like all the same - good to have an AR DMR I suppose - currently in need of work!

I mean it certainly helps to have a good number of your collection all taking the same mags - I have a box of MAG shorties for the VN but they look quite good in the SPR too.

Having said that, do I wish my collection was a little more diversified? .. Yeah maybe sometimes I do, but it does make everything a lot simpler!

 

[Crazy_Crystal]

likewise I have just a few expensive rifles that I've chosen mostly because I like the real steel and have done the research on them... basically I thought they were cool and seemed to perform well.

I've only had a couple of cheaper rifs when I started out and mostly this is because I generally am aiming to build a specific spec that I like the look of... and that gets pricey fairly quickly... (why do I have such expensive taste ?)

on the other hand each rifle does a specific role and the majority are gas. so they all get used from time to time.

 

[CrackCommandoUnit1972]

I think it's the same with any hobby/obession where the laws of diminushing returns come in play. Ultimately, the whole purpose of an airsoft gun is to fling bits of plastic around. Every airsoft gun can do this, it's just that some can do this task better than others, but this will come at a cost and you will get to the point where no matter how much you spend on a gun, it's not going to shoot any further.

Still, variety is the spice of life, so there is nothing wrong with having a few different guns. Just make sure one of them is a MP5.

 

[EDcase]

....Ultimately, the whole purpose of an airsoft gun is to fling bits of plastic around.  Every airsoft gun can do this, it's just that some can do this task better than others, but this will come at a cost and you will get to the point where no matter how much you spend on a gun, it's not going to shoot any further...

The diminishing returns curve is true at the extreme expensive end but not in the average price range.

For example, a CYMA AK might shoot 90% as well as an LCT or E&L for a quarter of the price.

Compare that to cars or bikes.  That would be equivalent to a Skoda being almost as fast as a BMW or Audi.

Much of the price in a RIF is the quality of materials and appearance rather than actual performance.