Shortage of airsoft items in UK

Glad I already got the RIF’s that I want.

Don’t breach the UKARA rules….

 
Truste me, i am... Otherwise i could have done it when i was warned about the prices being raised...

 
These stock shortages are great, honestly. It means I can easier resist the temptation to buy stuff before I've responsibly paid off debts from a rough part of my 20s, because lord knows there's stuff I want to buy... *gazes wistfully at google doc list of things I want to get*

 
I just noticed... I was going to get a G&GSR-30 from a store near me and the price just went from 359.99 to 415£... Amazing...
I bought the last sr15 from surplus store last weekend for £341. 99, its now listed at £415.  Airsoft is the new golf.... 

 
I guess not many here were in the game before all the cheap Chinese stuff was around. £20 to £30 for a magazine and getting a gun new for less than £200 was a bargain

 
I guess not many here were in the game before all the cheap Chinese stuff was around. £20 to £30 for a magazine and getting a gun new for less than £200 was a bargain
Fair point. Classic army SportsLine models were about that. Still remember paying £29 a pop for Galil magazines. Had to import them from Greece. Would have been before the explosion of Cyma kit.  

 
Short supply means price hikes are inevitable. What makes it worse is that most RIFs are coming out of the Far East and shipping costs have gone into orbit so prices are likely to go up further and will be unlikely to drop again for a good while - if at all.

 
That's not a completely frivolous point.  I'd have a CYMA CM.045A at PatrolBase / TaiwanGun prices tomorrow, but it'll never reach me.  At UK prices, nah.  Also, it not being in stock helps with not buying it. ;)  

 
I've found this as a noob. I was originally thinking of getting a CYMA AK but there is minimal stock of them about for the model I want. Talking to the owner at my local site he said that they used to pay around  £1500 for a shipping container and thats now gone up to around £5/6k!! The price hikes are massive and will no doubt get passed down the line to customers eventually, so lack of stock and price increases look like they'll be the norm for a while. :(

 
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Talking to the owner at my local site he said that they used to pay around  £1500 for a shipping container and thats now gone up to around £5/6k!!


Yup.  That's covering the costs of either sending them back empty, or having ships sit idle while we find something, anything, that the Orient wants from us.

The price hikes are massive and will no doubt get passed down the line to customers eventually, so lack of stock and price increases look like they'll be the norm for a while. :(


It's actually surprising that they haven't gone up more already, but then again we were just kvetching about Dave's Custom Airsoft price gouging.  We might want to brace for that becoming the new price point.

 
Add into this the deliberate buying up of distribution rights by Nuprol of brands like LCT in this country and their then either failing to supply stores or deliberate choking of supply to drive up prices or push their own branded product.

 
Add into this the deliberate buying up of distribution rights by Nuprol of brands like LCT in this country and their then either failing to supply stores or deliberate choking of supply to drive up prices or push their own branded product.


Ouch, I hadn't heard of that.  It doesn't surprise me at all though.

 
Ouch, I hadn't heard of that.  It doesn't surprise me at all though.


Obviously off-topic but I work in shipping/freight forwarding and the same practices are happening in this industry.  Every other week the vessels omit UK ports, the following is then naturally full/overbooked. Rinse and repeat for a few months. The shipping lines can then triple prices and claim it's because there's no space on the vessels.

 
…..or having ships sit idle while we find something, anything, that the Orient wants from us.
Cheese

Because dairy products are very popular in Asia …… according to the UK/Japan trade deal 

 
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