Bells’n’whistles a custom does not make .

[Druid799]

You see these kind of adverts all the time you know the ones 

“For sale custom M4 ! Real magpul iron sights/foregrip/sling plate , custom paint job , upgraded spring !”

umm no it’s not , bolting bits on your gun , changing the spring and spraying it with some paint does NOT A custom gun make . In my book if it’s a gun that anyone can re-create just by going on the internet for ten minutes dropping some dosh and then waiting for the postman to deliver said bits’n’bobs then sorry but that is most definitely NOT a custom gun ! 

Now the guy who gets hold of real wood furniture and grafts it on to his G3 or does the same to his Thomson with real WW2 pistol grip and stock now THATS a custom gun , or the guy who spends most of the winter in his garage creating something that just doesn’t exist that most definitely is a custom gun ! Or even the guy who’s spent a couple of hrs modifying a certain rail system to fit to a gun it’s not meant too , to me as he’s needed to put a fair bit of effort in to the task and 90% won’t again that warrants the title custom .  

Then you’ll usually find they’ve hiked the price as well because it’s a custom gun and they claim to have used ‘real parts’ don’t make me laugh ! A lot of the Chinese knockoffs are that good I defy even the hardest core stitch counter to be able to tell fake from real so that’s that one out the window ! 

Please jump in guys and girls and put forward your thoughts on the subject .

[proffrink]

My bed is pretty damn custom. Not real wood furniture as it's IKEA but still - added custom bedsheets and pillow cases with a mattress protector to boot. Also comes with two different pillow types as well.

 

On the open market I'd value it at around £12,300 ONO.

[Gepard]

If you want to spend £500 buying real steel parts to put on your combat machine then go right ahead. But internally it's exactly the same as every other CM16 on the market. 

 

Whatever you've done externally shouldn't effect the price of the gun. If you don't want to sell it because of certain parts then take them off and sell them individually. 

 

Just my two cents.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Gepard said:

Whatever you've done externally shouldn't effect the price of the gun. If you don't want to sell it because of certain parts then take them off and sell them individually. 

 

Just my two cents.

 

This.

 

Case in point, had my Krytac Vector with a bunch of KRISS parts on it for sale for over a week, within an hour of splitting sold both the gun and the parts for more than I had advertised them together lol

[proffrink]

I just don't like putting 'custom' in the title because I strongly believe that the sort of person who would buy something that's actually 'custom' (and knows what they're looking at) is going to read what you've put in/on it irrespective of whether that title is there. Adding 'custom' does nothing to add to this and - as you say - is completely pointless when putting a light on is as 'custom' as a £90 barrel, and those who know enough to be willing to drop much more money on a gun because it has bells and whistles are not going to be swayed one way or the other because of a word in the title.

[Prisce]

Depends how you define  custom I guess.

My gun is custom. 

 

I am putting it together piece by piece, no 2 parts are from the same gun.

 

My definition for custom is; made to order for a specific person/purpose.  My gun is exactly that. So to me it is custom. It may be M4 based, but I can’t buy it off the shelf, so therefore to me, it is custom.

[Adolf Hamster]

i think the only original part on my m4 now is the reciever and outer barrel, does that count as custom?

 

when it comes to affecting value i think it depends, i mean something like an l85 or f2000 rail isn't exactly cheap and really should be a factor in its secondhand price.

 

that said, i'm still at the phase of not being prepared to sell any of my guns knowing full well i'll never get back anywhere near the amount i spent on them. the only one that's "stock" is the mg as the only change from the box was deans connectors (the first thing i put on any gun).

 

at the end of the day it's only worth what people will pay for it.

[TheFull9]

Surprise surprise, a loose concept can have different interpretations.  I remember seeing this conversation a decade ago and I'm sure people who've been playing for over 20 years can remember having it before then. 

 

The obsession with the prices people ask for in classifieds on here has grown beyond critical mass.  If something is too much for you... don't buy it, eventually the advertiser will have to lower their price or give up.  Same as with literally anything else that's been for sale anywhere at any time.

 

Some players will continue to use 'custom' in a way that's probably not applicable and they've been doing that for a long arse time too - it will die off when the UKARA license does i.e. never.

[Adolf Hamster]

9 minutes ago, CKinnerley said:

Surprise surprise, a loose concept can have different interpretations.  I remember seeing this conversation a decade ago and I'm sure people who've been playing for over 20 years can remember having it before then. 

 

The obsession with the prices people ask for in classifieds on here has grown beyond critical mass.  If something is too much for you... don't buy it, eventually the advertiser will have to lower their price or give up.  Same as with literally anything else that's been for sale anywhere at any time.

 

Some players will continue to use 'custom' in a way that's probably not applicable and they've been doing that for a long arse time too - it will die off when the UKARA license does i.e. never.

 

this is entirely true, and not just for airsoft, just about every hobby has the same problem.

[Lozart]

It's not "custom" that bothers me so much as "upgraded".

 

For all the same reasons the op stated. 

[Druid799]

Digressing a bit from my original post , prices being asked not the point of it , was just about what actually is ‘custom’ and what isn’t many claim it but very few actually demonstrate it .

Prisce , I’m with you mate . Your building it from scratch so it’s a bespoke gun which by the very nature of that makes it a custom piece , slapping loads of crap on a gun or changing the stock internals for what ever doesn’t either . 

[Druid799]

Dragging up a very old topic but I do see this ugly beast is coming out of the shadows again , fair few ‘custom’ (no there not !) guns appearing on sales threads . A paint job and upping the spring still don’t make it a ‘custom’ gun you plank  ! 🤦‍♂️

[MILITATED]

I have just read the word "custom" and said it in my head so many times that it no longer sounds like a real word.

 

Why have you done this to me 😲

 

But ye, agreed. Fair enough you can call it a package because that is essentially what it is, but custom would involve actual effort being put into it to make something truly custom, in my opinion.

 

Saying a gun is custom because it now has a scope and bipod is like adding water to a glass and calling that custom. 

 

woah guyz I customizd mah m4 wiv a silencer n poorly sprayd it wiv a scrim net on top! Wot u fink of ma loadout? Show me ur setupz (even tho I dont actually care, I just wont u 2 c my custom m4)!

[MisterG]

5 hours ago, Druid799 said:

Dragging up a very old topic but I do see this ugly beast is coming out of the shadows again , fair few ‘custom’ (no there not !) guns appearing on sales threads . A paint job and upping the spring still don’t make it a ‘custom’ gun you plank  ! 🤦‍♂️

Not to mention a fair few "New" guns, which have been modded/fired etc.

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, MisterG said:

Not to mention a fair few "New" guns, which have been modded/fired etc.

 

I translate "new" or "as new" as "still working, probably".

[mimozine]

yeah custom is a word which is being over used. not the only word that annoys me, tactical is another one that people dont understand the meaning of.

[sonofsammo]

The problem with the use of the word custom, is that it's being used as an abbreviation of the word customised - which means something completely different.
It could be argued that the guns in question are customised - that is to say they are modified from their original form either for a specific person or for a specific task
However, none of the guns in question are custom.
A custom gun is one that is built from scratch for either a specific person or task.
Over time, the boundary between the two becomes blurred, especially by sellers wishing to try and make more money for what they are selling.
As has been mentioned - this happens in most hobbies where stuff can be built / altered and then sold.
It's annoying, as is most improper use of language 😄 

P.s. I suppose you could say, at a stretch, some of the guns are customised with custom parts (e.g. stuff that's been 3d printed, specifically for that gun)

[Druid799]

9 minutes ago, sonofsammo said:

The problem with the use of the word custom, is that it's being used as an abbreviation of the word customised - which means something completely different.
It could be argued that the guns in question are customised - that is to say they are modified from their original form either for a specific person or for a specific task
However, none of the guns in question are custom.
A custom gun is one that is built from scratch for either a specific person or task.
Over time, the boundary between the two becomes blurred, especially by sellers wishing to try and make more money for what they are selling.
As has been mentioned - this happens in most hobbies where stuff can be built / altered and then sold.
It's annoying, as is most improper use of language 😄 

 

Language NUUUUURRRRRD !!!!!!!!!!!! 🤣🤣

quite right though mate 👍

[sonofsammo]

6 minutes ago, Druid799 said:

Language NUUUUURRRRRD !!!!!!!!!!!! 🤣🤣

quite right though mate 👍

Hell yes! It's my only specialism - which is possibly why certain things drive me nuts (like pretty much anything on FB!)  😆

 

[BigAl]

4 hours ago, sonofsammo said:

A custom gun is one that is built from scratch for either a specific person or task.

 

Doesn't have to be from scratch, Im having a 416 built on an m4 base, definitely custom but not built from scratch.

[padraigthesniper]

Yeah if you build a aeg from a receiver upwards its custom as everything is uniquely combined. Custom is a premium term it shouldn't be used by dave down the road who put a new piston in his gearbox and now it sounds worse than before...

[Iceni]

You speak of the G3 with full wood kit as been custom. I wouldn't call it custom at all, none of the parts that go into one are user specific. A better description is period specific.

Same thing with an M16, You can have the modern RIS look, but you might go for a solid stock, large front hand-guard, chrome bolt and make it 1960's period specific. It's still not a custom.

Now if I were to take the G3 to a wood worker, and have a full walnut stock in a different pattern, with brass additions and file work. That to me is custom. It's made just for me, no one else has one, and if they do it will be because they copied mine, the term bespoke could also apply.

Picking off the shelf parts will never equal a custom/bespoke gun. It'll end up as a modified, or upgraded.

Not custom.



 

[Druid799]

2 hours ago, Iceni said:

You speak of the G3 with full wood kit as been custom. I wouldn't call it custom at all, none of the parts that go into one are user specific. A better description is period specific.

Same thing with an M16, You can have the modern RIS look, but you might go for a solid stock, large front hand-guard, chrome bolt and make it 1960's period specific. It's still not a custom.

Now if I were to take the G3 to a wood worker, and have a full walnut stock in a different pattern, with brass additions and file work. That to me is custom. It's made just for me, no one else has one, and if they do it will be because they copied mine, the term bespoke could also apply.

Picking off the shelf parts will never equal a custom/bespoke gun. It'll end up as a modified, or upgraded.

Not custom.



 

One caveat I would put on your point of view (which I basically agree with) is the work involved in it , in today’s instant answer , immediate gratification , disposable society we live in how many would actually put the work in to achieve the ‘period correct’ look ? I’d say not many so even though it wouldn’t be THAT difficult to replicate one of your beautiful G3’s I’d still class it in the custom/bespoke category of builds simply for this very reason , today’s society on the whole is just too dam lazy to put in the effort needed to achieve it ? 

[MILITATED]

Oh boy

 

[Iceni]

3 hours ago, Druid799 said:

One caveat I would put on your point of view (which I basically agree with) is the work involved in it , in today’s instant answer , immediate gratification , disposable society we live in how many would actually put the work in to achieve the ‘period correct’ look ? I’d say not many so even though it wouldn’t be THAT difficult to replicate one of your beautiful G3’s I’d still class it in the custom/bespoke category of builds simply for this very reason , today’s society on the whole is just too dam lazy to put in the effort needed to achieve it ? 

Saying that is pretty much true. The wood alone ended up with 5 coats of oil, and it's probably ready for another already.

I had a guy at a shoot offer me very good money for the G3, and I turned him down based on how much work has gone into it, and how long it would take me to build another. Granted he had a go at shooting it as well, And I couldn't get rid of him for the rest of the day asking stupid questions about gearbox and hop upgrades.

Turned out by the end of the day he bought a top end M4 (ares), Ripped it to bits, whacked in all branded parts, CNC shells, CNC hops you name it it was in there. And it still shot like a broken JG. IMO everything he'd done was wrong, and now he had no base line to get it right again. Definitely one of "those" customs.