Shortage of airsoft items in UK

[Oneshotscott]

12 hours ago, Homeless Snail said:

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.... 

[Homeless Snail]

That’s exactly where i was gonna get my sr-30...

[Cannonfodder]

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

[Tommikka]

13 hours ago, Homeless Snail said:

That’s exactly where i was gonna get my sr-30...

It may depend on if the shops local to you, and if there are extra postage costs but if you shop around other retailers you may find it without the price rise

[Lozart]

13 hours ago, Homeless Snail said:

That’s exactly where i was gonna get my sr-30...

 

Still £359 from Patrolbase https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/g-and-g-armament-sr30-m-lok

[DerDer]

14 hours ago, Cannonfodder said:

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.  

[Madhouse]

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.

[Rogerborg]

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.  

[Madhouse]

2 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

Also, it not being in stock helps with not buying it.  

 

Stock issues does wonders for the bank balance!

[NeatBeard]

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.

Edited September 23, 2021 by NeatBeard

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, NeatBeard said:

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.

 

 

1 hour ago, NeatBeard said:

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.

[EvilMonkee]

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.

[Rogerborg]

30 minutes ago, EvilMonkee said:

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.

[Cr0-Magnon]

11 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

 

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.

[Tommikka]

2 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

…..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 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Has been this way for a while. Blame Covid (or rather, the way its been handled).

 

Turns out shutting the world down for inordinate open ended periods has repercussions.

 

Next shyttshow; lack of HGV drivers. Supply problems for food and now fuel. Of course there's plenty to go round, but the Daily Mail are now whooping up the population into panic buying as they're convinced we are repeating the 1970s again. Worrying about lack of cheap airsoft guns in stock may be the least of our worries.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Ebeneezer Goode

[CrackCommandoUnit1972]

I can't get an AK or a PS5

[emilianoksa]

Given the mess we are in - rising prices, shortages of goods, astronomical shipping costs, sites closing, wealth destroying green policies and growing unemployment -  I sometimes wonder if airsoft has much of a future at all.

 

Niche hobbies can only survive in affluent societies.

 

I imagine the second hand market will become more popular with many.

[Rogerborg]

59 minutes ago, emilianoksa said:

Niche hobbies can only survive in affluent societies.

 

The sad truth.  Especially those that require car travel.  I used to be big into historical reenactment, but knocked it on the head when the costs of driving around the country became prohibitive for a leisure activity.

 

Now that I'm looking at 70 mile round trips to the nearest airsoft sites, that's starting to become a consideration too, even absent the current "responsible stockpiling" of fuel going on.

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Add in a strong anti-gun sentiment in the UK, Eco-Nazis wanting to ban everything (plastic BBs? Its a wonder the feckers from XR haven't started chaining themselves up at airsoft sites yet), a general suspicion of anything military, clothing etc and sites going out of business its all against the sport.

That said, seeing more and more newbies like myself taking it up this past year which is very encouraging.

[Cannonfodder]

The crusties are too busy causing extra pollution by creating traffic jams and wanting everything plastic to be replaced with palm oil (while ignoring the disastrous effects of palm oil plantations on the environment) 

[Lozart]

10 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

The crusties are too busy causing extra pollution by creating traffic jams and wanting everything plastic to be replaced with palm oil (while ignoring the disastrous effects of palm oil plantations on the environment) 

 

Palm oil isn't the demon product everyone seems to think though. It has a far denser output for acre than standard veg oil crops so if you force the palm oil producers to abandon it they will actually have to deforest a BIGGER area which is then WORSE for environmental impact. Better to regulate it properly now that it's already there. Plant based packaging is still a good idea though.

[rj1986]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57149741

20 companies account for more than 50% - yet im the one stuck with a paper straw that folds over after 20 minutes

 

Anyway, what were we talking about?

Edited September 29, 2021 by rj1986