A treatise on the effects of compulsive addictive behaviors over an extended period of time

[Adolf Hamster]

 

Ok, so clickbait title aside this is actually an appraisals thread.

 

And sorry in advance @PopRocket123 but in my defence I did warn you in the dragonuv ad

 

What we have here is what happens when you combine a tendency towards financial insensibility with an addiction to possibly pointless metrics.

She started out life as an e&l aks74u that I definitely regret not picking up pre-brexit shananigans. Got that for £300 which seems to be cheaper than a cursory search of current uk stock. And yes I did break that rule about shooting the gun at least once before replacing almost everything inside.

Before we begin please forgive the terrible lighting and shoddy camera work.

 

Starting at the front the muzzle device has a choice between a combat union Bulgarian style flash hider (more like an amplifier for airsoft) or the gym membership option of a steel lct pbs4.

The suppressor has an acetech at200r inside for tracer based shenanigans with some tweaks to allow it to line up properly and not chop bb’s. some of you may have heard mention from me as to how ridiculously heavy this thing is but if you haven’t it’s like a tm hicapa with magazine bolted onto the end of the gun.

Moving back She’s had a reproduction B11u+b19 installed on the front with what is definitely not an afg that’s had an unfortunate bandsaw accident. Currently it’s setup with just the right-hand side rail (the left hand side is included) to hold a very nice reproduction SOTAC 2DPS flashlight. The B11 is a tad short but some creative o-ring placement has it sitting nice and tight on the gun.

 

Continuing our journey rearwards we have a modern style pistol grip, think it’s a cyma. But what’s really stealing the show here is the middle finger to primitive notions of bore offset optic. 

It’s an NPZ Pk-1 aka “obzor” (1p63 is the Russian military designation afaik), which would be very steampunk except unlike older Russian designs this is not powered by coal but instead takes the modern eco-friendly route of being powered by sunlight (ok, and just a little bit of radiation because otherwise it wouldn’t be Russian). No batteries, it’s always on, and the only control aside from windage/elevation dials is the purple lever.

Despite it’s bulk it’s a surprisingly light optic, weighs about half as much as you’d think it would. Think it’s due to the internals mostly being mirrors and empty space.

Tag seems to mark it out as 2015 production, I think, it looks like a date at least. Optic is completely functional including regular purple mode, even more purple mode, and the tritium does work. I don’t know where it was before I got hold of it but sitting in a warehouse would be my bet. Comes with original storage bag and cleaning cloth.

Fantastic optic for outdoors, although the light gathering mechanism doesn’t handle artificial light so well (read: not an indoor optic).

 

Finally at the rear we have a blue force gear Vickers tactical sling.

 

Of course me being a serial tinkerer the insanity continues under the hood.

She’s running my favoured pdi 6.01 stainless barrel with combat union hop unit and ml macaron+omega nub combo.

The gearbox has a maxx piston head with zci piston. Running 12:1 gears that may have been *ahem* “lightly” (read: heavily) short-stroked. There’s a titan advanced and a warhead brushless motor because mans misses his mouse click hpa triggers.

The end result is about as close as I’ve ever seen an aeg get to hpa levels of trigger response, but with a rather modest 18rps auto.

Accuracy wise she’s pretty damn good on 0.32’s, certainly good enough that most of the time my marksmanship ability presents the major bottleneck in the whole shooting process.

 

All the original external parts are included in case the classic look is preferred, there’s also an original style (I think it’s a repro) standard ak sling.

There’s also 8 NPO magazines in finest plum (the best colour), externally they have the appearance you’d expect of a magazine that’s been surplused by the Russian army however internally they’ve seen just one game. They’re a very tight fit in the gun with zero wobble.

Totting up the big-ticket items (base gun, pbs4, 2dp, pk1, mags, titan and warhead) has the total at £1327

yes that’s the first time I’ve run the numbers and yes, I do feel slightly ashamed of myself.

Reckon there’s maybe £200 in the rest of the stuff on there it’s a question I’m not sure I want to know the real answer to.

Kinda glad now I never got around to draping it in proper zenitco…..

 

Going by the standard 60% rule that has her at £916, although I’m not sure how much that applies to say the mags/scope which probably have a bit of a rarity element going for them?

I suspect splitting might have to be the order of the day here, although always more convenient to sell as a package.

 

Just as a point to note I’d intended a firing video but sadly the warhead motor’s rather flimsy contact mounting decided to pick just that very moment I was filming to give up. Rest assured I’ll be getting my hands on a replacement before listing the ad even if I have to buy an entire spare motor to do it (and no that won’t change the price). Suppose I should be grateful I found that in-person rather than via an angry paypal message. and yes there will be a video once it's sorted, and yes there can be hovis.

 

I’m still of 2 minds about selling this gun, as she’s the last of my collection, but I’ve reached the point now where I don’t think I’m going to be returning to pewing any time soon and I’m not sure sitting in a bag in a musty cupboard is the right move.

 

and as a final note, word's picture descriptions when exporting are amusing, apparently that lct pbs4 is a pen sitting on a table

[Sniper780]

If you do decide to sell, I think you already put forth as mentioned in your description the best possible option which would be to split if your looking to move items on quickly. 

 

For the E&L I am assuming it a gen-2? The lowest I seen for E&L aks74u  gen 2 in the UK was £299.99 and the highest £339.99 now the important things is that was when they were in stock. A lot of UK shop are low/no stock on E&L aks74u gen2 currently. So there is a supply issue currently (that may change in the future) but that does not necessarily translate in a demand for the E&l aks74u gen2. 

 

As for pricing I would go along this route personally: 

 

• If you return the  aks74u to its original configuration with one NPO plum mag and no extra’s, and taking into account the internal work you done which I find is always tricky to put a value on due to the personal nature of modifying guns. Then I personal would price it at £320-350 PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself.   
• If you sell the aks74u in the tactical config with one mag, the original muzzle booster, replica SOTAC 2DPS flashlight, the internal work and the Bulgarian style flash hider I put it up for £350-£420. PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself. 
• The NPZ Pk-1 personally I would sell separately currently going for £458.90 brand new from https://kula-tactical.com/1p63 not sure on postage to the UK or the import fees. They do pop up from time to time on eBay for £350 and private Facebook groups. So a £300-£350 if you want it moved on as it is a niche optic and current production so there are a fair few still around. PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself. 
• The NPO plum mags can be a tricky one lot of factors to consider such as coloration, marbling pattern, trench art and overall condition. I can’t really tell from the pictures. But as a guess £15-£20 per mag. PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself. 
• As for the LCT pbs4 with tracer are currently £130.99 from Patrol Base https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/lct-pk-259t-pbs-4-silencer-with-tracer-unit So not really sure £80-£100. PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself. 
• As for the two sling not sure. 

 

Obviously these are just my opinions on price but that the starting price I would look at if I was selling. But its your kit so your choice.

However at the end of the day it will only sell for what people are willing to pay. 
 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Sniper780

[Adolf Hamster]

6 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

For the E&L I am assuming it a gen-2? The lowest I seen for E&L aks74u  gen 2 in the UK was £299.99 and the highest £339.99 now the important things is that was when they were in stock. A lot of UK shop are low/no stock on E&L aks74u gen2 currently. So there is a supply issue currently (that may change in the future) but that does not necessarily translate in a demand for the E&l aks74u gen2. 

 

yeah she was a gen 2, main reason for mentioning uk stock is that they were much cheaper pre-brexit but that's now dried up.

 

6 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

The NPZ Pk-1 personally I would sell separately currently going for £458.90 brand new from https://kula-tactical.com/1p63 not sure on postage to the UK or the import fees. They do pop up from time to time on eBay for £350 and private Facebook groups. So a £300-£350 if you want it moved on as it is a niche optic and current production so there are a fair few still around. PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself. 

 

i paid 405eur+postage for her which would have £350 being about the new price. although granted that does avoid the wait time for importing (took several months to get that one)

 

6 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

The NPO plum mags can be a tricky one lot of factors to consider such as coloration, marbling pattern, trench art and overall condition. I can’t really tell from the pictures. But as a guess £15-£20 per mag. PayPal fees and postage you would have to work out yourself. 

 

i'll see about grabbing some more pictures tomorrow.

 

there's not much going on in the way of trench art, and a few dings and scrapes to the plastic. the baseplates have seen some corrosion to the point that the first thing i did was pull the lot and give them a soaking in wd.

 

marbling pattern is gonna be a bugger to photograph as it doesn't really show up properly without daylight.

 

 

i'd kind of be thinking the split would be something along the line of gun sans mags, mags on their own, and optic on it's own.

[Sniper780]

14 hours ago, Adolf Hamster said:

i'd kind of be thinking the split would be something along the line of gun sans mags, mags on their own, and optic on it's own.

Sound like a good plan. 

14 hours ago, Adolf Hamster said:

i'll see about grabbing some more pictures tomorrow.

If you can that, could help pricing and more so the selling.  As currently most stockist of NPO mags are out of stock and are waiting on re-stock. There are still the private sellers who still make and sell converted mags but they generally come a premium, due to the hand select nature.   

 

14 hours ago, Adolf Hamster said:

i paid 405eur+postage for her which would have £350 being about the new price. although granted that does avoid the wait time for importing (took several months to get that one)

It can sometime be difficult to sell Russian/comblock optics, especially  if it set up for the proprietary side mounting option when compared to pic rail ready optics. 

      

 

 

[Adolf Hamster]

2 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

If you can that, could help pricing and more so the selling.  As currently most stockist of NPO mags are out of stock and are waiting on re-stock. There are still the private sellers who still make and sell converted mags but they generally come a premium, due to the hand select nature.   

 

tried taking them on my desk under the daylight lamp, still not really showing the colours up as well.

 

did notice one of the mags does have some markings on it:

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

It can sometime be difficult to sell Russian/comblock optics, especially  if it set up for the proprietary side mounting option when compared to pic rail ready optics. 

 

yeah, it's very much towards the niche end of the market. but i can afford to wait around for interested parties to show up.

 

same kind of thing with the gun, often folks who'd be interested in that kind of thing have already built/comissioned their own.

[Sniper780]

3 hours ago, Adolf Hamster said:

tried taking them on my desk under the daylight lamp, still not really showing the colours up as well.

 

did notice one of the mags does have some markings on it:

I must admit it is still quite hard to tell. In the pictures they look like matte plum from Izhmash due to the finish and arsenal mark. Although some do look like true black mags, but I thinks down to the lighting.  

 

As for the trench art/ marked mag I am assuming it the last picture?  

 

3 hours ago, Adolf Hamster said:

yeah, it's very much towards the niche end of the market. but i can afford to wait around for interested parties to show up.

 

same kind of thing with the gun, often folks who'd be interested in that kind of thing have already built/comissioned their own.

Not sure if your part of the Northern Pact community FB page but that may open up a larger market for your optic. 

 

Hit the nail on the head there, custom guns are always down to the individual taste.

 

  

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Sniper780

[Adolf Hamster]

5 minutes ago, Sniper780 said:

I must admit it is still quite hard to tell. In the pictures they look like matte plum from Izhmash due to the finish and arsenal mark. Although some do look like true black mags, but I thinks down to the lighting.  

 

all the marks are the same- an arrow (archery type of arrow) in a triangle.

 

they do look very dark under artificial light, but you can see the plum a bit better in daylight.

 

8 minutes ago, Sniper780 said:

As for the trench art/ marked mag I am assuming it the last picture?  

 

yeah, it's got "102" and "I" marked on it. not sure if the raised marks in the middle are meant to be anything or just some general patina.

 

9 minutes ago, Sniper780 said:

Not sure if your part of the Northern Pact community FB page but that may open up a larger market for your optic. 

 

will keep that in mind, probably give it a shot here first just for convenience (read: not having to make an fb account)

[Sniper780]

1 hour ago, Adolf Hamster said:

all the marks are the same- an arrow (archery type of arrow) in a triangle.

Then they are all Izhmash mags then, fairly common but still pretty nice if your looking for a certain a aesthetic. As for the trench art/ marks that down to personal preference most popular are the mags with the Cyrillic, but you never know. 

 

Well good luck with your sale hope it goes well.    

 

 

[Adolf Hamster]

10 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

Then they are all Izhmash mags then, fairly common but still pretty nice if your looking for a certain a aesthetic. As for the trench art/ marks that down to personal preference most popular are the mags with the Cyrillic, but you never know. 

 

yeah, i've always been a sucker for plum and the airsoft versions just aren't quite right.

 

10 hours ago, Sniper780 said:

Well good luck with your sale hope it goes well.

 

thanks man, you've been a great help here