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2023's Airsoft Spend


Gunboat Diplomat
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Great post, it’s nice to see that the largest percentage is actually going on playing.

I think I have played 4 times, bought 2 guns and sold them both. One for a £60 loss, one will be about £50-70 profit as I’ve split it down for parts and will have made more than the new price. 
I have the very basics in terms of kit, despite playing on and off for 27 years. Eye pro, walking trousers, DPM shirt and walking shoes. I look at all the shiny chest rigs and Crye combats, but know they would see the light of day very infrequently.

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2 hours ago, Gunboat Diplomat said:

However we’ve both got GBBRs on our list of interest so in reality it’s probably going to be another expensive year.

 

For internal and external parts it doesn't have to be expensive for most GBBRs (at least not the ones I've bought). However, when mags are anywhere between £40 - £60 per magazine, that's where it starts getting really expensive, since you typically need a fair few as they're 35-50ish rounds per mag, depending on the gun.

I don't want to think about how much I spent on RIFs alone. This year was a year where I basically almost completed my collection of "all the guns I want, within reason", including a couple of hard to get items. I'll get the rest in 2024 (2 GBBRs and 3 GBB pistols), but I think next year will mostly be me getting scopes, extra magazines, lights and other external bits to 100% "complete" all my guns, plus a helmet setup to go with a CQB kit.

I don't think I have any massive regrets from my purchases this year though. Trying to make my 1911 super-efficient and basically making it not work was probably the worst, but that wasn't too expensive all-in as pistol builds are fairly easy to do on a light budget (and I bought another one 2nd hand so I still have a nice 1911 that works flawlessly and I stuck the entire upgraded hop and barrel setup in that one, so that wasn't wasted money).

A few really good purchases came out of this year though. KWA mac11 is a disgusting little beast of a gun, and the Modelworks mk12 parts for my MWS and m40 stock kit for my m700 have basically made them mainstays of my collection.

All I need to do is resist the temptation to do a silly HPA build with the tank in the stock, like an SR-25 or some sort of MTW built like a mk12 with a wraith X stock. Or buy something like a thermal scope. That stuff's expensive.

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You can reach that point when you've got so many guns you don't use half of them even if you play on a regular basis. You spend easily hundreds if not thousands before you realize it though. 🧐

Edited by Krisz
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This has made me add up my expenditure too. Seeing as I only started in September, I didn't think I'd spent that much but £885 is more than I'd realised.

 

Main costs are £380 on 2 AEGs, and a shade over £200 on playing fees!

 

Why did no body tell me how expensive it will be? 

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No new rifs for me this year, but I've invested in kit.  1950s Belgian Congo era stuff that will genuinely hold or improve its value.  Bought an unissued Afghanka too.  I don't think that I really need three sets of Afghan era kits; and my Berezkha fixation seems to be getting worse.  Thing is, I've had some kit for 30+ years, worn it a fair bit and its still worth far more than I paid for it.   

 

Still using the bulk BBs I bought last year, did buy a couple of new Li-Pos at £7 each on offer.  Bought the AFUK classic recommendation Bulle MLE webbing, not actually worn in game yet in favour of archaic Soviet gear/Chi-com 56 crap.  

 

Think I must have spent £1300 odd on tickets, at £225 per game weekend for the three of us.  Diesel and scotch and a new tent probably add up to a fair bit, but I've had the best airsoft year ever.  Operation Paramount was particularly stunning.  Saturday night post game, I ate steak and new spuds almost too tired to chew.  Stunning amount of fun.  I've memories that I think I will value as long as I'm coherent so bollox to the cost.   

 

Bloody good post @Gunboat Diplomat, we've sat here for a couple of hours reminiscing about what a damn good airsoft year its been.  Here's to the next!

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14 hours ago, Jacket said:

Great post, it’s nice to see that the largest percentage is actually going on playing.


That’s a good point, I certainly want to maintain that bias. I’m guilty of having a few hobbies where the time and money spent sourcing kit has far exceeded that spent on actually using it. 
 

I’ve got some truly egregious examples from cycling that, thankfully since this an airsoft forum, I don’t need to document. 

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The amount we spend on our hobby is a closely guarded secret even from ourselves 😆

Think of the toys as investments. Take care of them and at least you'll get some money back.

Some of my best purchases have been broken which I fixed to sell for a small profit.

Or occasionally where they increase in value due to rarity etc.

 

I've definitely turned into more of a collector which is getting ridiculous and I keep saying "This is the last one, I don't want any more" but then something comes up which is a great deal, unique looking or collector classic 🤩

I don't have enough wall space to hold them individually and its getting to the point that its a big job to take a picture of all of them 🙄  (I have to do an update next year)

 

At least I don't spend too much on clothing and tactical gear.  I've learned to go lightweight 

 

My son's inheritance isn't going to be money or property so he'll avoid any taxes 😆

 

 

Edited by EDcase
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I had to look back at all my previous posts this year, to work out when I bought stuff, and to remind me of the smaller bits and pieces.  
Given I've been out of work for 7 months of this year (got a job now, just started a couple of weeks ago, thankfully!), I'm pretty much stunned to find out how much I'd spent... 

All the new gats were bought either used or from Action Hobbies boneyard

 

RIF's...

VFC HK416 GBBR
DE M904G
JG G3
CA Scarab
Rossi Sniper

G&G G36
KJW Glock 17 
 

Total: ~£850

I got 'em all at good prices, but still racked up a bigger total than I expected to see 🙃
I so very nearly bought a new VFC MP7 with HPA-tapped drum mag recently.  That would have added another £400, but sense prevailed (unfortunately!)

Accessories...
Balystk regulator

Sotac Eotech clone
Warhead ammo bulk purchase (10kg 0.28s)
m-pact gloves
desert boots
rucksack
mtp combat trousers
416 odin adapter 
2x g36 mags
3x 416 mags
FCU for DE906
barrel extension
masking vinyl
spray paints

misc stuff for building garden backstop

 

Total: ~£450

 

Gamedays...

~10 visits?

more ammo (0.28's from site, 0.20's and 0.40's from eBay)

gas

 

Total: ~£400


  

Edited by RostokMcSpoons
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3 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Given I've been out of work for 7 months of this year

Ouch.  I've been looking for a good few months now (thankfully still gainfully employed but have some doubts over longevity next year) but the market has seemingly tanked compared to a couple of years ago for my line of work.

 

3 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Warhead ammo bulk purchase (10kg 0.28s)

Where did you get these?  That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

 

3 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

RIF's...

VFC HK416 GBBR
DE M904G
JG G3
CA Scarab
Rossi Sniper

G&G G36
KJW Glock 17 
 

Total: ~£850

That is a very healthy haul of goodies.  I've had a look at Action's boneyard a few times and it's either empty or anything decent has already gone.  I think I know who the culprit is now.

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36 minutes ago, Gunboat Diplomat said:

Ouch.  I've been looking for a good few months now (thankfully still gainfully employed but have some doubts over longevity next year) but the market has seemingly tanked compared to a couple of years ago for my line of work.

 

Where did you get these?  That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

 

That is a very healthy haul of goodies.  I've had a look at Action's boneyard a few times and it's either empty or anything decent has already gone.  I think I know who the culprit is now.

 

What is your line of work?  My problem is my skills are primarily in a particular, dying, IT technology.  All the companies that have used it in the past are very actively trying to dump it (or have already)

 

So I've taken a very big pay cut to take a role where I can lean more current tech.  It seemed the only sensible option.

 

The warhead BBs can be ordered here

£91 for 10kg of 0.28 bio's, plus about £13 p&p, iirc 

If you're interested we could do a joint order... £186 would buy 20kg, including the delivery?  The BBs are packed in 1kg bags.  We could do a handover at the first spec ops game next year...?

 

Sorry about nicking the bargains, I've missed out on quite few more I'd have bought too!

 

 

Edited by RostokMcSpoons
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12 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

What is your line of work?  My problem is my skills are primarily in a particular, dying, IT technology.  All the companies that have used it in the past are very actively trying to dump it (or have already)

 

So I've taken a very big pay cut to take a role where I can lean more current tech.  It seemed the only sensible option.

Software QA / automation.  Was in demand a couple of years ago, but I think the affect of higher interest rates drying up the liquidity in the tech world means there is less to go round, so most houses would rather spend on development than QA.  Doesn't help when out of work developers are taking test automation roles - I can't compete with their skills yet!

 

Expect you have made the right choice.  I did something similar some time ago, took a very hefty pay cut to go from being a hardware engineer to software.  Certainly paid off financially but far less satisfying.  If I'm going to royally screw something up, I prefer to use tools to do it rather than a keyboard.

 

AI tooling is going to make it much harder to stand out soon I think, various LLMs are producing solid (if not production ready) code already.

 

26 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

The warhead BBs can be ordered here

£91 for 10kg of 0.28 bio's, plus about £15 p&p, iirc 

Ah splendid, much obliged.  At least if I stock up now I'll have enough to play with if I end up on the job hunt next year!

 

33 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Sorry about nicking the bargains, I've missed out on quite few more I'd have bought too!

You've probably saved me £££s!

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I am actually too scared to add it all up. I’ve started this year in May with my son. I knew that my gun alone was £700 (Krytac incl upgrades from Negative Airsoft and a Vortex scope) so my guess was that I spend about £1000 on Airsoft over the year.

 

When I’ve added it up it actually came to twice the amount. And that didn’t even include what I’ve spent on my son’s games&equipment and a lot of the smaller purchases.

 

 

RIF

 

Gear

 

Pistol

 

Consumable

 

Krytac

350

Vest

40

AAP

90

BBs

80

Optics

200

Plate Carrier

70

Mags

100

Games

200

Negative Airsoft

161

Pouches

30

Gas

30

Oil

5

Mount

22

BDU

40

Holster

30

Tools

30

Sling

20

Shirt

25

 

 

 

 

grip

14

G3 pants

85

 

 

 

 

Mags

36

Knee pads

15

 

 

 

 

Crono

34

Camo

60

 

 

 

 

Fast loader

35

Sniper Veil

55

 

 

 

 

Case

85

Boonie

15

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coms

30

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veil

7.57

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face pro

45

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eye pro

80

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belt

25

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camo paint

20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total

957

 

642.57

 

250

 

315

Grant Total

2164.57

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding AI in software development, I use ChatGPT when I need to figure something out and it really helps when learning a new language. E.g. I am moving from Java (27 years of experience) to Kotlin and I can ask it how I would solve a problem in Kotlin and give it some Java code. BUT!!! It often comes up with stuff that doesn’t exists or it contradicts itself in subsequent requestes.
So yes it can be very helpful but you always have to question the results.
And you need to ask the right questions. I think AI will help with doing a lot of the boiler plate code but you will still need Developers - at least for a while, hopefully long enough for me to retire 😉

 

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  • Moderators

I'm refusing to get involved with this thread, it's downright foolhardy & dangerous, what if my missus got hold of my phone, let's just say it'd be a closed casket service 😬

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5 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

If you're interested we could do a joint order... £186 would buy 20kg, including the delivery?


Just seen this update, good idea, I’ll drop you a PM. 
 

The irony of starting a thread to track Airsoft spending leading directly into more airsoft spending does not escape me. 

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1 hour ago, ParHunter said:

I think AI will help with doing a lot of the boiler plate code but you will still need Developers - at least for a while, hopefully long enough for me to retire 😉

 

A line that I heard, and repeated in my successful job interview was that "programmers won't be replaced by AI, but will be replaced by programmers who use AI".

 

My employers are fine with using whatever tools gets the job done accurately and quickly.

So I'm going to sign up for Co-Pilot, that looks amazing.

 

Back somewhat on-topic, I just scored a new piece of Airsoft kit 🤗.  And for the princely sun of £3.50... I won an OhShiBoom OMFG grenade off Airsoft Competitions.  I only entered it a couple of hours ago on a total whim.  Yay!

 

 

36 minutes ago, Gunboat Diplomat said:


Just seen this update, good idea, I’ll drop you a PM. 
 

The irony of starting a thread to track Airsoft spending leading directly into more airsoft spending does not escape me. 

 

Yes but it has to be said buying BBs is not very optional 😋, and this means we're each buying several month's worth of ammo at a very good discount!

Edited by RostokMcSpoons
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I hadn't spent much on anything Airsoft this year, and only played once. And then I bought an mws. Haven't used a rifle in years and decided it's the only rifle I have any desire to run and might peak my interest in playing again.

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1 hour ago, ParHunter said:

hopefully long enough for me to retire

Everyone in this thread (self included) is working diligently to set their retirement further and further back.  Unless airsoft toys become an appreciating asset. 

 

 

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Coming back into this this year after having stopped due to expensive operations back in 2018/9.

 

In my infinite wisdom, I sold a lot of stuff on or gave it away to those who didn't necessarily have the cash to hand, so apart from one long and sidearm, was pretty much from scratch.

Gear - £735.19

 

WAS DCS SQM3 - £159.95

WAS Sabre Drop Leg - £55.96

WAS Gen 2 Dump Pouch - £26.36

WAS Drop Down Utility Pouch - £37.56

WAS Double Quick Mag - £26.36

Viper Lazer belt - £25

Viper Molle Day Pack £29

Nuprol SF Air helmet - £70

Nuprol Holster - £15

Earmor M32HC + PTT - £150

Gearbox rebuild on my AEG - £30

3x AAP-01 Green Gas Mags - £60

5x CYMA AK Mags - £50

 

Guns - £400

 

RATECH AAC 300BLK 9" (WE Base) with 7 Pmags - £400

 

Gamedays - £260

 

3x Enemy Down - £75 + £30 in petrol

2x Section 8 - £50 + £30 in petrol

1x The Depot 2.0 £35 + £70 in petrol (understandably, not in a huge rush to go back there tbh)

 

Total - £1395.19

 

 

Admittedly, about half of that was since my last actual game, bloody lurgy.

 

Luckily, for most little tidbits of plastic, I can just print it instead of coughing up money, so that's probably saved me at least £100.

 

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