At what cost?

[ButcherBill]

Just an idle thought on my day off, I'm fully aware of the cost of my collection & even I find it embarassing at times but...

 

After seeing NVG in the classifieds for £4000.00 & over £4000.00 worth of clothing from one seller last week my question is basically how much you willing to pay for 'THE' right kit for your loadout?

 

I think the most I've paid is a shade over £600 for my L86A2 & around £300 for my ACU Molle II (much of that was postage from US & EU), at the same time I'm happy to pay £10 - £20 odd for boneyard items. I know quality outshines quantity but what are your thoughts on kit you have?

[Chev Chelios]

I really hope this thread dies and my Mrs never sees it . 

 

 

[Cannonfodder]

One of my biggest fears is that when I die the missus will sell my kit for what I told her I paid

[hitmanNo2]

It's best not to think about it.

[JinxDuh]

I go back to my plate carrier costing me just over £1k alone and thinking "Wow I spent a lot of money", but then when I factor in some of the cost for my upgraded pews £1k ends up being cheap... Scary stuff. As Hitman said, best to not think about it and just enjoy all the shiny new pews on the wall!

[GiantKiwi]

Probably made worse by having optics on things which are as expensive as what they're mounted to.

 

I'm still technically well inside of what the prices could have been had I bought things new - working on the principle of had I bought them new, I would be significantly worse off.

 

KWA was a trade, so no extra expenditure.

RATech M4 was £400 with 7 WE PMags (the rifle new before shipping and taxes is over £1000 and each of the 6 extra mags were about £40-50, so lower end of £1300ish)

DE N4 cost me £150.

 

Even with the other crap i've bought since for each of them, I'm still in my (convoluted) mind, something like negative £5-600 👀

[Tackle]

While I try to be frugal when buying gats & all the associated kit, if I think of a conservative figure, maybe 1.5 to 2k per year, but then times it by years playing (23ish), that's just mad😱

[RostokMcSpoons]

I have managed to be very frugal over the years, but I think the amount of time I've actually spent playing means it works out as tremendously expensive.
I've got much better value for money from my two £400-500 guitars than I have with any of my boneyard specials.

However, I get a certain level of intangible joy from having toy guns knocking around... I was running around my garden with cheapo plastic guns at an embarrassing late stage of my teenage years, and now I get to do it all over again with much higher quality and more fun versions of the same thing 

Edited Tuesday at 16:42 by RostokMcSpoons

[Krisz]

I don't spend money on gear because I don't see the point. What I mean is that I don't need a Sordin for 300 quid or gucci plate carrier because I don't go to war and it doesn't matter one bit if it's branded Viper Tactical or Agilite. Majority of the people you meet don't care what's on you regardless if you try to impress others or not.

 

Hardcore mil-sim events are obviously different but in that case you know exactly what you signed up for.

There is obviously some truth to "the buy once cry once" motto regarding gear. Can be a good investment as long as you don't end up in the classifieds trying to get rid of it for a small fortune and no one buys it. 🤣

Edited Tuesday at 17:17 by Krisz

[Cannonfodder]

Like others I try not to spend too much on kit. Partly because I'm tight (I must have Scottish ancestry) and partly because I don't see the point in spending extra for Gucci gear when the cheaper options will do for running around for a few hours once a month.

 

My biggest expense is probably travelling to games as I don't drive. Often the price of a train ticket is the same, if not more than, the green fees

1 hour ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

I was running around my garden with cheapo plastic guns at an embarrassing late stage of my teenage years, and now I get to do it all over again with much higher quality and more fun versions of the same thing 

I'm glad I'm not the only one

[The_Lord_Poncho]

I do my best to achieve cost neutrality with my Airsoft expenditure... Well, kind of. I relentlessly hammer my train company for delay repay, and all the compensation is paid into my PayPal account (cough, toy fund), which is then spent on the next Airsoft purchase once it builds to the requisite amount. It makes all those waits on overcrowded trains just that little bit more bearable...

[ruskitseller]

Well lads, you can't take it with you and there's no use crying over spilt milk! Consume and be merry. 

[TrooperX]

I’m not short of a penny but I’m as tight as they come so I’ve mostly done airsofting on a budget over the years.  I was an early adopter of Chinasoft replicas and loved the fact I could import reasonably decent RIFs for a fraction of the premium brands you’d buy in the UK.  I’ve also never held on to stuff that doesn’t get used enough.  It gets sold on so I never have that many RIFs at any one time.

 

I did treat myself once to a 2nd hand Systema PTW that cost me around £1k.  That was an amazing bit of kit and a lot of fun to use.  But when I stopped playing as much I sold that on.  I’m just as happy these days with my CYMA M14 that cost me less than £100 🤣

 

There was a guy at a site I played at recently who had a £2k thermal scope on his rifle.  It was bloody amazing but not something I’d personally spend out on.

 

 

[Impulse]

I'm more prone to spend a lot on guns, so doing a £2k MTW build including all the real-steel external bits isn't a stretch but it is my most expensive build for sure; most of my gun builds tend to be under just under £1000ish, maybe just over if a GBBR because those mags are expensive, and pistols tend to be around £300 - £400 as I tend to obsess over my guns and tweak them as perfectly as I can.

 

But when it comes to other gear I don't have any night vision or thermal stuff, I tend to buy scopes from Aliexpress (expensive ones there for £250ish, but nothing like real-steel optics as I don't think they're needed), my ghillies are all crafted for cheap and while I like to buy decent quality load bearing kit (and have to because cheap stuff just isn't designed for 6'5 people), my Warrior Assault Systems stuff isn't too expensive in the grand scheme of things. I think my plate carrier setup probably totals to just over £300ish, belt kits were probably about £150 each as I have one for standalone and one for with a plate carrier or chest rig. Outside of that, my two split chest rigs were definitely sub £100 each as they're Condor with mostly 8fields pouches.

 

That said, I am considering selling just over half of my gun collection since I don't use a lot of it... I counted up today and it turns out I have 41 guns including pistols, and I think I actually use about 19 of them, 7 of which are pistols because most of my other guns that I use regularly have MEDs

[LMKipper]

It's interesting the things that people justify to themselves - myself included. I was a PTW owner my first time around and I am again now for when it's too cold for my GBBRs. Dry firing is a big mood killer for me, can't quite explain why.

 

I've always seen the value in RS optics (or the posh repro ones now available) as cheapo airsoft ones seem to lose zero instantly and it does my head in. Same for holsters (they're cheap compared to replacing pistols), ear defenders (cheap compared to ears) and eye pro (cheap compared to eyes). But lots on plate carriers/helmets etc has always gone over my head.

 

Ps. If you think you might trim down @Impulse let me know if a gas sniper rifle is on the cards. I've wanted a nice one since I played alongside Doc and his Tanaka at LFU.

[Impulse]

9 hours ago, LMKipper said:

Ps. If you think you might trim down @Impulse let me know if a gas sniper rifle is on the cards. I've wanted a nice one since I played alongside Doc and his Tanaka at LFU.

 

Sorry, those are the ones I tend to use and so aren't on the chopping block. Mostly just thinking of getting rid of... essentially everything else  

[Skara]

17 hours ago, ButcherBill said:

how much you willing to pay for 'THE' right kit for your loadout?

Whatever is necessary as long as the thing I buy suits my needs.

 

Sometimes I think I'm deranged when I look at how much I spent, just this summer my bank account got € 2000 lighter because I bought a thermal weapon sight, but that purchase enabled me to extend my effectiveness during night/long tournaments since now I can see people without being seen..

In any case, the things I buy are mostly genuine/RS, but for certain items that I don't have particular strength/durability/comfort requirements I'm fine with repros.

 

Toy gnu wise, I could have spent a half of what I actually did, but I love to experiment and try out (some) novelties or different approaches.

Also I like shiny new things so sometimes I end up with completely unnecessary stuff

[rj1986]

It's a strange one. I would think carefully about buying a £1,500 rif, but nearly as hard about buying 3 pistols at £200 and 2 aeg's at £600 in the space of a year.

 

 

But i also now tend to look in the "higher-end" spectrum of stuff, and would rather buy at a higher price point for better quality unless there is a reason not to.

Like i would use a Crye PC over a chinesium version due to build quality, fitment and so on. But still use £20 weapon lights as its a bulb on a battery and I don't see there being a £ to quality improvement for the 4 minutes it's on during a game.

 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

I definitely prefer variety over having a few extremely expensive guns. I've built up rather a lot of decent (enough) performers - most of which are on the budget end of the spectrum, but feel solid enough, look the part, and achieve good accuracy and range (especially if I've successfully tweaked them). I just enjoy having a variety of historic guns, smgs, long rifles, a few pistols, a single sniper etc.

 

If I was purely going for outright performance on every game morning, I'd only ever select a particular lightweight HPA DMR build that I have, and an AAP with a great hop inside. But in reality, I get a lot of pleasure from simply rotating through all my variety of AEGs, my four HPA options, and swapping between my pistols for secondary. Unless I'm having an off day, I usually achieve a roughly similar favourable kill/killed ratio irrespective of whether I have my 'worst' performing gun in my hands.

 

It's the same for my clothing/kit - I derive an odd amount of pleasure from wearing what I might view as 'interesting' patterns - plain olive, classic tiger stripe, partizan, and the more mainstream but annoyingly effective MC Tropic. I'd rather have a variety of comfortable, functional, robust yet cheaper gear that I cycle between to keep things interesting for me, than a single set of uber expensive e.g. crye kit.

[qhdcsx]

Well its the first thread i wanna say sth. hahaha

 

As for me, cost always happened in 3 perspectives. I love both expensive or cheap guns and gears if it like me feel "worth" . Like GHK 74M with full magpul furniture and upgraded may cost £1000. Specna Arms core cheaper than £100 second hand, Ori lindnerhof stuffs (yeah im a flecktarn favor) or panda studio £10 G3 pants replica. But I also happy to try some expensiveparts for upgrade... as Maxx hop, PDI and Sonlink brushless motors and sth else....

But as a professional auditor have to say sth that cost are different with expense. I believe that bought high price guns could never made your money say good bye to you but just change a style (😁)

The thing that really hurts is shipping cost and inboard tax.  I bought a VFC 417 GBB from HK and the extra expense totally over £200😭. moreover, repairing is another "high cost" thing. I totally spent over £ 300 in different airsoft studios. And at now my NGRS scar's mosfet was gone and may I need to spend more £150 for a new Titian.

Oh, one more thing, especially for those who are single. A roomful of tactical gear and toy guns, as well as the occasional day-long run in the wilderness to get covered in mud, is always going to make your Mrs complain. It's time to prepare gifts such as lipstick or makeup to help you "survive" at home👍

Edited Wednesday at 11:24 by qhdcsx

[mirinjawbro]

like everything ive ever owned. sadly the thought of having it is always better than when you get it.

 

my first gun ever was a TM .44 silver desert eagle springer. back in 2001. i crave that excitement but it has never ever come. GBB. GBBR. sniper. so i spend more and more and hope.

 

edit-   is there any science why we get this? almost everyone says the same. cars. clothes. watches. whatever

Edited Wednesday at 18:07 by mirinjawbro

[qhdcsx]

10 minutes ago, mirinjawbro said:

Honestly, the two happiest moments for many things are when you receive them and when you sell them

 

[EDcase]

Most guys have an expensive hobby of some sort.  Airsoft isn't the most expensive one out there.

I'm with Poncho in that I prefer a variety of cheaper/bargain toys rather than spending a lot on one or two great performers.

I am now more of a collector than a player and I regard my toys as an investment.

Gear/costumes are also easy to exchange. (got rid of most of my stuff when I realised I prefer going light)

[ButcherBill]

I feel the same way, my collections/focus changes from year to year...

 

Motorbikes

Garden/pond

Vinyl

Airsoft/militaria

Scale models

 

My collections have a value & can be sold but over how long a time period?

I justify it by kidding myself & could spend the money on holidays/nights out/ alcohol/cigarettes etc.

 

Deep down I know I should have spent the money on decorating & furnishing but hey ho.

[qhdcsx]

17 minutes ago, ButcherBill said:

Interesting, most of guys who like airsoft I know are always like fishing, scale model, vehicle guitars,or 1 or 2 of these hobbies

 

Edited Wednesday at 18:41 by qhdcsx