Collecting- where do you draw the line......

[SRV1]

It only stops when one is dead (hopefully, we will all live to amass a huge collection by then...).

It can be a dangerous affliction - check out a "Bargain of a Lifetime" in this Collectable Section...the temptation is too much, too much......be warned.

All the best to all.....

[Amac]

Love the video Matt. You certainly have some collection!!!

Andy

[I. J.]

Think its time for a song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZk0RdzDrVs

I like, er, mine better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgdO0SegfO0

[Amac]

Yep, a remarkable likeness there I think. McDs ?

[micky]

Agreed. And also let's not forget the massive contribution to vintage airguns of John Atkins , who keeps on churning out top quality articles month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

If you put them all together, they would add up to the biggest vintage airguns encyclopedia ever written!

And the articles are not all stuck in those dusty magazine volumes in the loft any more, thankfully. Strictly for my own personal use, I've been compiling collections on different subjects from just the last six years or so of Mr Atkins' articles that are downloadable as PDFs with an Air Gunner digital subscription, and they are superb works of scholarship.

It means that I can now 'reach' for, eg., a 43-page digital volume on the history of Oskar Will's Venus Waffenwerk. Who else is currently supplying this kind of scholarly reference work?

I to have to thank or blame John Atkins, L.Wesley, and Dennis Hiller, for my collecting bug if they hadn't wrote those books and articles all those years ago, l would have missed out on years of enjoyment.

[Garvin]

I to have to thank or blame John Atkins, L.Wesley, and Dennis Hiller, for my collecting bug if they hadn't wrote those books and articles all those years ago, l would have missed out on years of enjoyment.

Yes Mick, Dennis's books were also particularly instrumental in me becoming a collector at the age of about 17. I still have my editions of Hiller from that time, and very worn copies they are too!

Re. John Atkins' work, I should add that it's not just the depth of knowledge behind the writing that makes the articles so noteworthy, it's the quality of the illustrations too. Him being a graphic artist by trade means that every page is a visual treat, and the quality of the photographs is second to none, especially in these days of routine colour printing.

I know I'm being very enthusiastic in my appreciation, but the fact is that when Mr Atkins is gone, there'll be nobody with the range of skills/contacts/knowledge/resources that he has, to replace him.

Fortunately, the body of work he'll leave behind is sufficient to nourish future generations of collectors. I just wish it could be gathered all together in one place, either in a hard copy book (massive, eh Trev?!) or in a digital format, so everyone can get access to it. The articles should ideally be OCR scanned into a single, searchable digital volume. Various online newspaper/magazine archives around today show this is technically achievable relatively easily, given the will and money. But is any publisher going to do it anytime soon? At least copyright shouldn't be a problem, as it is with compilations involving multiple authors.

[boozybloke]

The line is so far away it can be mistaken as a scratch on the lens..
Didn't you know? The one with the most toys when you die, wins.
Personally, I can't afford to collect airguns, due to the zippo, casino chip and knife collections, but if I could I would keep going until there was; a) no more room, b) no more money, c) no more airguns.
Once you stop, you are no longer a collector, but a curator..

[silva]

“There are people like Senhor José everywhere, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their spare time, by collecting airguns and they probably do so out of something that we might call metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day always comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its beginnings, everything returns to chaos.”
― José Saramago, All the Names

[Garvin]

“There are people like Senhor José everywhere, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their spare time, by collecting airguns and they probably do so out of something that we might call metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day always comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its beginnings, everything returns to chaos.”
― José Saramago, All the Names

Very profound, Morgan.

Now did you add the words "collecting airguns" to the quote yourself, perchance?

I can feel the chaos returning, must buy another airgun...

[Lakey]

For the past few years I have been telling myself that I am over the addiction of buying more airguns, and that I have more than enough. I try not going into the gunshops which have helped me in the past, just in case I run headlong into another gun that I want to add to the collection. Occasionally I look on gunstar,and that well known Militaria sellers site, and use the often inflated prices as a way of justifying my decision to quit, thinking that I could never afford those prices anyway.

I get on - just, living day by day & and keeping the cravings at bay, trying to steer clear of any temptation, then along comes Holts with an auction which is 100% devoted to pre-war BSA's.

What the hell is a bloke to do.

I look at the guns, then I look at the estimates (Yes,yes pie in the sky- I know) and I have strong urge to offer them a home - like ALL OF THEM !!!

Then I realise, that if you're a collector/hoarder (not strictly sure what the difference is) the temptation is always there, and even though you can suppress it for periods, it always comes back with a vengeance in the end.

We're all doomed

[Geezer]

“There are people like Senhor José everywhere, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their spare time, by collecting airguns and they probably do so out of something that we might call metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day always comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its beginnings, everything returns to chaos.”
― José Saramago, All the Names

Wow. That is Zen. I imagine David Carradine saying that to Little Grasshopper.

[silva]

Very profound, Morgan.

Now did you add the words "collecting airguns" to the quote yourself, perchance?

I can feel the chaos returning, must buy another airgun...

There was a bit of poetic license

[micky]

Yes Mick, Dennis's books were also particularly instrumental in me becoming a collector at the age of about 17. I still have my editions of Hiller from that time, and very worn copies they are too!

Re. John Atkins' work, I should add that it's not just the depth of knowledge behind the writing that makes the articles so noteworthy, it's the quality of the illustrations too. Him being a graphic artist by trade means that every page is a visual treat, and the quality of the photographs is second to none, especially in these days of routine colour printing.

I know I'm being very enthusiastic in my appreciation, but the fact is that when Mr Atkins is gone, there'll be nobody with the range of skills/contacts/knowledge/resources that he has, to replace him.

Fortunately, the body of work he'll leave behind is sufficient to nourish future generations of collectors. I just wish it could be gathered all together in one place, either in a hard copy book (massive, eh Trev?!) or in a digital format, so everyone can get access to it. The articles should ideally be OCR scanned into a single, searchable digital volume. Various online newspaper/magazine archives around today show this is technically achievable relatively easily, given the will and money. But is any publisher going to do it anytime soon? At least copyright shouldn't be a problem, as it is with compilations involving multiple authors.

Hi Danny that was my thoughts as well who will take over from J.A. he is allmost irraplaceable. l was always hopeing he would write a book but has he as said it would be an enormous task time wise, it is so much easier now for new collectors to find information about nearly all the airguns ever made with all the latest books and forums that we have available now.
Which reminds me when is our own J.M. going to publish his book on BSAs?, another one to look forward to.

[NTSOG]

G'day all,

I walked out of the local gun shop yesterday having collected my latest air rifle, a mint 1983 HW 55 CM, explaining that my next gun, a soon to arrive FWB 600, will be my last. The staff just laughed at me! They did not believe me!

Jim

Ballarat, Victoria, Australia


PS. Don't mention the cricket!

[johnbaz]

I thought I had a half decent collection with 138 guns but I feel woefully inadequate after hearing of a couple of friends collections on Facebook!!

They don't know what a line is!! One has 'enough guns to shoot a different one each day- It would take over two years to shoot the whole collection'

The other, A lad off another Airgun forum put a pic of 380 cased and mint pistols in one room!! He has 11 rooms!!!



John