I've found my collecting criteria has changed radically over the years, with no apparent logic to it at all!

At one time I found prewar underlever BSAs deeply unattractive, mainly because they lacked a forend (although I never had this issue with the Webley Mk2 Service). Fast forward a year and I was an avid early BSA collector.

At another time I collected almost every postwar German match spring rifle ever made because (a) I found the precision, clock-type manufacture attractive and the mechanisms - especially if recoilless - ingenious (b) I could buy them relatively cheaply on eGun.de back in the days when the pound was strong against the euro (c) I couldn't afford them when I was young but lusted after them and (d) because for the most part they used blued steel and walnut, a combination I still find irresistible.

These days I collect spring air pistols because they are easy to shoot indoors and to store, but I still have quite a few rifles too which are 'keepers'.

I dread waking up one day and finding plastic-stocked, painted air rifles strangely attractive.