Genuine Question,

[Lakey]

This year people have done a lot of reflecting on life, as a result of the virus and how it has changed our daily lives, so here is a question.

This is prompted by me reflecting on all the wonderful guns that I have passed up on throughout my collecting career, due to a fundamental lack of cash.

So here is the question. Would unlimited financial resources hinder or help your collecting career ?

My thoughts are as follows - Yes - initially of course it would help on the pure issue of buying more guns. But if those guns came too easily, without effort - would you enjoy them so much? To me, part of the joy of collecting, is the dreaming, the desire, the thrill of the hunt, the longing to get that particularly rare model, that has always been just out of reach. The sleeping, living, breathing the thought's of someday laying your hands on the prize etc etc.

If you had endless money to chuck at the hobby, all of those things and loads more would cease to be an issue, you could just outbid everyone and get what ever you wanted, as soon as you wanted it. Surely that would remove so much of the fun out of the hobby, and it would stop being a pleasure ?

Guess we can all dream, but I would be interested in hearing your views.

Cheers

Lakey

[cinedux]

I've always had a 'gun account'(as many do) but I don't want anything that much that I'd 'do the farm ' on it!
Right now.I see NZers payng over a thousand dollars for Zinc CO2 pistols by Crosman and Umarex. Doubt they are wise purchases.......

[Buck25]

Part of the thrill of collecting is the chase. As I said in another post, it took my father and I 50 years to finally acquire a Haviland & Gunn parlor rifle. Another time my Dad found a rare Quackenbush No. 8 air rifle which the gentleman was willing to trade away. Every time we got what he wanted, he changed his mind and would never put a price on it. Fast forward 15 years, one day I stopped by to see the gentleman about the Quackenbush. He was glad to know I was still interested and even put a price on the piece. Thought I could negotiate him down on the price but he figured I couldn't come close to his price. I reached in my pocket and pulled out an envelope with the exact amount that he had asked for the piece. A look of astonishment on his face but gladly handed it over. After 15 years of grief it was finally in our possession. My Dad was elated with the purchase. Though our interest in the piece had diminished my Dad & I knew of a collector who we had promised it too, should we ever acquire the piece. Two weeks later in was in another collection and I was able to trade for a few items that had been on my want list for better than 15 years.

I believe that working for an item is far more pleasing than just having an endless supply of money. Would I like to win the Lottery, sure it would be nice but the enjoyment just wouldn't be there. Regarding the Lottery, yes I did win big time but not monetarily - I have a wonderful wife who puts up with my collecting, two loving children and seven grandchildren, who could ask for more.

[Geezer]

I think you’ve hit a nail on the head.

I don’t think of myself as a proper collector, but I get the collecting bug. As in, if someone offered me a Theoben SLR88UC at a good price, one of my kidneys would be heading to China to pay for it. Probably. Maybe.

The psychological problem with the whole collecting thing is that the search, chase, and acquisition ends up being more fulfilling than the actual owning. Once you own, despite the pleasure of ownership, your mind shifts to finding and getting the next thing that you don’t own but want. You’ve probably found that in your own collecting.

When/if the bank account isn’t an issue (and setting aside other priorities - eg a nicer house, a Ferrari, a Patek Phillipe, a cellar of Chateau Lafite, a yacht or helicopter, a Picasso, a signed first edition James Joyce, or a much younger wife with great tits), are you just able to buy whatever you wanted, or does what you want change according to your resources?

Or to put it another way, as a normal person do you own a rough Triumph Spitfire or MGB, and aspire to own an OK Austin-Healey, but when you win the lottery do you then buy ten Aston Martins? And are you actually any happier as a result?

Maybe like the ex-Mrs Bezos (Amazon) you might better give a load of it to charity?

[where's it gone]

......a wife with great tits......

It's this area I've gave years of intense care and attention, but alas, didn't with the rest of the body. But as apparently that say up north, 'it'll do'.

[Benelli B76]

I've always had a 'gun account'(as many do) but I don't want anything that much that I'd 'do the farm ' on it!
Right now.I see NZers payng over a thousand dollars for Zinc CO2 pistols by Crosman and Umarex. Doubt they are wise purchases.......

I don't mind buying Zinc alloy (Zamak, "Mazak"), a lot of the good old pistols are made from this material, Crosman 600, 677, 451 etc, Schimel, and a lot of others.
This is the material that has to be used as machined steel is not cost efficient for making air pistols due to complexity of shape.
Look at the all steel Inokatsu CO2 1911 at around £700, zinc model £100.

[IMG][/IMG]

[walnutfarmmick]

To sum up - A man's reach should exceed his grasp.

Thankfully I realised that a long time ago ( Thanks, Mum and Dad ) to the point where more than one person has said ' A lottery win would be wasted on you! ' That was never going to happen because I've never bought a ticket, honestly, for fear of losing job satisfaction. It's a matter of concern that, subject to Boris getting/not getting a deal my cattle truck driving may end abruptly, and that's at 74.

I know a lot wouldn't agree with me and that's their privilege.

ATB, Mick

[micky2]

I sometimes think that l had loads of money to buy what ever gun l wanted. but then l come back to realty, and think well l really wouldn't not get any satisfaction out that at all. so l am quite happy with my small budget trying to find guns at the right price or even a bargain one now and again.

[guitardan]

I place a big difference between having enough money to buy what you want, and wasting money on things that are overpriced. However, value is a tricky thing, and if you want something really bad, then it may have a greater value to you than someone else.
But anyway, if anyone has so much money that it is spoiling your hunt for collectable guns, I'll take the money off yer hands to stop you stressing...

[slug-gun]

It seems to me that the fundamental question being asked here is; would winning/acquiring/receiving vast wealth make you happier? For many people, if not the majority, I think the answer is probably not.

Imagine a huge lottery win of say £10,000,000 - the sheer enormity of merely administering that amount of money? Just the aggravation in finding 'financial 'advisors' you could trust to 'advise'?
Who to tell, if anyone. Who to give money to and who not to? Dealing with the potential resentment from family and friends if your good fortune became public knowledge? And so on. The list of potential difficulties would be endless - and so would the stress I suggest.

Then to bring it down to the collecting of airguns. Perhaps knowing you had funds to buy anything at all, would make you dissatisfied with your modest collection of Gats . You may decide that since you can now afford cased Purdey shotguns, then that is what you should buy. But having bought half a dozen you might find that although exquisite they do not actually 'do it' for you. Would you then become dissatisfied. So what would you do next?

Probably the happy medium is best. The pleasure in finding that elusive piece at the right price is hard to beat, but having the resources to sometimes 'go out on a limb' for that special item,is also good to have.
Having bought it, and then deciding if you do actually like it as much as you thought you would, and then what to do with it thereafter, is of course the most personal decision of all? It is why collectors of all persuasions are all a bit mad really!

[Jerry Cornelius]

I don’t think I’d like it. Going to Kempton with a budget and having to decide if this or that is really “worth it” is part of the fun. If you could just buy anything regardless of cost I think I’d feel a bit of a merchant banker tbh. Plus it would feel unfair on everyone else

That probably makes no sense. I guess what I mean is I don’t really want more than I’ve got (lucky me) and I wouldn’t want to risk that changing by suddenly winning the lottery or something.

[SRV1]

Mmmm...Money isn't everything, but, it helps being miserable more bearable...Or, it's what the rich tell us poor to stop us rioting.....I think I could handle the riches better than being skint.

[Thegreg]

Good question. With regards to airguns (even though I don’t consider myself a collector) I’m quite fortunate in that the type of airguns I like (80’s Webley’s and BSA’s) aren’t particularly expensive.

There’s still one or two I’m always on the lookout for, but unlimited finances wouldn’t make any difference to my ability to obtain them as it wouldn’t make them any less scarce.

With regards to other guns my pinnacle would be an English Nitro Express double rifle. I’d also love to own a pair of Holland & Holland’s. These are still way out of reach, but one day I’d like to change that. The thing is, owning ‘fine things’ as an average person would most likely lead to me being afraid to use them. I believe you’d only use an item as it was intended if you could afford to lose it.

Cheers
Greg

[Oddbob08]

Unlimited financials would allow the purchase of a bigger house with space to store all those lovely blasts from the past, with a private shooting range to use them on, and not having to go to work to pay for it all would allow all the time in the world to shoot them all.

Now, back to reality, and even though I have half a dozen vintage guns to build/restore, the wife wants me to get in the car I have on hp and drive her to the mother-in-laws for her to do whatever she does, during my 2 weeks off work, the place that gives me money for doing things I don't want to do in a place I don't want to be.

Cheer up, it's Christmas

[edbear2]

I know someone well who has three estates, a fleet of supercars, Several boats and anything else you could imagine. He is rarely happy, and each new toy seems discarded after minimal use, When I spoke to the guy who did the engraved BSA he said they would do full on engraved and gold inlaid triple sets of matching express rifles for customers who maybe shot them once, I could do a huge post of the things I have seen while working in the Luxury toy sector. To most of these people the stuff gives less enjoyment than I could possibly imagine.

Maybe they become jaded I don't know, or caught up in a race which is unwinnable to get the biggest boat / jet who knows.

I would hope I would be different, but at least three people I can think of who are in the catagory above did not come from money, but clawed their way up so maybe it is a security thing

I would hope I would be different, but the truth is none of us know unless in that position.

ATB, Ed