Genuine Question,

[les allam]

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

The first paragraph above, would be my option.
I am happy with what I have to be honest, but there is always something special to lust after.
Les..

[Oddbob08]

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

They do say that money can't buy happiness, however, it can buy a better class of misery......

[Binners]

I am afraid if I stumbled across £5m, my collection of 30ish rifles and a handful of pistols would not change. My van has 250,000miles the clock, so a new shape Transit for me, then houses for the family would eat the rest.

Would I buy a Girondoni? Nah

[dvd]

Having loads of cash and collecting are uneasy bedfellows I think. On the face of it, having easy cash makes it very easy to acquire something, not only collectibles. The thrill of pulling the trigger on a purchase that was a long time coming is like the cherry on the cake.
Having lots of cash usually means that the cherry is often missing on the cake which makes the satisfaction of acquisition very short lived.

[edbear2]

I am afraid if I stumbled across £5m, my collection of 30ish rifles and a handful of pistols would not change. My van has 250,000miles the clock, so a new shape Transit for me, then houses for the family would eat the rest.

Would I buy a Girondoni? Nah

Don't worry mate..If I won I would get one gold plated and give it to you just to annoy you

Would I would do for myself , if I won, would be to have a perfect replica or original old Fairground gallery made, with 10 positions, all prewar BSA's and have it taken and set up at steam fairs for folks to enjoy, maybe see if the Black Country Museum wanted a replica Lincoln Jeffries shop,........And as an indulgence...... have a set of perfect scale working BSA's made for plinking from my sunbed.

Who knows, might get back into wandering around flea markets again, but would be able to do it all over the world where stuff was different!

The rest I would probably give away to help folk out to be honest, or help out small charitys, If it was a huge Euro win, then NX611 Just Jane would be flying again

ATB, ED

[evert]

Dont really considered myself a collector, but more of a tinkerer and someone who enjoys shooting, learning about and comparing airguns.
I like working on springers, and learning more about what makes them good and what makes them bad, and comparing the different models and mechanisms,
I also like to find old guns at car boot sales and markets, and getting them to work properly or as best as possible withing their limits.
Endless funds wouldnt change this much. I'd probably pay down the mortgage and get some rebuilding work done on the house, but I already have too many airguns to really be motivated to go out and buy everything that exists.

[cinedux]

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]

I've my share of old alloy pistols.I just balk at say Walther PPK's-a year ago at around $300 now selling at a thou because they are prohibited imports

[ggggr]

Like a few others in this section, I dont consider myself a collector, but I like to tinker.
I suppose in any form of collecting, there are people with money who will just outbid everyone. There are people on here who will pay quite a lot of money when something really collectable comes up as money doesnt seem to be a problem. If you have the money it doesnt really matter. If they put the minimum price of a unit of booze up or the price of petrol, it doesnt really matter to people who are wadded. I heard of one bloke on here years ago who was wadded and I think the thrill he got was getting the most money he could for anything he sold, whether it was a complete gun or spares. Also there was someone who seemed to get the thrill of buying stuff at car boot sales and then telling people the bits were not obtainable and how much the gun would be worth broken on the bay of evil.

If I had plenty of dosh, there are a few guns i would try to buy because I'd like to see if i liked then or not. There are a few others that I'd probably buy (maybe like the Acvoke ,Thunderbolt or Hubertus) that I am pretty sure i wouldnt like, but if you sold them on and lost a few quid it wouldnt matter.

I've never been able to justify getting an LP53, but Id love to pick up a cheapo Predom Lucznik.
A few of those Webley copies would be looked for or try to prise (or price?) them out of CCDJG's hands

Rifle wise, I'd like to get a few pre war rifles and a couple of the bolt action ones to try.

I think where it might make a difference to me is when you buy something that is rough and you know it can cost a lot of money to get it sorted and it is just not worth it. Well it is nice to get them going and it would be nice to be able to pass on the odd thing to other people who are interested and not be too bothered about being out of pocket.

Someone on here the other year (Shootfish?) had a Pre war Webley Junior with a screw at the side of the frame. Something like that is what interests me from the hobby and tinkering point of view rather than out and out collecting. I'd rather leave the mint condition stuff to the serious collectors with the white cotton gloves

[keith66]

Over the years i have acquired a lot of air rifles & disposed of a lot of them. All had some downside or another which as i was primarily a shooter rather than collector made me lose interest.
The mint Sharp ace i had, trigger like a rusty bear trap, lost intest & sold it, no regret, would i buy another? No way.
I tend to get attached to certain rifles on account of great shots i have done with them. My old Mk3 Webley is one such, great hunts & scores of rabbits, squizzers & pigeons.
Two Imp mod D Bsa's one very battered whose barrel is so worn out it shoots patterns rather than groups but no way will i ever sell it.
Its very good condition mate that is a first class shooter ditto.
A friend is an obsessive collector who simply has to have what he wants. Then puts it away never to be looked at again. He now has so many I wonder if he actually knows what he has any more.

I know another bloke who does the same with wooden boats, he buys the dream but then doesnt look after them but cannot bear to part with any of them, result is he has a large collection of derelict wrecks disintegrating all over southern england, all were beautiful craft in their day but are now mostly so far gone that they will end up being scrapped. Whats the point of that?

[Rair rifles]

I agree with you totally the harder you strive for something the more you admire your gain Also the only difference a lottery win might do to my collecting is buy me somewhere better to shoot