In Defense of Collectors…

By: Brandon
November 18th, 2010

Never have I gotten so many puzzled looks from other airsofters as when I discuss collecting.  It seems foreign to people that one would want to accumulate guns without blindly upgrading the piss out of them, owning one or two guns and having to trade around every time your tastes change, or playing with them until they disintegrate in the owners’ hands from overuse.

Collecting is not a sin.  If anything, collectors preserve generations of old and interesting guns that fall out of availability for others to enjoy.  I’ve gathered seven of my best arguments for collecting in this thread to convince you all that collectors aren’t monsters; solely misunderstood.

Reason 1:  Collection Pictures

Seriously… what’s more fun than a huge collection picture?  Oh yeah, several collection pictures.  Seriously, one of the more rewarding things is watching your collection expand in the group pictures you will inevitably take to show the internet how classy your collection is.  You can also trace the evolution of your collection through various stages; observe:

January 2005:  My 2 MP5s, a Pistol, and a Friend’s Aug

Summer 2005:  Things are getting a little more complicated… Note the broken MP5k on the left.

Fall 2005:  Things are moving along a bit quicker now…

Fall 2006… A year has passed, and things appear to have hit critical mass…

Fall 2007… Another year, another jump (Mike contributed a bit to this one too, to be fair)

Summer 2008:  A lot of pistols are and rifles are shelved, and I’ve gone crazy.

Winter 2009:  Entropy has been achieved (Mike is here again in small doses)

Like I said, its fun to see your collection evolve and consider how it pertains to what was going on in life at the time.  Unless I’m Crazy.  I’m almost certainly crazy.  Collection pictures are pretty excellent, anyhow, and one great part about collecting is being able to take them on your own.

Reason 2:  Knowledge!

A solemn universal truth about airsoft is that replicas require maintenance to stay serviceable.  The upside to having a lot of guns is that they all need to be serviced, and unless you’re made of money for your friendly local tech (Which you aren’t, as you spend all of your airsoft money on guns… you’re a collector remember?), you’re forced to gain familiarity with all different kinds of replicas.  This leads into the baby steps of understanding your gearboxes, and teching your own guns… then other people’s guns… then several other peoples guns… then writing a blog about the whole mess.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that collecting forces you to get experience to keep your fleet in good shape.  Until you have a second replica, you can’t afford to have a broken replica due to lost valuable playtime.

Reason 3:  Collecting from a Movie or Videogame

Oh no, a stereotype?  How could this be?  I don’t care.  When I was a kid, I played a lot of a Half Life 1 modification called Firearms.  This was the first game that I had found where I was exposed to a heaping dose of real-world weapons, and I absolutely adored it.  Why not Counter Strike?  That’s what hackers cared about at the time, leaving me wide open to enjoy my firearms-playing bliss.  What was even more enjoyable was the large community of alternate weapons models, which were excellent.  I spent more than a few late nights playing Firearms and checking out new community weapon models and animations.  That granted, Firearms has been a huge influence on my collecting.  While I haven’t found one of everything from the game yet, I’m getting there.

I’ll bet you thought I was going to say Call of Duty didn’t you?  I hate Call of Duty, for the record, but I respect your right to collect every gun from the game.  Go get em tiger!

Reason 4:  Forced Organization

I’ve never been the neatest person, but keeping a large collection requires at least some kind of organization.  When I moved into my house near the end of college, I turned the above pile of crap into the wall that kept my social life good and uncomplicated for the remainder of college.

Collecting forces one to stay organized, or risk losing stuff in the depths of your ever accumulating boxes, parts bins, etc.

Reason 5 why collecting is Awesome:  You don’t have to be serious anymore!

Once you have so many big boy guns, you really don’t have to care anymore about how ‘serious’ or ‘milsim’ you look, because you have other kit to fit the bill if you feel like being a big boy player.  That said, you can start to play around with some of the extra and make things that actually turn out reasonably interesting entertaining.  I dubbed the above, HelpAR.  And I painted it gold.

There is nothing like showing up to a serious skirmish with the above.  People lighten up quite quickly.

Reason 6 why collecting is Awesome:  Entropy!

I don’t have a picture for this one, but here is an observation Mike and I have had over a few swap meets.  I always walk away with significant amounts of money when I haul my collection down to a swap meet, and typically come back with as many guns as I brought, and sometimes more.  Larger collections draw larger crowds to see your toys,  you get more interest in what you brought, and typically wind up with advantageous trade/sale conditions because of it.  That and I love going to swap meets with my collection just to let other people see some of the rarer stuff I have that they might not get to look at on a given Saturday.  Either way, swap meets rock with a big collection.

Reason 7:  Real Guns Are Expensive

Seriously, have you priced ammo these days?  One day’s shooting can easily set you back a reasonably good AEG (that you can put thousands of rounds through in a day for about $7).  That’s not even getting into buying real firearms in general, given that prices are artificially high due to ridiculous speculators.

If you’re interested in the guns themselves like I am, airsoft lets you have a replica at an extremely attractive fractional price.  If you’re in shooting for shooting however, disregard this section and go shoot someone(thing).  The army is great for that.

Conclusion:

So, the above is my list of defenses for collecting.  Is it the essence of airsofting?  Of course not!  Not even a little bit.  Is it part of what makes airsoft an engaging and entertaining hobby?  I think so.  Part of the hobby is the variety of whats out there, and the fact that you can have your own little arsenal at home.  Some of us just over-do it.  And some of us continue to over-do it.  That’s ok.  If you need me, I’ll be over there hoarding some more stuff…