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Newbie Discussion / Re: Newbie FAQ UPDATED 6/12/03
« on: March 11, 2015, 09:43:03 PM »
Section Ten – Shopping Advice:
- Research first, buy later
Do NOT first buy an item from a retailer or bid on an item on eBay and -then- come on-line to ask “Hey, I’ve just bought X AEG or Y GBB, is it any good?”
You’re too late.
If you’ve lucked out, you may have made a decent buy. But if not, you’ve already made a mistake that you cannot undo.
Research and do your homework FIRST and THEN shop and buy.
Anything else is outright stupid .
You wouldn’t buy a car without first test driving it or reading in the magazines what they thought of the car, right? Same idea here.
- Who’s got the best prices?
Finally, having done all of your homework, you’re ready to make the purchase. Now, then, who has the best prices?
Again, here, a simple-minded “can anyone tell me who has the best prices” post will only land you in more trouble.
Prices change rapidly in today’s highly competitive airsoft market – retailers and private re-sellers/brokers are now in the practice of running “specials” all throughout the year. As such, you can never be guaranteed of getting the best price if you simply trust someone’s word for it (it may have been the cheapest place for him a month ago, a week ago, or even just a day ago – but the prices may have already changed in the interim).
Use the “Soft Links” on the AirsoftZone, the www.AirsoftPlayers.com “Seller Ratings” section, or the Arnie’s Airsoft (UK) “Web-Links” page to take you to the various retailers’ commercial websites. Spend a moment and look through their pages and note down their prices on a piece of paper (don’t forget cost of shipping!), and then, e-mail a few for a complete price quote, including shipping – and to check for item availability. Only by doing your own leg-work can you be guaranteed to get the best prices.
- Which retailer can I trust?
AirsoftZone offers a “Retailers” section. Fire up the AirsoftZone Forum search-function to help you locate past posts in this “Retailers” section that bears your interest. Remember, it does no good to just post a question asking about a particular retailer – by doing so, you’re at the mercy of a few members who deem it worth their while to respond to you. Instead, take the time to search the past posts to see what has been posted about these retailers IN THE PAST. It’s the history of each retailer that counts.
Similarly, check out AirsoftPlayers’ “Seller Ratings” section. It’s on their pull-down navigation menu off the main page. Give each of your potential retailers’ ratings section not only a cursory look to see how many positives and negatives they’ve accumulated, but rather, pay attention to what has ACTUALLY BEEN SAID about them within those rating posts.
Regardless of where you get your opinions from or where you eventually decide to shop from, remember that there will always be those who complain about retailer X or Y. It’s an unavoidable part of business – no one can satisfy their customers 100%, all of the time. This is particularly true of the Internet, where everyone and their uncle can come in, stand on the soap-box , and put their own two bits out for everyone to hear, no matter how right or how wrong.
Just look at on-line reviews of even top-notch hotels like The Ritz Carlton and The Four Seasons.
World renowned service, yet, people still complain. Why?
Because you always remember that one red traffic light that you hit on your way home from work or school.
Same idea here – the negatives, no matter how small, tend to stand out – while unless you get absolutely stellar service, you just don’t seem to remember, as clearly, your positive experiences.
Look not only at the individual complaints, but rather, look at the larger picture.
If a retailer has had 100,000 orders filled, and has 1000 complaints, is that any worse than a retailer who has only filled 1000 orders, but has had a 50-complaint history? The first case has a error-rate of only 1%, but the second retailer has had a 5% complaint history. Lower number of complaints doesn’t mean much – it’s how many complaints were made against how many orders were filled that’s the true concern.
Sure, you may hear that Wargamer’s Club Shop, RedWolf, or DEN Trinity may have had a number of complaints against them, but considering that they’ve been in-business for so many years and have served so many hobbyists to their complete satisfaction, the few complaints that you hear is next to nothing in terms of significance. So what if a smaller retailer has their entire past history of 100 orders perfectly? These larger retailers have filled tens of thousands of such orders without trouble.
Remember this difference during your research.
- Buying off eBay or off hobbyist Forum or other enthusiast website “classified” pages
When buying off eBay and other such auction pages, the same rule would apply to your airsoft purchase as any other purchase. Look at the seller feedback ratings.
When buying from a website “classified” page, check the AirsoftZone “Arms Deals Seller/Buyer Reviews” sub-Forum and JayKay’s Airsoft Buyer/Seller Review Forums (at: http://www.jkcns.com). Both will offer feedback on potential sellers and buyers.
Don’t skip this homework – failure to research your seller/buyer is the surest way to get scammed.
- Legal concerns
A. Purchasing overseas and importing
First and foremost, currently, import purchase of any type of airsoft replicas is fully legal for the United States at the federal level.
The less-scrupulous Stateside retailers will tell you that such import may be illegal (i.e. within the past year, a well-known US retailer was noted to have cited that GBB replicas are illegal – which is completely and utterly false) or may be very high-risk. That is just simply not true at all. Airsoft is legal, in all forms, for import into the US by individual retail purchase. And provided that the items satisfy US import codes (covered briefly and basically below), their entry is virtually guaranteed.
The only provisions required for legal importation of these goods, purchased from overseas retailers, is that they bear muzzle orange (with respect to color, depth/length, and "permanency") and that their offending trademarks are properly covered or obliterated to-specs.
However, much of this compliance with barrel/muzzle orange paint and trademark coverage issue depends highly on the variable interpretation of such laws by individual Customs inspection officers.
Example?
Western Arms actually has a true “International License” pertaining to their Strayer Voigt Infinity, Beretta, and Wilson Combat replicas. These goods bear trademark rights that actually are truly “international,” and should allow their entry into the US . However, from most retailers, they are still are covered-up. Why?
Although *_WE_* might know that the goods carry actual licensed trademarks, and the individual retailers might know, too – the Customs Inspector checking through our replicas may not be aware of such a special circumstance.
Unless something can be done to improve their knowledge, I truly do not think that having such items pass-through with full trademarks is a worthy risk for any consumer here in the US .
Legal or not, your inspecting Customs agent just might not know better -- and this has happened many more times than I'd care to count. As such, when importing goods, always ask your retailers to properly cover the trademarks (if desired, most of these coverage methods, just as with most barrel-orange painting, can be 100% “restored” to “collectors’ condition” once you’ve received them).
- Research first, buy later
Do NOT first buy an item from a retailer or bid on an item on eBay and -then- come on-line to ask “Hey, I’ve just bought X AEG or Y GBB, is it any good?”
You’re too late.
If you’ve lucked out, you may have made a decent buy. But if not, you’ve already made a mistake that you cannot undo.
Research and do your homework FIRST and THEN shop and buy.
Anything else is outright stupid .
You wouldn’t buy a car without first test driving it or reading in the magazines what they thought of the car, right? Same idea here.
- Who’s got the best prices?
Finally, having done all of your homework, you’re ready to make the purchase. Now, then, who has the best prices?
Again, here, a simple-minded “can anyone tell me who has the best prices” post will only land you in more trouble.
Prices change rapidly in today’s highly competitive airsoft market – retailers and private re-sellers/brokers are now in the practice of running “specials” all throughout the year. As such, you can never be guaranteed of getting the best price if you simply trust someone’s word for it (it may have been the cheapest place for him a month ago, a week ago, or even just a day ago – but the prices may have already changed in the interim).
Use the “Soft Links” on the AirsoftZone, the www.AirsoftPlayers.com “Seller Ratings” section, or the Arnie’s Airsoft (UK) “Web-Links” page to take you to the various retailers’ commercial websites. Spend a moment and look through their pages and note down their prices on a piece of paper (don’t forget cost of shipping!), and then, e-mail a few for a complete price quote, including shipping – and to check for item availability. Only by doing your own leg-work can you be guaranteed to get the best prices.
- Which retailer can I trust?
AirsoftZone offers a “Retailers” section. Fire up the AirsoftZone Forum search-function to help you locate past posts in this “Retailers” section that bears your interest. Remember, it does no good to just post a question asking about a particular retailer – by doing so, you’re at the mercy of a few members who deem it worth their while to respond to you. Instead, take the time to search the past posts to see what has been posted about these retailers IN THE PAST. It’s the history of each retailer that counts.
Similarly, check out AirsoftPlayers’ “Seller Ratings” section. It’s on their pull-down navigation menu off the main page. Give each of your potential retailers’ ratings section not only a cursory look to see how many positives and negatives they’ve accumulated, but rather, pay attention to what has ACTUALLY BEEN SAID about them within those rating posts.
Regardless of where you get your opinions from or where you eventually decide to shop from, remember that there will always be those who complain about retailer X or Y. It’s an unavoidable part of business – no one can satisfy their customers 100%, all of the time. This is particularly true of the Internet, where everyone and their uncle can come in, stand on the soap-box , and put their own two bits out for everyone to hear, no matter how right or how wrong.
Just look at on-line reviews of even top-notch hotels like The Ritz Carlton and The Four Seasons.
World renowned service, yet, people still complain. Why?
Because you always remember that one red traffic light that you hit on your way home from work or school.
Same idea here – the negatives, no matter how small, tend to stand out – while unless you get absolutely stellar service, you just don’t seem to remember, as clearly, your positive experiences.
Look not only at the individual complaints, but rather, look at the larger picture.
If a retailer has had 100,000 orders filled, and has 1000 complaints, is that any worse than a retailer who has only filled 1000 orders, but has had a 50-complaint history? The first case has a error-rate of only 1%, but the second retailer has had a 5% complaint history. Lower number of complaints doesn’t mean much – it’s how many complaints were made against how many orders were filled that’s the true concern.
Sure, you may hear that Wargamer’s Club Shop, RedWolf, or DEN Trinity may have had a number of complaints against them, but considering that they’ve been in-business for so many years and have served so many hobbyists to their complete satisfaction, the few complaints that you hear is next to nothing in terms of significance. So what if a smaller retailer has their entire past history of 100 orders perfectly? These larger retailers have filled tens of thousands of such orders without trouble.
Remember this difference during your research.
- Buying off eBay or off hobbyist Forum or other enthusiast website “classified” pages
When buying off eBay and other such auction pages, the same rule would apply to your airsoft purchase as any other purchase. Look at the seller feedback ratings.
When buying from a website “classified” page, check the AirsoftZone “Arms Deals Seller/Buyer Reviews” sub-Forum and JayKay’s Airsoft Buyer/Seller Review Forums (at: http://www.jkcns.com). Both will offer feedback on potential sellers and buyers.
Don’t skip this homework – failure to research your seller/buyer is the surest way to get scammed.
- Legal concerns
A. Purchasing overseas and importing
First and foremost, currently, import purchase of any type of airsoft replicas is fully legal for the United States at the federal level.
The less-scrupulous Stateside retailers will tell you that such import may be illegal (i.e. within the past year, a well-known US retailer was noted to have cited that GBB replicas are illegal – which is completely and utterly false) or may be very high-risk. That is just simply not true at all. Airsoft is legal, in all forms, for import into the US by individual retail purchase. And provided that the items satisfy US import codes (covered briefly and basically below), their entry is virtually guaranteed.
The only provisions required for legal importation of these goods, purchased from overseas retailers, is that they bear muzzle orange (with respect to color, depth/length, and "permanency") and that their offending trademarks are properly covered or obliterated to-specs.
However, much of this compliance with barrel/muzzle orange paint and trademark coverage issue depends highly on the variable interpretation of such laws by individual Customs inspection officers.
Example?
Western Arms actually has a true “International License” pertaining to their Strayer Voigt Infinity, Beretta, and Wilson Combat replicas. These goods bear trademark rights that actually are truly “international,” and should allow their entry into the US . However, from most retailers, they are still are covered-up. Why?
Although *_WE_* might know that the goods carry actual licensed trademarks, and the individual retailers might know, too – the Customs Inspector checking through our replicas may not be aware of such a special circumstance.
Unless something can be done to improve their knowledge, I truly do not think that having such items pass-through with full trademarks is a worthy risk for any consumer here in the US .
Legal or not, your inspecting Customs agent just might not know better -- and this has happened many more times than I'd care to count. As such, when importing goods, always ask your retailers to properly cover the trademarks (if desired, most of these coverage methods, just as with most barrel-orange painting, can be 100% “restored” to “collectors’ condition” once you’ve received them).