I have a slightly more positive viewpoint on the secondhand blaster market and buy used often.
With the restrictions on imports now I think we’re all going to need to navigate the used market minefield more and more… not a lot of alternatives with lack of new models or for those of us on a budget. A lot of us aren’t in a position to buy at full retail price, particularly with the prices likely increasing due to lack of new stock.
Not to mention quite a few brand new blasters can have faults and issues out of the box… not a problem usually with warranty. But if the blaster is bought online delivered, warranty returns can be a pain in the arse.
There are still good used blaster deals to be had out there. Often you will get spare mags thrown in as part of the deal, and with a bit of haggling you can save a lot of money compared to buying new. Keep in mind though that GBB pistols can be tricky to test, function and FPS is easy enough but leaking mags might not be obvious at the time of inspection. As a general rule, if a GBB looks and feels like it’s been heavily used, not regularly maintained and beaten around, it’s a good idea to give it a miss.
If however it feels like everything’s tight, there’s no excessive wear on the slide rails, trigger and hammer feel firm and not janky and it feels crisp in action, it’s probably worth taking the chance, after a thorough test with a few mags of gels. Plenty of people have lots of blasters that have only seen one or two mags through them and are basically as new because they’re collectors and not players. Sometimes those get listed for sale.
Just have a very good critical look at any used blaster offered… unless the asking price is so reasonable that even with any repairs that might be needed it’s still a good deal. It’s wise to make sure parts for the blaster are available. You’d be surprised how many blasters can be rendered 100% useless due to one proprietry part costing $10 that is either not available as a spare part or now illegal for you to import yourself.
