I have dozens of AG's and the only ones I bought new were my Baikals, an IZH-60 and 46. I bought them from KY Imports as soon as they became available. The 46 came in the plastic "art case". It's an odd case with an image of paint brushes formed into the case's cover.
All other guns were bought used. Airgun Ads by Barry Abel brought me alot of excellent guns, while he lasted, Gun shows provided many nice ones as well. Brad Troyer's Airgun Classifieds was invaluable.
Understand your field, do your research and have patience and you will get some very nice guns without having to pay premium prices. I learned to do repairs and tunes so I could avoid high shipping and labor prices. Airgun Letter helped me with learning how a tune works. I used Brett Reno's Airgun Index and Value Guide so I would understand what these guns were selling for and not get burned on price. I ordered parts from John Groenewold, Maccari, RWS, Beeman and others. I built my own design of spring compressor, got a Chronograph and stocked up on lubricants.
I spent quite a bit but, I know the collection is well worth twice what I paid.
Cheaper guns are nice, you can knock them around and not worry.
The old addage applies to everything "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten"
If you can obtain quality at a low price, all the better. The Gist is if you need to tune and modify your inexpensive gun to shoot as well as a more expensive model. Buy a used or inoperative expensive model cheaply and invest in it's repair. Then when you're done you have a gun that is worth something when resale time comes.
When I'm gone and my wife needs to liquidate my collection, she will have a nice surprise at how much they are worth. If I had cheap guns she would just have to basically discard them because the effort of selling and shipping them wouldn't be worth the trouble. - the ramblings of a retired airgunsmith/electrician
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