Where to buy

[Impending Flood]

Well, seeing as not many people are very interested in water warfare (most think they are too "mature" to play with water guns that they played with as kids), I have decided that I would show them the power of CPS. As a result, I want one more than ever.
Problem: Where to buy.

Ebay: Ok prices/ Very expensive prices for big guns and insane shipping because I live in Australia.
People are also mentioning something about goodwill or so but I have no idea what it is. Is is some sort of shop only in America or something? Because I can't find it online.

Any information would be very much appreciated.

[cantab]

I believe "goodwill" is another name for a charity shop or a thrift store.

[DX]

Goodwill is a specific thrift line, but it might just be in the US. It is favored over some of the others because it tends to stock random stuff. Dollar General, Dollar Tree, etc. rarely have what we want. If you hit up thrift stores, you want ones that accept and stock random donations of goods.

Craigslist is one of the best sites to find cheap water guns, though I've never bothered to see if they have an international presence. Even if not, many listers are willing to ship, some internationally.

Yard/garage/tag/estate sales are still #1 in my book, but are hit and miss. You can search for months and never see a water gun period, or you can hit a motherlode in one sale. Get there right when the sale starts for the best chances, although you get the least ability to haggle that way. Estate sales, if they exist in Australia, are even better than normal yard sales - you could find a bin full of toys, including water guns, that the sellers don't care much about since much more valuable stuff is being sold all over the house. So, you could get a load of guns for like 10 bucks.

Ebay is not *that* bad in the winter. Shipping might still suck, but at least everything is cheaper.

[martianshark]

It will take a lot of patience, but if you visit lots of garage sales and thrift stores for a long time, you probably will find a CPS. I found a NIB CPS 1200 after visiting my local Goodwill a few days a week for almost a year. It could be even harder in Australia.

Try looking on craigslist every once and a while. If you buy something on eBay, it probably will be kind of expensive, especially for the shipping. eBay might work though; you might get lucky and find a CPS with cheap shipping and bid on it and win.

[Impending Flood]

Thanks for all the answers guys.

Craigslist doesn't seem to have ANY waterguns whatsoever, let alone CPS.
Ebay: I'm sort of short of cash so I don't appreciate it when the shipping costs more than the gun itself. I should be taking advantage of the high aussie dollar though.
I was also wondering, how do you guys find out about garage sales? I can never seem to find on in my local area, and can't be bothered to drive around town looking for sales. I also don't really go to them because practically nobody is bothered to sell a watergun (they are more interested in selling baby toys, furniture, books, cups, picture frames etc) and it is even less likely that they would have a CPS. Same with thrift stores. They never have waterguns. Not even crappy ones.

I guess I'll have to keep searching...

[DX]

Check your local newspaper(s) in the classifieds section. Yard sale ads tend to be there about 1-2 weeks before the sale date. Bargain papers tend to have the most postings (I get the "Bargain News" which covers this area like an old media version of Craigslist). I never see water guns offered directly, but it has tons of yard sale announcements and sometimes bins of toys that could contain water guns (it's easy to call and inquire about what they have).

You've got to find a thrift store that stocks random crap. I see crappy water guns all the time in them. There were equalizers and vanquishers last summer at one of them in a sketchy town off the green line NE of DC. They were the same price as in other stores, so I took a pass.

[martianshark]

You should be able to find garage sale ads on craigslist. Where I live, you can find quite a few garage sales just by walking around, and people usually put up signs for their garage sales.

If you can't find any garage sales, you can't find anything at thrift stores or craigslist, and you can't afford eBay, it looks like things are going to be extremely difficult. You may want to consider building your own water gun or modifying an available one.

[1xalpha]

Amazon is pretty good. If you look hard enough u can dig up some cps's for a good price. I got a new CPS 1700 for 25 dollars on there

[Nitro123PG]

Ask people you know if they have any old water guns in their basement or something. My neighbor has a CPS 2000 I plan to buy this summer.