Taginn products haven’t really been allowed in the US in a long time. Why? Simply put, they are a Russian company, so when the sanctions were dropped on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, any and all US distributor inventory dried up pretty quickly. So what did Taginn do? They completely uprooted and moved their entire operation to nearby Latvia, which is a part of the European Union, and has been a NATO member since 2004.
This was a fantastic business decision by Taginn, as it re-opens the US market for them (and most likely keeps the Russian market open to them as well). However, with the ATF’s recent overreach on simulation grenades, they still had to work to get on the exemption list, which they have done.
A little history here: Enola Gay EG-67s were removed from the exemption list in November due to their “proprietary explosive”. All they have to do is replace their proprietary mix with regular black powder and the ATF would grant their exemption. This is directly from Max Jones, the US EG representative.
You’ve already seen that Taginn AFG-4 and AFG-6 are available for pre-order; the internet has exploded with that information, and it’s absolutely true. As a P-TOP certificate holder, Bear got the email from Taginn with a copy of the letter that you’ve undoubtedly seen plastered everywhere. If you haven’t, there’s a copy of the letter here ——–>
This also implies that Taginn is using black powder as the charge, which means a bigger/louder bang than EG-67s.
When the news first broke, we reached out to Amped Airsoft, as we do a lot of B2B business with them. However, until their own inventory stabilizes, they aren’t currently doing B2B pricing. While we could facilitate a “group buy”, it would still be stupidly expensive.
The only logical step was to become a Taginn dealer. This is a fantastic idea as it will keep the price per unit pretty close to the MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) requirements. This does come at it’s own cost, however.
We have to follow the rules so that we do not lose our dealership agreement: buyers must be 18+ years old and have a valid P-TOP certification. The P-TOP is free and takes like 20 minutes to complete. The test is basically open book, so it’s pretty much idiot proof, although we don’t know yet if it’s airsofter-proof *ba-dump-tis*
The other downside is the quantity of product we need to buy for the initial order: two cases. That’s 96 grenades. That’s a lot of HazMat and a lot of weight, so shipping alone will be north of $100.
Fun fact: shipping, etc., eats up close to 95% of our on-paper “margin” on everything: BBs, ExFog, dead rags.. yeah, so add $38 per case HazMat shipping, and we’ll about break even on these. Maybe. But that’s the price of being a small business with not a lot of capital, and why we always recommend to our players to shop local and smaller online stores, and not massive conglomerates who don’t give a fuck about you or airsoft, only their bottom line.
To help facilitate our initial order with Taginn, we have put AFG-4s up for pre-order. You will not be able to browse to the AFG-4s in our web store as the listing is hidden. You can only access it via direct link. This is because we are not going to ninja-ship these and don’t want to deal with cancelling orders and explaining this to people. Also, we do really need to see your P-TOP certification and ID. We’re not doing this to be assholes, we’re doing this to ensure that we will be able to keep bringing you these products, so yeah, be a team player about this, please.
And yes, we will of course stock TAG-19s (RGD5 style) as soon as we can (meaning, as soon as they are on the exemption list and we can afford some for you). We will also begin stocking other Taginn products, especially once vehicles start becoming more of a thing here.
If you have any problems or questions regarding Taginn, us, how we’re handling this, or if you are unable to read between the lines, please reach out to Bear on FB, IG, or Discord.
Thank you all for your continued support of our little field and the northern Maine airsoft community.
