My very first experience with airsoft came in elementary school, where I would find the bbs scattered around the school yard, and would collect them. Vowing to my mom(at the time) I would never get one, it wasn't until probably early middle school when I found a clear springer Colt 1911 at the Salvation Army, which I picked up for $5. Finding it to be broken, I went home to open it up, little did I know what that started. Found the broken part, and super glue held for a couple hundred rounds. Having to buy bbs, I always had to have my mom pay for them as I wasn't close to 18. Through all of this, I searched online more to find this community, as well as finding better replicas on Ebay at the time. I bought a lot of springers (2 tec9s, a shotgun and an LPAEG M4) which actually saw a decent amount of time at MTAC and the winery.
I bought a few lemons later on, such as the Well P90 and a JG SVD. Tried to use both, but they ended up breaking and somehow managed to trade/sell them on.
But my first decent AEG was a Echo 1 (JG rebrand) G36c with 4 midcaps that I bought from Pagan for $97 at MTAC. Fond memories were made with that gun, and some great experiences.