I have identified problems, and their solutions. All of these problems have continued in paintball because the PLAYERS (either consciously or as unwilling pawns) have allowed it to happen.
WHY PAINTBALL FIELDS HAVE SMALLER PLAYING AREAS.
Those of you who have been around for a while will notice that the playing areas are becoming smaller and smaller. There was a time when you could walk for five minutes before meeting any opposition on the field. Now you can see the other flag station from your flag station.
Why has this happened? The reasoning is simple. Players only shoot paintballs when they see another player and the sooner you can get players to see each other and start shooting, the more money you're going to make on paint sales. Field owners make most of their profits from paint sales. If you start shooting as soon as the game starts, you will use more paint and they will make more money. Every second you spend sneaking around, using camouflage and stealth is money you're not spending on paint.
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Ease up on the trigger. Shoot when you know you have the shot, and generally stop wasting paint. Limit yourself to a certain amount of paint per game, or even for the day. Ask field owners to expand a few fields to make them larger.
PAINT MANUFACTURERS VS PAINT BRANDS.
So far, top the best of my recollection there are only about a half dozen encapsulators making paintballs. These encapsulators are the only machines in the world capable of making paintballs. You can't make paintballs any other way (at least not any other way that will make you money). There are well over twenty different brands of paint coming from these encapsulators. Think about it. Twenty brands; six machines. How much difference can there be between the brands? How much variation between shell thickness, fill composition, seam sealing and size can you make without it costing a whole lot of money? What I'm saying is that how much difference is there between Brands X, Y and Z if they're all made in the SAME machine?
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Find out who encapsulates the brands of paint. Check the case the paint comes in, it's usually there, in small print. Ask the seller, ask the people who distribute that brand under their name. If you are really brand and quality conscious, as most paintballers are, FIND OUT who makes your paint and the other brands they make. Ask around. (In fact, I have, in my possession, a list of brands and who makes them. Send me some e-mail, and I'll send you the list.) NOTE: DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND MY CONTROL, I CAN NO LONGER PROVIDE THIS LIST.
So? Now I know that the pharmaceutical company, Major Drugs, makes Shureshot, Magnafill and Gooey Paintballs. What's the point? The point is: Now you won't be fooled by claims that one of those three brands is far superior to the other two. You'll also wonder why Shureshot is two cents a ball more expensive than Gooey paintballs.
PAINT PRICES.
Okay, you can buy a case of paint for as little as 3.5 cents a ball. Three point five cents. This is usually straight from the manufacturer, and in large lots, but it is possible. So this leads me to the question: How much profit is the manufacturer making off those balls? Even if they are making a lowly ONE CENT per ball profit, that makes a paintball only worth 2.5 cents. How much do YOU pay for paint? Five cents a ball? Seven cents a ball? TEN cents a ball? Some pay MORE!!!!! So how many hands is this paint going through? EVERYBODY who handles that case of paint you've purchased marks it up slightly, in order to make some money off of it. So if it goes from a manufacturer to a distributor, to a store, to a field and then to you; you're paying (in effect) the manufacturer's costs, the distributer's costs, the store's costs and the field owner's costs of shipping, handling and storing the paint. Even at a cent a ball mark up, that adds up. I guarantee you that each of them makes MORE than a cent a ball. What's my point? If whoever is selling you the paint and they're claiming it came straight from the manufacturer AND they're selling it for eight cents a ball: they're either lying (the price when up because it went through at least two warehouses before it got to the seller) or they're making 5.5 cents per ball PROFIT. On a case of two thousand that's one hundred and ten dollars a case!
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Demand lower paint prices. Purchase from folks who are not at the final end of a very long and convoluted supply chain. Buy from folks who will give you a good price. We're getting gouged on paint prices, folks. Don't stand for it.
WHY THINGS ARE SO EXPENSIVE.
This is really no conspiracy. It is a simple matter of supply and demand. It is the perfect example of the term "market base". When someone makes something, ANYTHING, they have to take into consideration several things, before deciding on a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).
The MSRP is derived from (but by no means limited to) the following factors. How much will it cost, in materials, to make it? How much power will we use to make it? How much are we going to pay people to make it? If we can't make a part, how much is it going to cost to pay someone else to do it for us? How much is advertising? How much profit are we going to make of each unit? The list goes on and on. As you can see, the MSRP is not an arbitrary figure. Here come the Really Important Bit.
What it is also based on, and pay attention, is: How many people will buy this product? In other words; how many people play paintball? Why is this important? Well, in manufacturing, the more you make of something, the cheaper it is. Mainly due to the fact that you can buy bulk orders of the raw materials at lower prices. This lowers the final cost to the consumer. It's called mass production.
So now, if you are making a bolt-on accessory for the very popular Sluggoblaster semi-auto paintmarker are you going to make two million (thereby selling them for, let's say, $20.00 per unit)? Or are you going to make two thousand (thereby selling them for, let's say, $80.00 per unit)? If you make two million, the price, per unit, will be cheaper. However, you're not going to sell two million parts to the paintball community. First off, there's aren't two million Sluggoblasters out there. Secondly, there aren't two million paintballers in North America. Expanding your market base off continent isn't going to increase profit. You'll have oversees shipping, custom's duties, and then there's all those different laws regarding paintmarkers, depending on what country you're shipping to. So let's stick to the North American Market. (Like most every manufacturer does.)
What does all this mean? There are not enough people playing paintball to make it worth while for manufacturers to step up production numbers and thereby lowering costs to the consumer.
Well, maybe not, in a way. Prices HAVE been steadily dropping over the years. When I started playing, paint went for around 15 to 20 cents a ball. A top of the line pump marker went for around $500 (the Bushmaster sold for upwards of $700). Now paint can be had for less than eight cents a ball and a pump is under $200. Man, there are SEMIS that don't cost $200.
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Why have the prices gone down, Dan? There are more people playing now, than there was in 1984. Prices, therefore have dropped since then. So it is not the industry's fault that this game is so expensive. Manufacturers don't get people to play paintball -- they only advertise in paintball publications, purchased mostly by players. They aren't seen by the non-playing public. It is the PLAYER who gets their neighbours, co-workers and friends to come out and try the game.
The high prices are YOUR fault, and MY fault. The more people WE get to play paintball, the lower the prices will get.
PAINTBALL AND THE ENVIRONMENT.
Where do the caustic chemicals go, after the anodizing is done? Have you ever asked, before you had that really cool splash anodizing done on your new marker? What happens to all the scrap and millings left over from carving a part out of a block of aluminum, does it get recycled? Does it go to a landfill? What are the laws concerning this? Have you ever asked? What does the field wonder do with all the recyclable trash that goes into his garbage cans? Landfill? Recyclers?
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Do you care? If you do, a few simple questions (like the ones I've just asked you) will get you the answers you need.
CONCLUSION.
So hopefully I've got you to sit back and think about things you take for granted. Perhaps you'll have a better understanding of this sport and what it means to players and to industry leaders. Or maybe, just maybe, you'll stand up and try to do something about one of these problems . . .
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