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**chris37** · October 25th, 07:16 PM

i just have one quick question on my mind and that is why is paintball so damn expenisve!? The paintballs are expensive, the guns and upgrades are expensive, the protections i dont really care about cause you need that but why so much for paintballs!? ugh!

Thanks

-chris

**predator14** · October 25th, 07:18 PM

it cost money to have fun....
you think goin into outer space with 0 gravity cost 5 dollars?

**Minty** · October 25th, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris37

i just have one quick question on my mind and that is why is paintball so damn expenisve!? The paintballs are expensive, the guns and upgrades are expensive, the protections i dont really care about cause you need that but why so much for paintballs!? ugh!

Thanks

-chris

Because it can

**Hathegkla** · October 25th, 07:26 PM

well its all about numbers. if the industry was as big as say...the car industry things would be mass produced on a much larger scale and they would be cheaper. you also have to look at what yer paying for. even a cheap gun is a good chunk of milled aluminum, cnc milling is expensive and since its milling not casting you waste a bunch of material (because you start from a big chunk of aluminum). and paint...well its not really that expensive when you think about it ¢3 a ball for premium paint ain't that bad its just that you go through 1-2k in a day. there’s a lot of processing that goes into a paintball, molding the shell, filling it polishing etc.
you also have to think about the R&D that goes into a gun, if you want to be competitive you have to come out with a new gun line every year that tops yer last one. that takes designers, engineers, model makers...and don't even get me started on how much a 5 axis cnc costs (try like 100k for a crappy non production line model). so you basically get what you pay for, if we were all using phantoms and going through 200 paintballs a day no one would even think about the cost $150 for a phantom and a couple bux fer paint...but nooo! we have to shoot guns capable of firing 25bps and go through 300+ rounds in a 5 minute speedball game...

**paintballRUNT17** · October 25th, 07:27 PM

Blame the freakin economy and our world. we should have stuck to tradeing stuff. I would trade my bro for some paint gear in a heart beat. Or wat if everything was free but u had a limit to how much u could get pre month or day or watever u know

**chris37** · October 25th, 07:40 PM

yeah ok i get it now, its crazythough! lol

**NoDoz** · October 25th, 07:59 PM

Blame it on Bush! Our economy sucks cuz of him..NO!
Not Bush's fault you can't keep a ****ing penny.

Paintball is a Hobby, like most hobbies they require VAST amounts of money. If you dont have money to hang, then maybe you should search for another hobby to keep yourself occupied.

**Roadkill** · October 25th, 08:11 PM

It costs so much money so that the noobs stay out of tournies so the tournies stay tough and challenging. Seriously though Hathegla nailed it on the head.

**spyshark** · October 25th, 08:33 PM

Yeah it cost,I pay for 2 when we go PBing,wich cost 30.00 for entry and then a case of paint and a couple of fills works out to about 70.00 for the day.One reason I use a low end gun because I bought my nephew a marker also and cover his expense,LOL.Oh well it least he one cool uncle anyway ( I hope).Another reason I can't go every weekend.

**pbmoto** · October 25th, 08:54 PM

it dosnt seem like its alot untill u know that u could buy a freaking car for the price of a used dm4.

**LuckXIII** · October 26th, 10:11 AM

you can buy a nicer car when you realize the nice 150-200hpa tank that goes along with it and the nice 110 dollar halo too, and seeing how if you have a dm4 ur likely to have the pods, the gear, the nicer helmet, maybe barrel, next thing you know you can get two cars =o

**PhantomDude** · October 26th, 02:00 PM

The machines used to manufacture the paintballs cost about $100,000 each. That and there really isn't much money in the buisness, so they have to charge more. But compared to scuba diving and skydiving it's pretty cheap.

**HP_lovecraft** · October 26th, 02:25 PM

I remember..... (everyone groins)...

When I started playing in 1987, paintballs were $1 for a tube of 10. A decent PUMP gun started at $200 up to $500. 12grams were about ¢50 each.

I would spend about $50 a day in 1987. I'll spend that same amount now. Fortunetly, paint is much cheaper, and the guns are much cheaper as well.

But... paintball is more expensive then most hobbies. It is very technology driven, and the market is constantly pushing players to "spend more to make you a better player".
Unfortunetly, most upgrades are crap.

Nick

**Gabriot** · October 26th, 02:29 PM

The balls are most definitely overpriced, the guns are too but no the extent of paintballs. You figure it can't cost that much to make a paintball, look at the ingrediants some time. Can't cost near that much. It'd be nice to figure out a way to make our own balls, in fact I've been looking in to it for some time. It'd save sooooo much money.

**[^_^x]** · October 26th, 02:56 PM

Things are never too expensive. Were just to poor. =D

**240punk** · October 26th, 03:23 PM

im a car enthusiest before an paintball enthusiest
paintball is nothing compared to cars

**Hathegkla** · October 26th, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabriot

The balls are most definitely overpriced, the guns are too but no the extent of paintballs. You figure it can't cost that much to make a paintball, look at the ingrediants some time. Can't cost near that much. It'd be nice to figure out a way to make our own balls, in fact I've been looking in to it for some time. It'd save sooooo much money.

well making yer own paintballs would be nearly impossible...however...

I'm looking into reusable paintballs now, I just ordered some foam, nerf like paintballs, reballs are coming out soon (by wdp, out in europe now) they are lightweight rubber, t-balls suck so don't use them. BUT I work for a plastics company and I may try to manufacture a few foam balls made out of silicone rubber, its way slick so it would never scratch a barrel and would slide well, probably never jam. the only problem with the silicone-polyurethanes is if you want to make a foam you have to compound in a temperature sensitive foaming agent and thermo process them (like in an extruder) which means I would have to take over the entire melt lab and gum up all the equipment, not to mention I would have to figure out how to turn our extruder into a low pressure injection molding machine and make a mold...sounds complicated huh?
The other option is using something called "cold foam" which is a 2 part foam that cures like epoxy so instead of melting it has a working time before it sets up. I just need a bunch of precisely machined metal or ceramic balls I can use to make the mold out of. I think I could get those in the correct size from small parts inc. then make a mold lattice connected by small sprues which would have to be trimmed after filling...wow I really gotta lay off the coffee!

titocampos1990 · October 26th, 03:57 PM

this is why we should all go to college

Alpha · October 26th, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris37

i just have one quick question on my mind and that is why is paintball so damn expenisve!? The paintballs are expensive, the guns and upgrades are expensive, the protections i dont really care about cause you need that but why so much for paintballs!? ugh!

Thanks

-chris

Supply and demand. Its a kickass game, companies know that, and they can charge whatever they want. You relaly think it costs 7 dollars to make a gravity fed hopper?

For the price of a pair of paintball pants, I can feed myself for a month.

**wa4x4boy** · October 26th, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [^_^x]

Things are never too expensive. Were just to poor. =D

well put, as a college student i can back that up...