The Rumour Mill

[Spikerz]

Yep, we spoke about GI buying Kee on here before. I know the original thoughts were around them buying DYE with the Fulcrum money, but with Kee they get an already profitable company, and inject it with some more cash to help spread the sport to more people and areas.

Interesting stuff, I wonder if there's going to be squish 2.0's in GI anno patterns now.

 

[Robbo]

If anyone's interested - I'll be posting up a commentary on what's been going on within our industry and it's predicted effect on our sport.
A huge shift in market influence is on the cards - the degree of this influence is unique in paintball and we have never been in a similar situation where one man controls so much of the industry.
It's close to being a majority shareholding of the paintball [manufacturing] industry which in of itself will make possible, radical changes - I know what's going on, I know why it's going on and I can pretty much guess the consequences of such a strategy.
Some people will worry, some people will scream accusations of 'paintball meltdown' and unbridled price-increases with the more cynical in our midst uttering dark warnings of things to come - the truth of the matter is somewhat different ...
I'll get it finished as soon as I can today.....

 

[formely known as size6feet]

Hopefully prices drop a bit to entice the new player base/occasional player

 

[Robbo]

Erm ..... you might be a little disappointed on that score ...leastwise in my opinion.

One of the problems our industry has been struggling with is the low price of paint because it has ended up strangling investment in new products, market expansion and so on ...

The sale of paint has ended up being used as a Trojan Horse into the site market so that other products can be sold on the back of those paint sales into the site market - people like the idea of a one-stop shop and our industry relied on that allowing the price of paint to be determined by market forces and not commonsense.

We have been the architects of our contraction but the situation isn't irreversible and so let's hope some sanity returns to our sport.
I'll cover this and more in my post later today and so hopefully you'll have your questions answered.

 

[Tony Harrison]

The too-low pricing of paint has been explained quite eloquently by other members in the past.

I think Richmond is OK - he doesn't do things by halves, and it will be interesting to see what he does next.

 

[Missy-Q]

Prices can't go down. That much is for sure. A healthy industry needs to make money and be able to invest.

 

[olliewidd]

But the thing is if they start hiking prices up will they not cause a lot of people to leave seeing it as pure money grabbing? Obviously businesses have to make money but I can already see people's reactions if a box of say formula 13 paint went from say £22 a box to £30 a box. Likewise tournament players may well chuck it in if their GI 5* goes from say £35 per box to £45 per box. That could well be the difference of a few hundred quid over a weekend of paintballing. My grasp of of business finance is rudimentary at best but I do know that players are tight and would react badly to a sudden rise in prices. Especially if advantageous changes werent seen pretty quickly.
No doubt there will be scare mongering galore going on in the coming days but i do wonder what improvements would be made should prices go up? If the money going in is seen to contribute to something coming out then people will support it but if no change is seen I can very well see people giving it up because of costs.

 

[Missy-Q]

I'm unlucky enough top have been in the industry for 28 years, and the past 5 years is the cheapest I have seen paint sold for. Its also the crappiest 5 years in terms of innovation and new product development. It's also the worst 5 years of contraction the industry has seen. I'm not an economist either, but it's an undeniable example of cause & effect in my eyes.
22 pounds a box, for a player or team, is too cheap. I worked wholesale in Europe throughout the 90's, and 27 pounds a box, plus tax, is what the largest fields in the country were paying. Most paid more than that, and the industry was never more healthy than it was then. I know it's tough love, but if players leave the sport because they can't get 22quid paint anymore, they are basically saying that they cannot afford to play paintball at that level. That's not awesome, but I have things I can't afford to do, and so I don't do them....

 

[Tony Harrison]

Tournament players aren't the most important demographic to paint suppliers. If the price of paint goes up and teams fold because of it, the world will still turn.

Even I can get paint at £15 a box, and I'm nobody important. You could get a box at this year's N v S for £17.50 - that was for one box, not 10.

In any event, the shelf life of players who buy their own gear is very short, even with low paint prices. Have you seen the number of Classified posts from people who are giving up? There's one guy who bought a ****load of stuff barely 6 months ago, and he's flogging it all.

 

[Tony Harrison]

And, lest we forget, the MS is making a move to limited paint in 2016. So the cost of a box of paint becomes less important if you are shooting 5 instead of 10.

Stoney did a good post on limited paint in April. He mentioned that one of the CPPS Elite teams had a bill of £200 per player, so something is wrong with paint consumption at the moment.

Can you imagine being presented with a bill like that? And that was just CPPS, not MS or NXL.

Let me put that into context. Players routinely go out to play a Race point with 6-8 pods and a hopper. That's around 1300 balls per player, or 6500 for 5 guys.

That's 6500 shots to shoot out the other five guys.

Can you imagine that kind of ammo expenditure in a movie? It would make a film like Expendables 3 about 10 hours long, just to deal with the shootouts.

The last gun I bought cost me £45. I'm training this weekend at Paintfest then playing the Tactical Championships, and for all that it will cost me £10 and a box of paint.

Now that's affordable paintball. It's basically a hobby, but one I like a lot.