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Is paintball too expensive?

hkg_striker_force

Active Member
Sep 28, 2008
528
20
43
As the title says! is paintball too expensive? i work normal hours 9 till 5 and soon to be parent. thou i can still afford to play, is it getting too expensive for new players to join in?
 

cowface

Team Rampage
Oct 9, 2001
1,598
47
73
38
northamptonshire
To be honests,....


No, i dont think it is expensive. Compared to many of the hobbies i have had in the past , i think its rather reasonable. But ofcourse that depends on the style of play, how many times you play etc etc. It will be different for everyone out there , but to me its not expensive.

But, thats to play in the likes of NSPL and CPPS , i think tournament fees are reasonable and if you have a bigger team, it keeps the cost down also.
 

rob_evanson

Veni Vidi Vici
Jul 27, 2001
1,103
36
73
45
Cheshire, England
www.teamquestpaintball.co.uk
Once you have the gear it's pretty fair to play, but to me it's the gear that I feel is expensive. But I understand the reasons why this is the case., I mean, don't others think that £100 for trousers or £130 for a hopper is a bit extreme. I would guess that its like buying 3d t.v's, when the demand is high enough the manufactures can bring the process down, which will happen with overall saturation of the market, it happened with dvd's and t happened with blue ray. But with pb gear, it's quite a specialist market so you don't get the same numbers buying it up and I assume this is why prices stay quite high..
 
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Ali

gunnin down fools in style
Jun 23, 2007
1,937
46
73
30
huddersfield
naaa tbh its not too expensive, if you think about it say in a month you train twice and play one tournament, say training is 35 quid and the tournament cost you 70 quid..
thats 140 quid ish a month, if you didnt play ball im sure that 140 quid would of bin spent on something else
 

Talfryn

The Attritionist
May 14, 2010
613
137
68
West Sussex
I don't think its thaaat much. I mean yes, it is a lot of money but when you think of what it gives you its a good price. The enjoyment most get out of playing is huge and its not just the playing, the friends and people I would have never met if I didn't play can have no monetary value. If you think, the NHS thinks that a smoker on average will spend £46 smoking a month (http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Documents/Smoking calculator.html) and whilst that isn't quite the cost of paintball it is a large proportion of what many people will pay for paint per month. Whilst some won't agree, in my eyes, paintball is clearly a much better use of that money and if your willing to spend that kind of money on smoking every month then I think its reasonable to spend a similar sum on paintball. Its just an analogy but I think it is kinda true :D
 
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justincredible

DOUBLE MAG MAN
Sep 6, 2010
196
49
38
Ringwood,Hampshire
Having just got back into the sport after a 15 year break, I don't think that the cost of playing is that restrictive.
When I first started playing 20 years ago, a days paintball was a similar cost to what it is now, but for half the amount of paint. Combine that with the fact that wages have increased considerably in 20 years and in real terms its not expensive.
I can play a days woodsball (proper paintball !!) for £40 and rack off 2000 balls whereas 20 years ago it would have been £50 and you only got 1000 balls.
 

Gee Tee

1/2 man - 1/2 pogo stick
Mar 21, 2007
3,172
786
148
Dartford, UK
I agree with the comments above

I also started playing over 20 years ago, and think the real cost of playing has dropped a lot. We used to pay £50-60 for a box of paint then, and many tournament spec guns cost over a grand. £1000 in 1989 would be around £1970 at todays rates, so a massive outlay for many back then.

I've found a good way to reduce my paint bill - it's called shooting less paint. Electro guns with a high ROF, coupled with X-ball style play tend to make people trigger happy. If you want to get maximum bang for your buck give pump play a go. Beats re-decorating bouncy castle barricades for me any day.
 

Roquey

Active Member
Nov 3, 2008
197
24
28
It depends how you look at it really. after rent/bills/food costs i have £50 a week to live on which i can budget 1 tournament a month into that as i dont have my own car yet, as soon as the car comes i reckon ill need a pay rise or a second part time job to afford it. Luckily i have all my own gear before i moved into my own place. I think paintball being expensive differs from one player to the next. if i didn't have my own gear before moving out, i couldn't afford to play.
 

sundance1968

sundance1968
Jan 26, 2009
233
7
28
nottingham
cost

its definatley cheaper now, but the cost can put alot of people off
markers have stayed about the same price but you get a much more reliable marker nowadays so better value for your money:)

if you shop around and buy 2nd kit to get started say £250 should get a decent package etek2 ego7 ect steel bottle and halo/vlocity and di3's probably be about that price range

so its probably cheaper for walk on owner gunners
 

MainManHere

Reckless.
Jun 26, 2010
53
2
0
The cost of rental paintball:

I think the cost of rental paintball needs some work still, if the sport continues to grow people need to stop being put off by the money they spend at rental. Most people will go and spend £100+ on a rental days paintball, which I feel which ever way you look at it is a very big issue. People never want to get involved as they feel its an expensive hobby.

In more general terms:

I feel that there are now many guns offering more and more value for money, and as a whole compared to other sports/ hobbies, paintball is on par with them. With most people earning a minimum of £1,000 a month on full time jobs, £50 for a walkon where 2,000 paint is supplied isn`t a bad amount really. I do feel however some products on the market are priced rather ridiculously, for example Dye Rotor speedfeeds, they sell for around £25 and for what? A bit of flexible plastic really. But besides small items like that, the market offers good value as a whole.