kosmo
08-10-2003, 09:38 AM
Ive been on this forum for quite some time. Since before AGD bought the rights to it anyway. I may not post much, but I do read a lot. And one of the things that Ive noticed is how the mag community has changed over the past few years.
It used to be that people bought mags because of their tremendous value. You could take a 280 dollar classic mag, and put a little time into it. Polish and bevel the sear, polish the on off assembly, a cheap spacer kit, throw some screws in the grip frame for trigger stops, and if youre really rolling in dough, maybe an eclipse splash kit. After all this stuff, youd have one heck of a tourney marker, with a trigger shorter and softer than a 1200 dollar westwood autococker. Sure, some of the upgrades may not have been the best for the longevity of your gun, but so what? A new sear and on off assembly cost 15 bucks. And if you did it right, it didnt screw anything up.
Nowadays, everyone seems to have gone off the deep end. Everyone started paying 115 bucks for a grip frame, 350 dollars for a lighter valve, 150 bucks for a lighter body. Im not sure how much for a hollowed out body rail when you couldve just taken a handfull of paint out of your hopper if youre that bothered by weight. Why? Does the x valve make you play 350 dollars better? Is that 115 dollar grip frame really twice as good as a 60 dollar Dye frame? Does your 200 some dollar hammerhead barrel system really perform that much better than my handful of cp and lapco barrels for half that price?
It just makes me wonder. Do people actually think that it is a better value for them to pay that much for a lighter valve and body instead of paying that much to practice, or are the principles of economics just completely lost on the paintball community? I mean sure, I get the tinker bug and I like to make my gun kick butt. I respect it when someone builds a cocker and mills the heck out of it from the parts of some gun they built for someone else. Or when someone picks up a surplus body and sets out to build a gun for under 200 bucks. Or when someone picks up a dremel and makes some wicked stuff out of a body rail and some sight rails. But when everyone and their sister pays so much for the same ULE body/frame/grip, Xvalved, intelliframed mag that everyone else has and they start to call it custom, I guess I just get a little annoyed. Especially when someone obviously still in the woods ball phase of paintball picks up a gun for cheap, still thinking such things as longer barrels are more accurate, wants to know what the heck this thing is in his hand that says automag on it. And immediately everyone goes to trying to get him to buy an intelliframe and x valve and such before he has even played with it.
I just have to ask though, do people here think theyre going to get better by spending their paychecks on parts, or by spending their money on paint and practice?
It used to be that people bought mags because of their tremendous value. You could take a 280 dollar classic mag, and put a little time into it. Polish and bevel the sear, polish the on off assembly, a cheap spacer kit, throw some screws in the grip frame for trigger stops, and if youre really rolling in dough, maybe an eclipse splash kit. After all this stuff, youd have one heck of a tourney marker, with a trigger shorter and softer than a 1200 dollar westwood autococker. Sure, some of the upgrades may not have been the best for the longevity of your gun, but so what? A new sear and on off assembly cost 15 bucks. And if you did it right, it didnt screw anything up.
Nowadays, everyone seems to have gone off the deep end. Everyone started paying 115 bucks for a grip frame, 350 dollars for a lighter valve, 150 bucks for a lighter body. Im not sure how much for a hollowed out body rail when you couldve just taken a handfull of paint out of your hopper if youre that bothered by weight. Why? Does the x valve make you play 350 dollars better? Is that 115 dollar grip frame really twice as good as a 60 dollar Dye frame? Does your 200 some dollar hammerhead barrel system really perform that much better than my handful of cp and lapco barrels for half that price?
It just makes me wonder. Do people actually think that it is a better value for them to pay that much for a lighter valve and body instead of paying that much to practice, or are the principles of economics just completely lost on the paintball community? I mean sure, I get the tinker bug and I like to make my gun kick butt. I respect it when someone builds a cocker and mills the heck out of it from the parts of some gun they built for someone else. Or when someone picks up a surplus body and sets out to build a gun for under 200 bucks. Or when someone picks up a dremel and makes some wicked stuff out of a body rail and some sight rails. But when everyone and their sister pays so much for the same ULE body/frame/grip, Xvalved, intelliframed mag that everyone else has and they start to call it custom, I guess I just get a little annoyed. Especially when someone obviously still in the woods ball phase of paintball picks up a gun for cheap, still thinking such things as longer barrels are more accurate, wants to know what the heck this thing is in his hand that says automag on it. And immediately everyone goes to trying to get him to buy an intelliframe and x valve and such before he has even played with it.
I just have to ask though, do people here think theyre going to get better by spending their paychecks on parts, or by spending their money on paint and practice?