since the cockers guys getting some love maybe we can too?

[ScottyBeans]

The issue is with a complete gun at a 25 gun run you would be looking at a retail price somewhere around 2000-3000. If not more. Ive talked to some shops about doing something. Not many if any are going to spend that.

I've always wondered about this. It seems like when new autocockers come out they come fully complete at around the $1000 price range (twister, nemesis, SFL in 2009, etc), which in my opinion is a reasonable price for a new, custom, high-end mech paintball gun made in a limited run.

But whenever I hear about a mag build in a similar vein, I'm always hearing "$2000 or more" which seems kind of silly. Is there a reason custom mags cost so much more to build in small runs?

[OPBN]

I've always wondered about this. It seems like when new autocockers come out they come fully complete at around the $1000 price range (twister, nemesis, SFL in 2009, etc), which in my opinion is a reasonable price for a new, custom, high-end mech paintball gun made in a limited run.

But whenever I hear about a mag build in a similar vein, I'm always hearing "$2000 or more" which seems kind of silly. Is there a reason custom mags cost so much more to build in small runs?

Agreed. If X valves are $250 from AGD and frames can be had for $200, Bodies and rails for $300-400, why can't an out the door, all new mechanical Mag be offered for $1k or less?

[knownothingmags]

Agreed. If X valves are $250 from AGD and frames can be had for $200, Bodies and rails for $300-400, why can't an out the door, all new mechanical Mag be offered for $1k or less?

I like your thought process and breakdown.

so all someone would need to do is throw up 25,000$ to get 25 made?
would we expect this to be a sole venture, or a collaboration of funds from multiple parties?

if so money shouldn't be a problem for a single person right?
or am I in lala land?

[going_home]

all I want is renie's unibody...

What will his wife think ?

[dodge3500]

Lol you guys got too much negative waves going on.

[Bunny]

Lol you guys got too much negative waves going on.

lol. There are alot of great points in this thread so far. I feel like Luke and XMT have been filling the AGD void for a while now and i'm happy with the way things have been going. They both know how to cater to this weirdo/bizarre automag market we have going on.

[vintage]

everyone start playing powerball(if you not already) and when one of us wins it money will not be a problem. i have a long list of mag things i want to do when i win all that money.

[Nobody]

it could happen if someone just wanted to do is a project and not make any money off it.

the issue is people's time is valuable. not just in terms of dollars, but family, friends, actually playing paintball etc etc. it has to be worthwhile for someone to take on the task, and that usually means $$$$. which, as pointed out, is really tight, and by no means guaranteed.

I would love for someone to prove me wrong and get this done. I know that even getting super small runs of certain ICD specific items costs an arm and a leg, and that was mostly from the people that had the cads. Starting fresh or relatively freah is an uphill battle. Whether or not it has been extensions of where the industry is going, hoseless guns for example, or just furthering what we already have, like new and improved rails and bodies.

[knownothingmags]

everyone start playing powerball(if you not already) and when one of us wins it money will not be a problem. i have a long list of mag things i want to do when i win all that money.

im sure there are people who are there already been there done that type of thing, or havnt even won the lottery just have the cash .
rich don't get rich by spending it. :P

[SN toter]

I'd love to see another custom unibody like that XMT shockwave - packaged with lukes mini-vert grip frame and a nice foregrip. Then users can drop in a valve and add a barrel - donesies.

Then have em all anodized to match.

Tell you what - I do anodizing, I'll offer to do the polishing and anodizing at half-off if someone gets this off the ground.

[WholemealDrop]

The thing with the cocker stuff is there are guys with the money and know-how to make this a business venture and not just a one off projects. Autocockers are back on the rise. Can't really pin it down to one thing but with Empire bringing back a modern cocker pump and mech with the Sniper and Ressurection platform definitely brought them into the light. Simon at Inception was doing production runs to lower the overall cost of each kit and Niche is a passionate group of guys with skills to make something they wanted and offered it up to a production run. Mag users are generally a smaller group. In my local area I think I've seen 1-2 guys have a mag at various fields but there will be 10+ guys running cockers either as pumps or mech with a few electros too.

I wish mags would make a come back too seeing as they are way easier to maintain than cockers. As OPBN stated, no real reason a new mech mag couldn't be made for under $1k and that is if you sourced each piece part by part. If someone made everything in house: valve, frame, body/rail, with a few off the shelf parts: feedneck, detents, misc hardware, I don't see why a production run couldn't be done. But ultimately it comes back to a business aspect as others have said: who is going to foot the bill while they wait for these to get sold?

FYI I just got into mags so not the most knowledgable about them or the community yet.

[steve_81]

I like your thought process and breakdown.

so all someone would need to do is throw up 25,000$ to get 25 made?
would we expect this to be a sole venture, or a collaboration of funds from multiple parties?

Why don't we do it the same way Dodge was attempting to sell their Dodge Dart?...break down the costs and pay for each individual step or process separately. That way you aren't looking at $25,000 as a whole but a bunch of smaller easily obtainable amounts? Break it down and create a timeline. People are more likely to help out when they see a smaller amount....just a thought. I would be willing to do a fundraiser outside of Automags.org in order to raise some revenue to get things rolling. So whose in? who wants to help create a check list/timeline for this project?

[dodge3500]

I'm hoping for a combined effort xmt/Luke mag ,that's two folks that turn out great products with no worries about getting what you pay for.

[OPBN]

Obviously this is all just tossing crap around as no one it seems is looking to step up and plunge into this, but I'll add a couple of thoughts.

While the idea of doing a part at a time sounds good, a lot of people were burnt by VD who did this exact thing. People who bought bodies were left without rails. People who bought bodies and rails were left without foregrips etc. It would be nice to see someone sell a complete limited run semi custom Mag that would need only a valve, barrel or something to complete it. Maybe like the Niche Cockers, giving the option to send in parts to get anodized with it so there is consistency. But I say that as I'm looking at my PP account and weeping a little right now.

[BigEvil]

There is a huge problem with AGD stuff that doesn't exist with cocker stuff - AGD parts were for the most part not designed with manufacturing in mind and thus the costs are exponentially higher. On top of that, the paintball market is not what it was 5-10 years ago. There is no market for $500 mag bodies anymore.