Paintball Rumor Mill

[going_home]

http://www.face-full.com/gi-sportz-rumored-to-be-interested-in-buying-kee-action-sports/

Anyone heard any more on this ?

[going_home]

Well it's official, John Dresser posted GI is definitely buying Kee.

Does anyone care ?

If so what's your concern ?

Likely some duplicate lines of paint will go away.

They now own both major low end lines, Tippmann and Kingman Spyder, wonder what changes will come of that.....

[going_home]

[Cyco-Dude]

seems pretty universal in opinion from what i've read so far: it won't be good for us.

[OPBN]

Not that I really care, but does GI have some private backers or something? It always makes me wonder how companies that are either smaller or haven't been around very long absorb larger companies.

[going_home]

Not that I really care, but does GI have some private backers or something? It always makes me wonder how companies that are either smaller or haven't been around very long absorb larger companies.

Fulcrum Capital Partners

[zulubravo44]

Fulcrum Capital Partners

Canadians eh? Interesting investment for them, considering their other investments.

All this makes me wonder if the market isn't getting too concentrated. I know no one cares enough to do anything about it, but acquisitions like this in other markets (telecoms particularly) would raise the ire of the SEC. That's a major consolidation of the market share in paintballs, if not equipment.

[going_home]

Richmond Italian is Canadian, so it's no surprise really.

[nak81783]

Notably, the Redemption Gold, or Pro, or whatever it's called, wasn't any better than the standard Redemption in our opinion.

Discouraging to hear that's happening at the high end, too. I don't see much of a different between the entry, low-mid, and upper-mid offerings from Valken. I was hoping to buy my way out of paint issues.

i picked up some Valken(graffiti or redemption not sure) and it is so small it barely touches going thru a .684 freak insert. now i'm going to have to get some smaller inserts. i used the .684 at Tunaball

I've had to use .673 and .676 iFit inserts for Graffiti recently to prevent Autococker rollouts.

knowing what you know now about current paint, would you be willing to pay $75/case for 1990's marbalizers today?

Yes, I would, but would enough others do the same to convince a company to make a quality paint worth $75/case? At this point, I would pay $75 a case for what PMI Premiums were in the early 2000s, maybe even for what BigBall was.

I'm concerned what the poor paint quality will do for new players. IMO, bounces hurt more. Also, it's discouraging for the shooter to witness the bounce. Will a young new player continue playing if he/she is taking 3-4 bounces per game, resulting in more discomfort than one clean break? Especially when, on the flip side, they're not getting the satisfaction of eliminations as they witness their paint bouncing off their opponents.

They now own both major low end lines, Tippmann and Kingman Spyder, wonder what changes will come of that.....

Tippman? Kingmann?

[going_home]

There are still lots of other companies making paint, guns, and equipment.

No one is going to bother with trying to prove GI is a monopoly.

[vintage]

we used to get alot of bounces back in the early 90's with the ZAP field paint. usually came home with a dozen or more welts after a days play but we did not care back then as the other two problems with paint--accuracy and in gun breakage were not a problem.

[going_home]

Not sure if this will cause paint to get better, but can it get any worse ?

I've found locally here that no matter whether you pay 65 or 30 a case there's very little difference.

So little I started buying 30 dollar midnight (made by GI) from Sports Authority.

It's so close in quality (or lack of) to 4 and 5 star GI it's not even funny.

That and I'm not afraid to buy heavy because as long as it's a full case I can return it with receipt.

If it looks like I'm not going to play for a month, I return it and buy more when needed.

[JKR]

Surprised to hear about any reports of any really small Graffiti. It is always about .684 when I get it and usually shoots great. Valken Redemption and Graffiti are my two favorite paints currently. I hope they keep them the same quality as they have been for me over the past couple of years.

[nak81783]

I've found locally here that no matter whether you pay 65 or 30 a case there's very little difference.

So little I started buying 30 dollar midnight (made by GI) from Sports Authority.

It's so close in quality (or lack of) to 4 and 5 star GI it's not even funny.

I think at least one of the fields near me has noticed many people have figured this out. They don't even offer a case below $55 (which leads me to believe margins go up as grade increases), and it's a house formula made for them by Valken in a special box. I want to be clear that I'm not accusing any business or company of anything, but without any noticeable change from Infinity to Crusade (Honestly, I couldn't tell a difference from it and the case of Grafitti I bought when I was frustrated with it), how do I know what I'm getting from them? How do they know what they're getting from Valken?

Does anyone know if margins increase with grade level, ceteris paribus, such as purchase volume?

And for what paintballs are, can we be expected to notice the difference between 7 grades of paint? I can only tell the difference between 3, maybe 4 grades of beer!

[Pneumagger]

I used some Valken infinity in my mag and phantom. shot great.
No complaints at all when shooting from the phantom - where I definitely would have noticed bad consistency.