ITO
04-26-2005, 05:08 PM
I visit and post in several PB forums and talk paintball with my local buddies. One topic that comes up quite often is BYOP fields; there are not very many fields that will let you bring your own paint.
In the past this has been a sore point for me because one of my favorite fields wont let you bring your own paint, but will gladly sell complete crap to you for $100 a case, medium grade goes for $120 a case and Premium for upwards of $160 a case. It’s a complete joke, so much so I rarely play there and when I do I have to resort to sneaking in my own paint, because I just cant afford to pay for a case of paint what I spent on my last HPA bottle.
I am used to buying really good paint for $35-$45 a case and ultra premium for around $60. The price some fields charge is akin to highway robbery at 200-400% mark-ups. I have no clue how some of the younger kids who play there can afford it, unless they are doing the same thing I am and sneak it in.
Having had enough one day I confronted the owner about no allowing anyone to bring their own paint and he reply was that is was a liability issue. He said something to the effect that he was liable for any paint shot on his field the only way he could control it was to supply all the paint himself.
His excuse for the rip off prices was that the market was baring it quite nicely considering the fields were full… I wondered he knew half of us there had snuck out own paint in.
We I did not take anything he said seriously until last weekend. My buds and I were playing one of the few local fields that allow BYOP, and one of my buds is a cheap bastard. This guy is so cheap he buys his paintballs at Wal-Mart in a 5 gallon bucket 4000 at time, I did not catch the name but I want to call them Zap. Well he had these paint balls for over a couple of years and they were hard as rocks.
During our game I kept getting hit but the paint did not break, at first it was ok because I got to keep playing and I was not about to whine about getting hurt in front of my buddies, but as the day went on I got pretty bruised up. Then I took a shot to my arm at about 15 feet and it tore a chunk of skin off and still did not break.
I had to quit to go get the bleeding to stop and while I was at the rest area I took some of his paintballs and tried to break them with my fingers. I crushed them hard as I could and could not break them. Then I took one and hit it with a wrench and got it to break, it was a really hard.
Then it dawns on me why some fields don’t let you bring your own paint, because this stuff was dangerous… Ok I get it now, but it does not justify 400% markups.
Our game ended after I loaded up my hopper with my buddy the cheap bastard’s paint and played against him for a half a game, it turns out he cried like a little girl when he got shot by his own paint. He really whined and made a big deal out of me stealing his paint, then when the rest of my buddies figured out what he was talking about they all wanted a turn with his paint too, it seems I am not the only one who was getting bruised up pretty badly and keeping a tight lip about it. He literally had to run away as he was bonus balled off the field.
We then took his paint and dumped it the porta-potty as he continued to whine about stealing his paint, and we had some ‘words’ at this point I am not sure if he is our buddy any more, and some serious asskickery will take place if he shows up next week with another bucket of cheap ass paint.
A word to the wise… pay attention to what kind of paint the other people on the field are shooting. Some of that stuff is bad news and can injure you.
In the past this has been a sore point for me because one of my favorite fields wont let you bring your own paint, but will gladly sell complete crap to you for $100 a case, medium grade goes for $120 a case and Premium for upwards of $160 a case. It’s a complete joke, so much so I rarely play there and when I do I have to resort to sneaking in my own paint, because I just cant afford to pay for a case of paint what I spent on my last HPA bottle.
I am used to buying really good paint for $35-$45 a case and ultra premium for around $60. The price some fields charge is akin to highway robbery at 200-400% mark-ups. I have no clue how some of the younger kids who play there can afford it, unless they are doing the same thing I am and sneak it in.
Having had enough one day I confronted the owner about no allowing anyone to bring their own paint and he reply was that is was a liability issue. He said something to the effect that he was liable for any paint shot on his field the only way he could control it was to supply all the paint himself.
His excuse for the rip off prices was that the market was baring it quite nicely considering the fields were full… I wondered he knew half of us there had snuck out own paint in.
We I did not take anything he said seriously until last weekend. My buds and I were playing one of the few local fields that allow BYOP, and one of my buds is a cheap bastard. This guy is so cheap he buys his paintballs at Wal-Mart in a 5 gallon bucket 4000 at time, I did not catch the name but I want to call them Zap. Well he had these paint balls for over a couple of years and they were hard as rocks.
During our game I kept getting hit but the paint did not break, at first it was ok because I got to keep playing and I was not about to whine about getting hurt in front of my buddies, but as the day went on I got pretty bruised up. Then I took a shot to my arm at about 15 feet and it tore a chunk of skin off and still did not break.
I had to quit to go get the bleeding to stop and while I was at the rest area I took some of his paintballs and tried to break them with my fingers. I crushed them hard as I could and could not break them. Then I took one and hit it with a wrench and got it to break, it was a really hard.
Then it dawns on me why some fields don’t let you bring your own paint, because this stuff was dangerous… Ok I get it now, but it does not justify 400% markups.
Our game ended after I loaded up my hopper with my buddy the cheap bastard’s paint and played against him for a half a game, it turns out he cried like a little girl when he got shot by his own paint. He really whined and made a big deal out of me stealing his paint, then when the rest of my buddies figured out what he was talking about they all wanted a turn with his paint too, it seems I am not the only one who was getting bruised up pretty badly and keeping a tight lip about it. He literally had to run away as he was bonus balled off the field.
We then took his paint and dumped it the porta-potty as he continued to whine about stealing his paint, and we had some ‘words’ at this point I am not sure if he is our buddy any more, and some serious asskickery will take place if he shows up next week with another bucket of cheap ass paint.
A word to the wise… pay attention to what kind of paint the other people on the field are shooting. Some of that stuff is bad news and can injure you.