COMMUNITY

I was told that starting this week will Field Paint Only.

I believe this will hurt the regulars that come out to 1 PB. I see this being a problem since I have not seen any more All Stars... and Zen is not the best paint for my marker. I hope the price does not increase....which it might.

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www.TEAM WARTHOG.com

BONZAI:

I was told that starting this week will Field Paint Only.

I believe this will hurt the regulars that come out to 1 PB. I see this being a problem since I have not seen any more All Stars... and Zen is not the best paint for my marker. I hope the price does not increase....which it might.

 Hmmm... that's weird... This post won't show up at the top.

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www.TEAM WARTHOG.com

I guess I will just have to play somewhere else....seeing as the price of stingers are marked up 20 dollars, not only that bu they don't even sell the kind of paint I use :(

Well, honestly, the majority of the fields around this area are FPO these days.  It is just a fact of life.  This is also where a field makes the majority of it's profit.  But honestly, a $20 markup is not bad.  Fields used to be MUCH worse on the mark-up (the field I started at charged $100 for a case of Big Ball...)

Besides, after talking with Trips at Grant Road a while back, this is primarily due to players coming in with Wal-Mart paint.  Paint that has a tendency to not come off and/or destroy the objectives and bunkers on the field.  If you don't believe me, ask Bobby to demonstrate his paint test using a bottle of water, it is quite enlightening.

i know all about the cheap paint issues--it's been there since the beginning of time long before #1PB took over the grant rd field.

i don't hve a problem with the concept of FPO however I do ave a problem with the price.I can buy a case of the same quality paint for $20 less off feild. Granted it's not the same color but the same brand. Now how is it that a feild with as many custiomers as #1pb can't negotiate a better price for paint than what Academy sells their paint at then there is a problem. I understand they don't want to give it away but if its FPO then that is a built in customer base. You have to be careful about charging too much because folks will simply not play as much. I'm not saying they can get the same price as Academy but they certainly don't have to sell it for $20 more.

That's like a business I saw when I lived in  New Orleans--they were not getting enough customers to cover thier costs so they raised the prices thinking that will bring them in for sure...needless to say New Orleans no longer has a scenic railroad on the west bank.

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nobody here is exactly what they appear...

Don't particularly like this guy but I totaly agree with his rant and it's part of the reason fields go FPO.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKqpYVvhuxs

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Chance
'07 Reindeer revolt(Santa)
'08 Cats and dogs(Cats)
Carter's Commando TX Div

A lot of the fields are field paint only, but they still give you an option whether or not to pay a fee to use your own paint....even if they made their prices the same (26 dollars) and made me pay a 5 dollar fee for byop I would much rather do that....maybe even 10.

I play FPO games everytime I play a scenario and don;t really mind those prices because it's a special event--once every couple of months. Up until this summer I was playing almost every weekend. I can afford to play as long as my paint costs don't get too high. I will typically go through  one full case each day I play (I don't miss too many games on the field). At a $20/case mark up from what I can get the same paint elsewhere that means an extra $80 per month. That means in order to keep my costs the same I will only be able to play two or three times a month--how many others are out there playing on a Mcdonalds valuemeal budget? We are very loyal customers and many of us introduce kids to paintball routinely. Our money is just as good as those kids that have mom and dad pay for everything it's just we don''t have as much to toss around. Why make more expensive for us? How many new players do you think we will introduce given the increase on costs?

I don't mind a paintball field saying FPO or even trying to turn a buck in the process--that's business. However when they say FPO and charge too much for the paint that's when I have issues. I haven't played in a while so I don't know what the prices are currently running but if it's $20 more than what I can get the same paint elsewhere then that is excessive in my opinion. I know that nobody is giving paint away so If I'm paying $40/case at a store I know they did not pay $40 for it. They marked it up. It's a question as to how much they mark it up. #1pb is a corporation and they won't give paint away either--nor do I want them too but to be fair. However I don't want to pay half again as much for paint at a feild becasue they feel can charge that much. Now if it's only high end paint that is fresh all the time and such then sure you are getting a better product and charging more for it great but the same stuff at a higher price is bad.

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nobody here is exactly what they appear...

I would like to address a couple of points brought up in this thread.

 1.  The amount of markup that #1 Paintball has on the paint it sells. I'm not privy to what they pay for paint but I can be pretty sure that whatever they pay is going to be more than what Academy or Walmart pay for it.  Beaker your logic is that with the number of players there must be a way they can get as good or better a price than Academy.  How many Academy stores are there?  I don't think #1 Paintball comes even close to that number therefore there probably isn't much chance they will ever get the pricing Academy does on paintballs or any other product that they both carry.

2.  The markup #1 Paintball has on paint versus Academy and Walmart.  #1 Paintball sells only a limited number of items in order to remain in business.  All the other places you are mentioning sell literally thousands of items.  There is more room for these other stores to possibly not mark up the paint they sell so little of and spread out their profit over more items. 

3. HeadHunter221 - There is no such thing as a field that is field paint only but allow you to pay a fee to bring in your own paint.  If they allow you under any situation to bring in paint from the outside then they are not a field paint only field.

4.  Reasons I see for going to field paint only.  The company controls the quality of paint they allow to be shot at their property and their customers.  How many of you have been shot with some Brand Z that felt like a rock or when it did break the shell was so sharp it cut you?  I know I have been and am glad to see a field in the Houston area take a stand against the punishment the cheap paint causes to both players and equipment.  I've heard Trips tell the story of scraping some of the build up off of the castles he said when he tried to clean off the paint scraper he was using it all came off in a ball. And believe it or not there is still old paint on the castiles AFTER Hurricane IKE traveled through the area.  That was a pretty good power washing experience I think.

Those are the points I found to be somewhat off track in this thread so far.  Does it mean I'll have to shoot a few less balls each time I play in order for me to play as much as I do now?  I'm certainly driving less miles now than I did a year ago due to the high prices of gas.  Somehow I managed to survive that I think I can slow my fingers down enough to compensate.

I know I worded it kinda wrong, but what I meant is that there are some fields that allow you to pay a fine instead of using field paint. Also, when I mentioned the mark up on paint I was using the place that I usually buy from (The Command Post) to base the prices off of....and unless they have changed something recently I remember Xball Bronze (not a bad paint at all for rec play) being 45 dollars.....however, stinger, a lower quality paint with a harder shell is more expensive....

HeadHunter221 - Command Post has always charged less for paint than almost any other place in town that sells paint.  Ask anybody who has played paintball in this town for more than 5 years who was the first place to drive down the prices of paint in Houston.  I believe they have always used the paint prices to get you in the door to buy their other products.  They don't rely on the paintball merchandise in their stores to pay their bills really, they would much rather sell you the camo or black bdu's because they have a much better mark on them.  Once again when you compare a business that sells a limited amount of products to a business that sells thousands of products it's not a fair comparison.

You must have never been to the command post I go to, I doubt that if they didn't rely on paintball to pay the bills they wouldn't have made a field of their own...I doubt that enough people buy bdu's there to cover the bills. And even then, it isn't always beneficial to stock thousands (or more in the case of the Command Post 100's) because some of that just sits there....so they aren't really selling that much.

I know the last time I played at the Grant Rd. field it took me the better part of a couple hours to clean all the gunk off of my equipment after rubbing up against some bunkers on the Castle to Castle field.  If doing FPO will mean I don't have to deal with the same crud the refs are complaining about, and the field paint is quality paint, I'm cool.

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"You are my hammer and weapon of war." - Jeremiah 51:20

TEXAS ROUGHNECKS - ASSAULT SQUAD

I found this interesting piece on pbnation.  Maybe it better explains what I've been trying to say:

 

Paintball 101 ::: Why Field Paint Costs More

Why On-Site “FIELD PAINT” costs more:

Restaurants charge $25.00 for just 5 bucks worth of food… WHY?
Because they have to pay all the Chefs, Waitresses, Busboys, Dishwashers, Rent, Gas, Electric, Water, Garbage, Maintenance, Insurance, Taxes, etc., etc…
We Customers pay extra to enjoy the complete dining experience…

Paintball Fields charge more for Field-Paint than Retail stores charge… WHY?
Because they have to pay all the Refs, CO2 & Fill-staff, Grounds Staff, Counter staff, Rent, Utilities, IN$URANCE, Taxes, Advertising, Props, Maintenance, Freight, etc…
We Customers pay extra to enjoy the complete PAINTBALL experience …

THE MORAL:
Retail Stores sell only “a box of paintballs”…
… BUT…
But the FIELD sells a box of paintballs AND “a complete Paintball Adventure”:
Including a forest (or field) full of armed competitors,

PLUS Refs,
PLUS all the needed gear,
PLUS props,
PLUS insurance
PLUS support staff,
PLUS the excellent real estate needed to create an

UNFORGETTABLE PAINTBALL EXPERIENCE !!!

 

Then there is the long standing post on EMR Paintball's site as to why they use FPO:

http://emrpaintball.com/fpo.shtml

 

I'm sure this won't change many if any minds about the policy but I thought I'd post them up anyway. 

 

 

TreeWalker:

I found this interesting piece on pbnation.  Maybe it better explains what I've been trying to say:

 

Paintball 101 ::: Why Field Paint Costs More

Why On-Site “FIELD PAINT” costs more:

Restaurants charge $25.00 for just 5 bucks worth of food… WHY?
Because they have to pay all the Chefs, Waitresses, Busboys, Dishwashers, Rent, Gas, Electric, Water, Garbage, Maintenance, Insurance, Taxes, etc., etc…
We Customers pay extra to enjoy the complete dining experience…

Paintball Fields charge more for Field-Paint than Retail stores charge… WHY?
Because they have to pay all the Refs, CO2 & Fill-staff, Grounds Staff, Counter staff, Rent, Utilities, IN$URANCE, Taxes, Advertising, Props, Maintenance, Freight, etc…
We Customers pay extra to enjoy the complete PAINTBALL experience …

THE MORAL:
Retail Stores sell only “a box of paintballs”…
… BUT…
But the FIELD sells a box of paintballs AND “a complete Paintball Adventure”:
Including a forest (or field) full of armed competitors,

PLUS Refs,
PLUS all the needed gear,
PLUS props,
PLUS insurance
PLUS support staff,
PLUS the excellent real estate needed to create an

UNFORGETTABLE PAINTBALL EXPERIENCE !!!

Then there is the long standing post on EMR Paintball's site as to why they use FPO:

http://emrpaintball.com/fpo.shtml

I'm sure this won't change many if any minds about the policy but I thought I'd post them up anyway. 

 

Ok you found a post somewhere else that tries to explain this.

However what is missing there is the basic concept of the field fee. That's the stuff the field fee is supposed to cover. #1PB set themselves up as BYOP and as any business man will tell you--you should have a plan to cover the costs before you start. The reason is customers don't like price hikes--regardless of the reason. Sure this is not a true price hike but the overall effect is the same.

 As to your comments about the field paying more for a case of paint--sure they do. however I doubt they pay $20 more for the same box of the same brand.

I know they are in it to make money and there is the issue of the crappy paint. I agree with both of those items and don't have a problem with it. I just have a problem with paying too much for the product being offered that's all.

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nobody here is exactly what they appear...