Spotted on my trip through London yesterday

[Cyberpyr8]

I spotted this kiosk in London this week. I thought I remember reading this was a scam.

[Jonnydread]

Yep it’s scammy. They have a similar thing in the US that they used to hustle on college campuses. It seems like a great deal but the packages are super limited and come with barely any paint and don’t include rentals or anything. I think they were basically just entry passes with like 100 paintballs, but they sell them as “complete” passes and imply indirectly that rentals and gear are included.Then the poor saps get to the field and have to pay an additional $50+ per person just to play. It’s very dishonest.

[The Inflicted]

Are they affiliated with a particular field or multiple fields?

[Trbo323]

Yeah I've seen this type of thing before around me actually. A company would sell "paintball passes" that were actually good for a number of local fields but it was basic rental and like 100 balls. That said it did get people onto the field so meh

[Cdn_Cuda]

Yup, these are common at malls and fairs around my parts. Best way to get ripped off. One of these groups bought out a local field and run their model there. It sucks. Can’t buy a case of paint individual and share balls, all players have to buy the same extremely overpriced package. Paint is super cheap too doesn’t break

[Trbo323]

Yup, these are common at malls and fairs around my parts. Best way to get ripped off. One of these groups bought out a local field and run their model there. It sucks. Can't buy a case of paint individual and share balls, all players have to buy the same extremely overpriced package. Paint is super cheap too doesn't break

What field is that?

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Cdn_Cuda]

https://www.canadapaintballing.ca/

They bought out Maple Ridge Paintball, which used to be a great place to play. Now it is terrible. Was invited to play there with a friend. Upsell everything, except the paint. Spend X more and get a sniper barrel (long barrel for low level Tippmann etc). They kid working there didn’t even know what a Chrono was.

[TF_Aloha]

These are common in the US too, but now they're often just going through Groupon. Usually they will at some point reveal that you absolutely must pay a certain amount of money when you arrive, and once you add it up, it's about the same as the normal rate.

The problem is that this anchors customers at impossibly low price points, so fields have to rely on paint pricing shenanigans to drain their wallets once they're on the property.

I really think that if this type of low initial offer to new players stopped, we'd see fields actually price paint in a way that makes sense.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Seems like a race to the bottom. Don’t know about out the average customer. But if I got bait and switched you wouldn’t ever see me again. We have a local field that caters to Groupon they bus them in from the city. They make so much doing that that they don’t even take walk on an anymore.

[Morgenstern]

There was a field owner on Pbnation around 2005 that may have pioneered this model. He took a lot of flak on there but seemed to do pretty well. Had a Hummer or something wrapped with the business name if I remember. $15-20 entry, rental and 200 paintballs or whatever. After that it was paint by the pod only and priced so it came out to an absolutely crazy amount per case.

He knew overshooting and agg culture scared away newbies and birthday parties at an alarming rate. If he could make sure everyone at the birthday group had a good time, wasn’t overshot etc, that’s 15 more people that want to have their party there. He didn’t want to be in the paint selling business because it had bad margins, was bulky, heavy and needed lots of storage and other consideration. He was there to sell entry and snacks and didn’t want people to shoot more than the first 200 if he could help it. His response to criticism from the paintball community was to raise paint prices even more. It honestly sounded pretty awesome and I’d have loved to go

[Toestr]

This basically sounds like the FSR only games that have been put on. Albeit without the magfed goofiness and environmental issues associated.

[SignOfZeta]

There was a field owner on Pbnation around 2005 that may have pioneered this model. He took a lot of flak on there but seemed to do pretty well. Had a Hummer or something wrapped with the business name if I remember. $15-20 entry, rental and 200 paintballs or whatever. After that it was paint by the pod only and priced so it came out to an absolutely crazy amount per case.

He knew overshooting and agg culture scared away newbies and birthday parties at an alarming rate. If he could make sure everyone at the birthday group had a good time, wasn’t overshot etc, that’s 15 more people that want to have their party there. He didn’t want to be in the paint selling business because it had bad margins, was bulky, heavy and needed lots of storage and other consideration. He was there to sell entry and snacks and didn’t want people to shoot more than the first 200 if he could help it. His response to criticism from the paintball community was to raise paint prices even more. It honestly sounded pretty awesome and I’d have loved to go

Oh man. Apparently at some point I find a time machine and go back to the year 2005 because that sounds like me. Charging WAY more for paint, like 80s prices, maybe like $0.25 a round, would do wonders for stock play.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I would gladly pay that as long as its large bore heavy fill and Round. But today we can’t have nice things, now can we.

[flyweightnate]

You know... maybe if you get nice paint, it'll be so expensive you have to price it that way. Then you can advertise that it's the best paint in the state, and only you have it...