Usability of Paintball Collection

[Jordan]

Is my stuff useable? If the paint is decent, yes. 🙂

I don't generally lend my stuff out unless I know the person and even that doesn't happen very much. I also don't borrow anything if I can help it.

[Pyrate Jim]

Anyone flipped around their collections for similar situations? Any advice? How useable is your paintball collection?

Interesting question. I never "flipped" much, just put the old in storage and bought new.
How useable? I honestly don't know, not even sure how many I still have but easily over 100 markers. Most have not been aired up in years or even decades.
There's a NelSpot 007 from 1986 in there that has factory grease, never been aired up or fired. Is it useable? Would I let it be used just to find out?
It certainly wouldn't be considered "easy" to use by today's standards.

[The Hobbit]

I wouldn’t change up my personal collection. I’d be just grab some loaners and I’d probably look at Enmys. Cheap, simple, and should be fairly available.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Honestly have never seen an NME for sale near me.

[cfos00]

I have a group of keepers that will not go anywhere, and I use pretty much everything. This one is easily the most well known, and has been used at almost every big event I've gone to in the last 8 years. It gets recognized before I do.

[Alexndl]

I have couple of mech ion, ULE classic mag and blowback that I could lend without too much issue. But I also have several stock class marker, single shot and pump that are more tricky for someone without experience.

If you are planning to switch your collection let me know I could trade or sell couple of spyder (vert feed) with revvy and a A5

[Cdn_Cuda]

Not necessarily switch my collection my entire collection, just change what I target.

[Olsson]

I can't even use half the guns in my collection

[Myrkul]

I usually have about one game a year where I have to equip both my siblings and my brother in law, and the limiting factor is always the support gear, particularly good masks, hoppers, and small bore barrels. I can always equip two electros completely (ICD & Smart Parts), and then one mech semi (usually AGD or ICD) and then I start running out of good masks. Assuming the mask situation was "covered" I'd probably have enough hoppers and tanks to get one more person covered with a revy (AGD or ICD), and then two more with proto primo loaders, which do just fine on most blowbacks, so those would be Tippmanns or ICD.

The guns would unquestionably be cheap Tippmanns, specifically the pro-carbine, if I had to push any serious volume. They kick enough that a proto primo loader is going to work just fine unless someone has an unusually quick trigger finger, and by the time masks, pod packs, hoppers and tanks were all covered it would be the only thing that was even remotely reasonable price wise. The better then gun, the better the hopper needs to be to keep up or you'll just be spending all day cleaning out barrels for people. 10.5 is really not that fast, certainly fast enough to cause chops but not fast enough to feel outgunned. Most people just want something that is simple, reliable, and consistent over the Chrono. The only real drawback to the Tippmanns would be the stock barrels kinda blow, but for the price you could pick up something aftermarket in 0.685 and still be wayyyy under the budget of anything else.

[Cdn_Cuda]

I've horded a good amount of gear. I've got lots of gravity hoppers and several Halos, Rotors and Eggies even. Prefer to avoid electros largely due to batteries, but a suppose a Mini wouldn't be a bad thing. Trusting kids to have trigger discipline though... that's another thing entirely. I'm pretty well stocked on soft goods as well. Vests, gloves, pod packs etc. Mostly just getting a few more easy to use and maintain markers.

[Myrkul]

Regular gravity loaders never seem to cut it for my friends, and halos do really bad with the small paint my field has too. Rotors with the tension turned down are rock solid, and if I could find an egg with an intact shell I'd definitely give it a shot. People are REALLY hard on gear that isn't theirs though, so I won't bet on an egg making it more then a few outings.

If you are just focused on the guns though, the mini should hold up really well and withstand a ton of abuse.

[Olsson]

I have been utilizing a cunning scheme over the years, to the benefit of both newcomers and myself.

I habitually drag five to ten guns to the field whenever I play. Some of them are rock steady workhorses, some of them are guns that I have teched and that I would like to play for a full day before slapping them with my personal stamp of approval. So, I simply let anyone who need a gun borrow whatever gun of mine that tickles their fancy, no matter if they are newcomers or regulars.

I would like to clarify that even though the guns are in need of a day of playing, I fully expect them to work flawlessly. They have been thoroughly serviced, tested, chronoed, etc. I simply outsource the actual playtime with them. Yes, it has happened that a gun malfunctioned, but not really any more often than the average gun, and the player borrowing it will have another gun for the next game - or possibly during the game if I am in his/her vicinity.

Quite often a bunch of the newcomers have the best performing, most uncommon and/or most expensive guns on the field. They just don't know it.

[BrickHaus]

I've held onto at least one solid loaner over the years. It's usually a rotating gun. Today it's my RSX with a mech kit. I just sold my loaner axe to a friend who's etha blew up, but that was my other one up until last weekend. But I also have a few nice mech ions, and a nova N1 I could let people shoot.

Otherwise yeah, I have a large collection of stuff only I seem to like. Even with my expierenced friends. No one wants toshoot my brass or other oddity guns I offer them all of the time.

[SignOfZeta]

Unlike your average MCB member I loathe pain in the ass guns that don’t work reliably and need special touches constantly. I have seven guns. Everything I have is a pump. I could have any of them up and running in seconds. They all work right now and are always ready.

I consider the “loanability” of all my guns because I want to be able to let people try pump with a quality gun if they want to. There are no abandoned projects. I know, I should be banned for admitting that…

I disagree that kids won’t like pumps. In the 80s all kids had were pumps and we loved it. Kids don’t always suck as much as you think they do.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Pumps I definitely have covered, but handing one to a 12 year for his first time seems a little challenging. After a few times out? Sure, give them a pump and see how they do.

[flyweightnate]

I've moved this direction, for myself as much as anyone.

I only get out one or a few times per year, so I have no patience for an unreliable gun once I'm there. I got rid of my autocockers, razor's-edge LP Spyders, and weird projects for stuff that I can use within two minutes of hitting the chrony, or hand off to a friend without question.

The collection is now an Emek, Sentinel, Spyder, two Sterlings, a Phantom or two, and a Torque. Zero problems, ever. Add some extra masks and Revvys and it's pretty newb-friendly. Which is good, because my skills are regressing to newb levels pretty quickly.

[mercpb]

I always bring 3 markers
1- the EMEK
2- a collection gun that should work
3- a collection gun that's for sure going to break in 2min because my lack of maintenance

I usually let a rental kid shoot #1 and I shoot #2

Or I'll use the renter's Tippmann rig to reinforce the point that at the recball level it's 90% player 10% gun

[Psycho91]

I got back into pb about a year ago and have been building my collection back up, iv always held onto my trracer and I'd let anyone use that, the cocker I'm building and my sentinal only I will use only cause they are my nicest guns, anything else I own I'd let my 2 year old niece throw around do I'd have no problem loaning them out, for tanks I have no problem with a steely tank and loaders would be anything electric, reliable, and cheap, masks would probably be the hardest cause cheap doest equal quality lenses most times and their not a one size works for everyone kinda thing sometimes

[Magageddon]

When my dad used to have a company paintball team building game for his old job, I would usually pick up some guns off craigslist and fix them up for the game. I think the last one we did I had gotten a couple smart parts nerves off craigslist, got them working, and my dad/brother had a blast with them. I also had the luxury of time then compared to if a friend called me out of the blue wanting to play. I always keep around my old tippmann phenom for those occasions

[Cdn_Cuda]

Craiglist is my go-to for gear locally. It ebbs and flows but I can get a A5 with flatline for $45 CAD at the moment. For one offs I'm generally fine, but I want to do a private rental with my nephews and some family friends, so having 4 sets of easy to use markers and gear is likely fine. I guess I should sit down and look at what I have first, and what I need. If worse comes to worse I would break out my "Footdaddy" Spyder clone for some poor kid.

[Magmoormaster]

Back in the mid 2010s (14-17) I had enough guns and gear to outfit a handful of people. I tried putting together a few games and it was always way more effort than it was worth. It was really not fun for me, so I stopped doing it. At this point, I have 3 guns; my trilogy, a phantom, and a 98 pump project that's sat in a completely unusable state for the last 5-6 years. I doubt the phantom will stay long. The trilogy is all I need.