Valken is Done

[Pumpytrilly1]

Welp I'm putting my valken code right next to my beanie babies. I'm going to be rich.

[RPP]

Perfect retirement plan.

[maggot]

Is absolutely true. Fields submitted their final orders of paint pallets.

[warbosschoppa]

My field is already in the planning phase of swapping to GI

[cfos00]

Gino's health, I think, has a lot to do with this. There's not a natural business successor and he's not doing very well right now from what I have been told. And I think anyone with a dealer account could tell you it looked like the writing has been on the wall for a while now.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, has been in stock for months now. Even getting paint has been iffy for most types of paint. I got the cheapest well stuff I could maybe 6 months ago and it was the oldest, worst stuff I've ever attempted to shoot. I was about to get some decent stuff recently, but they only even had two different options at the time to get paint. Want any actual gear? Forget it. And it's been like that for about a year.

Shame too. They were a good sponsor for us for years.

[The Jayster]

So basically GI Sportz/Procaps now has what? 90%+ of the market? Who are the other providers, if any?
Weird to think that the vast majority of paintballs sold and used throughout the world are manufactured about 30 minutes from where I live.

I know I'll sound like Captain Obvious here but when you own the market, why would you put extra effort into quality and innovation?

When I started playing about 30 years ago there was a plethora of brands: R.P. Scherer, Zap, Nelson, Proball, First Choice, etc.

[Jsc5150]

Proshar makes a really nice ball out of europe

[PBGunny]

Last box of Pro-Shar I had came from Kyrgyzstan... That is more like Central Asia than Europe.

[russonti]

Man this is a huge bummer. I wish i had the capital or even enough to buy the manufacturing plant.

[TF_Aloha]

MCB GoFundMe to buy a couple of their machines and make full-size paint again?

[JonM]

Hibiscus patterned shell with a mayo fill?

[russonti]

i'm down for both ideas

[Ecapnation]

So basically GI Sportz/Procaps now has what? 90%+ of the market? Who are the other providers, if any?
Weird to think that the vast majority of paintballs sold and used throughout the world are manufactured about 30 minutes from where I live.

I know I'll sound like Captain Obvious here but when you own the market, why would you put extra effort into quality and innovation?

When I started playing about 30 years ago there was a plethora of brands: R.P. Scherer, Zap, Nelson, Proball, First Choice, etc.

I've been saying it for years GI won't be happy till they have 100% and can do what NSG tried to do where you lease the concept of paintball from them.

[RPP]

I've been saying it for years GI won't be happy till they have 100% and can do what NSG tried to do where you lease the concept of paintball from them.

And we all know how well that went....

[Ecapnation]

And we all know how well that went....

Oh absolutely....

[Jackson]

I'm assuming bad. But for those of us that weren't around back then, can you elaborate?

[Ecapnation]

Their greed put them out of business

[PBGunny]

I just heard that they still have encapsulating machines that haven't even been set up to run yet.
Wouldn't be the first time a company bought into expensive capital projects and went underwater because of it.
There is quite a bit of equipment involved in the process...

[MrBarraclough]

Update: The Summittbridge motion that was set for 10/7 got pushed to today (10/9) at 11:00am EST. As of right now, I don't see any new docket entries from today, but that is not unusual.

In yet another death knell, the company that owns two encapsulating machines leased by Valken filed a motion for relief from stay last week, seeking court permission to come reclaim their property. The "lease" is obviously a disguised security interest here, and everyone seems to agree on treating it that way. The outcome is the same. They'll almost certainly get permission to repossess them, as Valken/Victory has been in default on monthly payments since the beginning of the year and was completely upside down on them. The creditor estimates the machines to be worth about $700k, assuming proper maintenance by Valken, and the total of accelerated lease payments (what's really debt) is about $1.4M. That is separate from the similarly sized debt to Summitbridge. So there will probably be a creditor with a couple of repossessed encapsulation machines to unload pretty soon.

And as of yesterday, Valken stipulated with a commercial landlord to grant them relief from stay to reclaim possession of their 17,770 sq ft facility at 430 Andro Drive, Pitman, NJ.

[Trbo323]

Update: The Summittbridge motion that was set for 10/7 got pushed to today (10/9) at 11:00am EST. As of right now, I don't see any new docket entries from today, but that is not unusual.

In yet another death knell, the company that owns two encapsulating machines leased by Valken filed a motion for relief from stay last week, seeking court permission to come reclaim their property. The "lease" is obviously a disguised security interest here, and everyone seems to agree on treating it that way. The outcome is the same. They'll almost certainly get permission to repossess them, as Valken/Victory has been in default on monthly payments since the beginning of the year and was completely upside down on them. The creditor estimates the machines to be worth about $700k, assuming proper maintenance by Valken, and the total of accelerated lease payments (what's really debt) is about $1.4M. That is separate from the similarly sized debt to Summitbridge. So there will probably be a creditor with a couple of repossessed encapsulation machines to unload pretty soon.

And as of yesterday, Valken stipulated with a commercial landlord to grant them relief from stay to reclaim possession of their 17,770 sq ft facility at 430 Andro Drive, Pitman, NJ.

Wow, thanks for all the info. I'm finding out all fascinating

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[vijil]

Is it weird that, for once, I'm actually happy to see a paintball company go out of business for normal reasons?

Like, so, they ran out of money and went into debt and folded, because they were mismanaged and/or whatever normal issues.

Pretty standard stuff. Boring even.

That's a breath of fresh air compared to the shell games, sell-to-yourself, plausible deniability, ethically bogus loophole-gamesmanship that seems to have become the norm in PB and big business generally. Kore, basically.

Don't get me wrong I'm sad to see them go. But at least they went out the way companies are supposed to go out.

[Arthur]

Agree. Hate to see this particular brand go in particular but I appreciate how it happened. It’s hard for me to continue buying from brand(s) that just cook the books and reinvent themselves after a hiatus.

[PBGunny]

You would think that with all the pepper balls flying thru the air in Chi-Town and Portlandia, there would be some good profit for anyone making them.
I was checking about the price of those and they sell for around $3 up to $5 for each ball.
And I thought paying $10/tube was bad when I first started playing.