No_DAMN_NAMES
05-04-2003, 12:04 PM
Not according to CEO of Diablo, Craig Miller.
Q. There are a lot of people out there that think paint is just too expensive. What goes into making a paintball and are the prices justified?
A. This answer may get me a good deal of flak, but it is reality. Here goes:
In the face of significant increases, in the raw materials used in making paintball shells, fills, packaging, and fuel (for transport), Industry-wide, I'm not convinced that today's prices are even sustainable.
What goes into the making of consistent paintballs would absolutely blow most people's minds. It's not "just a machine"costing nearly a million dollars, like most people think. There are a whole FLEET of machines, and the computerization to run them fills a room. The support equipment is truly the key, and it takes up a huge amount of space, expertise, experience, highly trained technical staff, and cubic dollars to get it all operating correctly, consistently.
Our Industrial Manufacturing Air Management systems are larger than one of the houses I lived in when I was in college – and we have more than one of them. These immense air handling systems are responsible for only a part of the BIG difference between our own, very consistent paintballs, and the mystery bargain brands on the market, because the air handling systems keep the drying air within NASA-like specifications for consistency, humidity/dryness, temperature, flow rates, etc.
There are scientific industrial boilers that produce staggering volumes within remarkably narrow variances. These are bigger than some Sport Utility vehicles. There is a giant I-beam super-structure in our factory, built just to support the massive weight of the technologically advanced, high-capacity chillers in the physical-plant section of our new facility. The multiple mixing tanks are big enough to hold a Rave inside them. These mixers are as big as some small Paintball Stores.
And I'm skipping over a whole bunch of the infrastructural componentry in these departments. The pumping stations, piping, metering devices, valving sytems, and related equipment that is used just to bring the raw materials into the pre-production department would fill more than one semi truck. In addition, there are scientific color mixers, cleaning rooms, a fully developed high-tech scientific Laboratory and staff. The packaging area alone is bigger than some smaller indoor Paintball Fields. If you took everything out of the Shipping and Receiving department, you would have enough room to fly gas-powered radio-controlled model aircraft.
Then add the costs of the raw materials that every Paintball Manufacturer must buy as ingredients for the product. These raw materials are traded like commodities, so the prices fluctuate based on supply and demand. Many of the items on this long list of ingredients are going UP IN PRICE right now. The budget required for raw materials purchasing is totally staggering. Throw in a staff of almost 200 people, including production, packaging, legal, sales and marketing, administrative and accounting departments, and a fully equipped art department. Add in a full-fleet Trucking Company, plus their staff and drivers. Then add in the costs of the offices and staff of your Distribution Company which is, for the bigger distributors like Diablo Direct, PMI, or National, at least another 30 to 50 people on the payroll, plus costs of warehouses, forklifts, boxes, computer systems, spread all over the country, and in some cases, the whole world. This is all BEFORE you spend so much as a dollar on advertising. The larger Companies spend over a million a year just on ads and promotion, so that people can know that they exist.
So, now you can see why it never ceases to amaze me that people think paintballs are too expensive, especially when you consider that the cost of playing rental-style* Rec-Ball at a typical field for a day has never increased. Yet the cost of paint for serious shooters has dropped a TON over the years! But as the guns get faster, people choose to shoot and spend more and more. Here's what I mean:
Year Average cost per ball Average Cost per "day of play" % change
1982 30 to 50 CENTS !$!?&*$ $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1985 25 CENTS !!!!$%&?@! $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1988 10 – 12 cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1993 5 - 10 cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1997 ~ 4 cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
2001 ~ 2 *½ -- 3 ½ cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
So, retail Paintball prices, in general, are ONE TENTH of their prior cost from 19 years ago
Obviously, it's normal to wish for prices to go even lower. But the fact is, this market has matured to a point where there are a whole bunch of competing manufacturers, trying to at least break even, and in some cases failing, and prices have dropped SO LOW that our sources confirm that some of the lowest priced suppliers are LOSING between $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 per month--that's in U.S. Dollars. That's not likely to be sustained for long.
So, again, it's fun to wish for lower prices, and we all wish for a technological manufacturing breakthrough that will change this whole equation. But until then, I believe that the current crop of bargain basement "seconds"based suppliers have developed their business plans with very bad misinformation, and created a nightmare based on losing money. That's why I'm not convinced that today's prices are even sustainable.
http://www.pbstar.com/interview/craig-miller/
Q. There are a lot of people out there that think paint is just too expensive. What goes into making a paintball and are the prices justified?
A. This answer may get me a good deal of flak, but it is reality. Here goes:
In the face of significant increases, in the raw materials used in making paintball shells, fills, packaging, and fuel (for transport), Industry-wide, I'm not convinced that today's prices are even sustainable.
What goes into the making of consistent paintballs would absolutely blow most people's minds. It's not "just a machine"costing nearly a million dollars, like most people think. There are a whole FLEET of machines, and the computerization to run them fills a room. The support equipment is truly the key, and it takes up a huge amount of space, expertise, experience, highly trained technical staff, and cubic dollars to get it all operating correctly, consistently.
Our Industrial Manufacturing Air Management systems are larger than one of the houses I lived in when I was in college – and we have more than one of them. These immense air handling systems are responsible for only a part of the BIG difference between our own, very consistent paintballs, and the mystery bargain brands on the market, because the air handling systems keep the drying air within NASA-like specifications for consistency, humidity/dryness, temperature, flow rates, etc.
There are scientific industrial boilers that produce staggering volumes within remarkably narrow variances. These are bigger than some Sport Utility vehicles. There is a giant I-beam super-structure in our factory, built just to support the massive weight of the technologically advanced, high-capacity chillers in the physical-plant section of our new facility. The multiple mixing tanks are big enough to hold a Rave inside them. These mixers are as big as some small Paintball Stores.
And I'm skipping over a whole bunch of the infrastructural componentry in these departments. The pumping stations, piping, metering devices, valving sytems, and related equipment that is used just to bring the raw materials into the pre-production department would fill more than one semi truck. In addition, there are scientific color mixers, cleaning rooms, a fully developed high-tech scientific Laboratory and staff. The packaging area alone is bigger than some smaller indoor Paintball Fields. If you took everything out of the Shipping and Receiving department, you would have enough room to fly gas-powered radio-controlled model aircraft.
Then add the costs of the raw materials that every Paintball Manufacturer must buy as ingredients for the product. These raw materials are traded like commodities, so the prices fluctuate based on supply and demand. Many of the items on this long list of ingredients are going UP IN PRICE right now. The budget required for raw materials purchasing is totally staggering. Throw in a staff of almost 200 people, including production, packaging, legal, sales and marketing, administrative and accounting departments, and a fully equipped art department. Add in a full-fleet Trucking Company, plus their staff and drivers. Then add in the costs of the offices and staff of your Distribution Company which is, for the bigger distributors like Diablo Direct, PMI, or National, at least another 30 to 50 people on the payroll, plus costs of warehouses, forklifts, boxes, computer systems, spread all over the country, and in some cases, the whole world. This is all BEFORE you spend so much as a dollar on advertising. The larger Companies spend over a million a year just on ads and promotion, so that people can know that they exist.
So, now you can see why it never ceases to amaze me that people think paintballs are too expensive, especially when you consider that the cost of playing rental-style* Rec-Ball at a typical field for a day has never increased. Yet the cost of paint for serious shooters has dropped a TON over the years! But as the guns get faster, people choose to shoot and spend more and more. Here's what I mean:
Year Average cost per ball Average Cost per "day of play" % change
1982 30 to 50 CENTS !$!?&*$ $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1985 25 CENTS !!!!$%&?@! $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1988 10 – 12 cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1993 5 - 10 cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
1997 ~ 4 cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
2001 ~ 2 *½ -- 3 ½ cents per ball $39.00 -- 55.00 0
So, retail Paintball prices, in general, are ONE TENTH of their prior cost from 19 years ago
Obviously, it's normal to wish for prices to go even lower. But the fact is, this market has matured to a point where there are a whole bunch of competing manufacturers, trying to at least break even, and in some cases failing, and prices have dropped SO LOW that our sources confirm that some of the lowest priced suppliers are LOSING between $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 per month--that's in U.S. Dollars. That's not likely to be sustained for long.
So, again, it's fun to wish for lower prices, and we all wish for a technological manufacturing breakthrough that will change this whole equation. But until then, I believe that the current crop of bargain basement "seconds"based suppliers have developed their business plans with very bad misinformation, and created a nightmare based on losing money. That's why I'm not convinced that today's prices are even sustainable.
http://www.pbstar.com/interview/craig-miller/