Which do I want more... $150, or an A-5?

[Mercurius]

A friend of mine is offering to sell his gently used Tippmann A-5 (with everything it came with retail) to me for $150. I knew the retail price of the gun, and that he'd used it less than 10 times, so I checked his temperature, and it turns out he's quite sane. He's assured me that taking advantage of this offer is no moral failure on my part, which is comforting.

But, $150 to me is still a dent in the finances. So, I need some questions answered by people who know more about the A-5 and paintball in general than I do.

1) Am I going to be able to clear $150 dollars if I have to sell it soon afterwards? This is probably academic, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep it as my new main gun (unless the combined sales of this and my present gun are enough for a cocker or something), but just to be sure.

2) If I get more competetive with paintball, will the A-5 be able to hang with at least intermediate-level people and guns in tournaments? I don't need it to match up to the guys with $1000 dollar guns that go full auto, but knowing there's room for improvement (as I'm still a beginner right now) is good.

3) What mods are recommended for the A-5? Are there any specifically that are recommended with a good cost to performance ratio? I know I'm going to get a barrel first, but beyond that?

4) My present (and first) gun is a used Brass Eagle Raptor with a 16" CMI barrel, Bob Long expansion chamber, drop forward, delrin starfire bolt and VL2000 hopper. I haven't played with it extensively, but it's served me well enough in speedball and woods games. Is there anything significant about the transition to the A-5 that I should know? Since I'm mostly a newb, am I going to find it overwhelming?

Thanks for the advice, you don't have to answer every question (sorry if I asked too many), just feel free to chime in on whatever you have an opinion on.

[response]

1) you could probably get away with 150, i would buy it if i still had my first gun

2)Most likely, i have a very customised 98 custom and i play with people with 1500-2000 dollar guns

3)for the a-5, i would recomend nitrogen system, a new barrel (not the flatline), and a response trigger or an e-grip

4)the a-5 is not too overwhelming, nor is the transition

[Headhunter]

1) You could easily break even if you decide to sell it in the future and keep it in good shape.

2) It will work fine for competative paintball for a while. Just starting out I feel it will do fine.

3) Beyond a barrel?...RT or E-grip. Personally I don't feel it needs either one but that is my opinion.

4) What you will find is that your Raptor is longer and maybe a bit heavier. The trigger pull will be different also. You won't have to worry about the hopper falling off cause the A-5 hopper attaches right to the marker(Pretty sweet really). The overall feel will be different but for the most part you shouldn't have much of a problem. The fore-grip on the A-5 can be removed to give the 'Raptorisc feel', but that will be personal a choice.

[honkycat]

i'll take it if you don't want it
so GET IT!