Purchasing Business...Opinions Wanted

[mblanton]

I am purchasing an existing paintball business from a man in my area (western kentucky). Fist, I would like to know whether the deal sounds good. Second, I would like opinions about what to keep and what to sell off and what price to charge.

Here is what I'm getting:

1 - 4x6 box trailor
2 - 50# CO2 cylinders
1 - fill station
13 - 9oz. bottles
12 - 200 rnd. hoppers
9 - face masks (various brands)
1 - chronograph
1 - e-99 (with 16" j&j barrel)
4 - spyder sport
2 - bruiser
1 - titan t3 (needs rebuild kit)
2 - sheridan pistols
9 - stingray II

There is alot of misc. items (gloves, pods, parts, tools...etc)

I am purchasing all the above for $650.00

In addition to the above I already have:
1 - spyder tl-x
2 - maxis pro team e/g
1 - 12v revolution with x-board
1 - 20oz. bottle
1- vforce mask

I was thinking of getting rid of all the stingrays, but what would be the best way to do this? I can get a rebuild kit for the titan for $20. Do you think I should rebuild it and add it to the cart as a rental or sell it as is? I was also unsure what to do with the sheridan pistols. They are bringing $50-60 used on ebay. I thought that might be an option.

Here are the prices that I plan to charge:
rental fee - $5
co2 fill - 9oz. $3, 12oz. or larger $4
paintballs - 200 $4, 500 $10

I'm not interested in making a ton of money off this...I really like to play and want to promote the sport. My goal is for all the equipment to pay for itself in less than a year. I will be hosting my first game on September 17 (we're calling it junk yard wars...because its in a junk yard). I purchase the (2) Maxis pro team e/g to put in the cart for $100. I also bought 5 cases of big ball paint for $75 (got them for $15 each as wal-mart). So, altogether I have $825 invested. I figure I'll average 15 players per game and out of those 15 probably 7-8 will rent markers. Everyone will need air and paint.

Let me know what you think the best course of action would be.

Mike

[spydadude]

Glad to see more businesses starting out! I hope that you succeed with it. Anyways, for the Stingrays, either sell them in bulk, start a field with them, or put them on e-bay. Then, use that money to get the rebuild kit.

[Eladamri]

The titan is a solid marker. Its basically a Procarb clone. The main issue with the Titans is that like the Procarb, they are slow by todays standards. I would spend the $20 and rebuild it, it would be a good rental marker. Besides, I doubt you would get too much for it if you sold it.

[snaretan]

I'm not 100% sure on the used pricing for some of the equipment, but I know I wouldn't want to rent out mix matched equipment, or the stingrays. (as for the Sheridans, If that's a PGP, I'll buy one from ya, PM me)

You won't need to carry so many different parts kits for your markers, or so many different lenses for your googles, if all/most of your stuff matched, or were similar. (For instance, do bruizers take spyder parts?) However, this currently isn't an option, but maybe for down the road.

Biggest questions are:

You mention going to play at a junkyard. That's be pretty cool, but do you have insurance? It might be dangerous there.

Do you have a regular field to go back to durint the times you can't use the junkyard?

Where/how will you advertise? You might want more than word of mouth.

Hmm... I'll probably think of other questions. If you are running this the way I think you are, I've thought of doing that myself.

Tan