MAP, Marker Prices, B&M Stores and Online Practices

In the "systems approach" thread, I think the goal was to talk about the sport itself, the way it's played and the tech behind it. I'd like to talk about the way the industry interacts with consumers.

It was brought up that the margins in paintball are not great. The Ion was the classic example, but even on higher end markers I understand (but might be wrong) that the margins are extremely small (15-40% seems to be around what I've heard). This in and of itself is discouraging to someone looking to start a store. In addition to that, people unlawfully don't pay sales tax on online sales (guilty), further discouraging purchases from B&M stores. I don't know what the solution is for that, when congress tried to fix it everyone cried foul and I believe the bill died. So the primary way to run a B&M store is as a side business to a field, because the financials aren't there otherwise.

Then there's the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) tossed into the mix. Manufacturers can set a minimum price that people are allowed to advertise at, but in individual transactions sellers can go below that price. As an anecdote, I recall back in '05 when I bought an Ego I got it for $900 on PBN, IIRC $350 below MAP. There can't have been much margin on that thing.

I know as of a few years ago when I looked into starting a paintball store ('05ish?) Dye required you to have a B&M storefront before they licensed you as a dealer. Do they still do that? Does anyone else do that? Are there any other manufacturers doing anything to try and help the B&M stores?

Kee also requires you to have a B&M store as well. they didn't used to but in the 06-07 they changed it. last i herd dye still does require it.

problem with sales for stores go deeper than what you mention, something that i have run into is the manufacture themselves violate map when selling direct to customers and sells below dealer cost.

in the early 2000's you could almost get a dealership with any of the manufactures, just by having a sales tax license and giving them a call. alot of people did just that to get cheaper gear. Then it went to those people selling online because they could then fund their playing by selling a bit of gear with little profit because there was no overhead. and the PBnation boom happened and there were countless people selling gear at "pm me for best price" and as far back as i can remember, tourny's all gave out gear as prizes. the prizes are about the worst thing that could happen, the players that are playing for the gear usually aren't going to win it, and the players good enough to win it don't need it. SO more gear goes for sale on the cheap. it doesn't stop there. bad team owners work out deals with the manufactures for x amount of gear for the team. the team gets only what they need and the rest the owners sell. I've had pro players hook up deals for teamates straight from the manufacture. It seems like everyone has a deal or knows someone who can get it for them.

I'm not gonna lie, this year we won an indoor tournament and Dave you are 100% correct. We won the stuff just to sell it and fund paintball and we sold those BNIB Axe's DIRT cheap. Which just takes away from stores sales but of course around us really the only store is the one we played the tourney at. Now I hear something about fields being able to get even better deals on product they will award as prizes. Crazy stuff going on in the paintball economy.

the best way to make money is what brent at ou local shop does.

he is a dealer and supplier for most major brands, so he will take trade-ins on new equipment. he loves old busted equipment, because as a dealer, he gets parts for peanuts and so he fixes them, and then either sells them at the shop, or direct on ebay.

he makes a small fortune doing this. its something no internet store can do.