Doc’s Guide to B/S/T

Here’s an interesting article courtesy of Richard “Doc”  Morrow, an avid paintball enthusiast for over a decade currently overseas studying to get his Medical Degree. In this article Richard shares his knowledge and experience in dealing  successfully in the Buy/Sell/Trade sections of many paintball forums and the like.

I’ve been in the game for over a decade and have been heavily involved in buying and selling paintball equipment (to the point I used it to supplement my paintball costs). I’ve been out of the sport for a little while now but I like being able to put my experience into these articles. I’m writing this as an aid to selling your paintball gear and to give you some insight into how successful paintball transactions are made.

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Paintball is an inherently expensive sport, there are a ton of consumable items being used and there is constant turnover of gear. Occasionally (or frequently) it makes more sense to sell your gear instead of stockpiling it. There are generally two major conditions that lead people to sell their gear: For cash or for something new. More often people are selling gear for cash, either because they want to upgrade or because they need money for other purposes. I’m not going to get into trading in this article because I’ve traded enough to give you honest insight.

The first thing to consider when you are selling an item is to assess what kind of item you are selling. You will either have a common item (the item is widely available) or a rare/luxury item (one that is difficult to come by). These labels come with drastically different approaches to selling and the prices you can expect. The common item is generally a buyers market (follow market trends) and the luxury is always a sellers market (you can set whatever price with limited competition from the market). A few examples of rare/luxury gear: Limited runs of colors, old-well maintained gear, pro-owned or signed gear.

Perhaps the most obvious but challenging aspect of selling your paintball gear is the selling price. When selling an item, it is important to check several prices: retail, local and broad market prices. The retail prices you should be looking at are the prices set by up-to-date, large online stores (Badlands, BuyPBL, etc.). My rule of thumb is that you should expect half of this price at minimum. You are selling a used piece of gear and the buyer will need to consider this factor when debating whether or not it makes more sense to buy from you at a reduced price or for a completely new item from a retailer.

From here you need to check your local sources. These would consist of Tdotballers and GZ or Pro Advantage forums or where there is significant market traffic in the area (I’m considering Ontario/Quebec and occasionally other provinces as local). These prices will be higher than your half-retail number. As a general rule of thumb there is lower competition for prices on these forums than the larger ones. This is where you should get a sense of the flavor of the market (do they have a high internal gear turnover within the community or do they have a broader scope and frequently buy outside of their region?). The best indicator of what your item is worth is on the final measure, the largest market available (I usually check PBNation but there may be Milsim ones you may know of). This market will have the greatest competition for prices and as a result will give you the best measure of how low/high you can go. Be aware of all these prices so when you meet a buyer who has done their homework you can explain why your gear is selling for a fair price (note: it is fair to sell for the higher local price)

There are several important considerations to appraising yourself as a seller (And these are the factors that buyers will judge you by). Reputation is key. There is a reason there are feedback threads, sellers who consistently get positive feedback are trusted and those without are treated with a higher degree of caution. An educated buyer will preferentially buy from a seller with greater feedback. It?s important for you to fall into favor on the selling market. You need to be transparent and honest about the items you are selling at all times if you want to keep a favorable reputation. The condition of the item can be best conveyed with a concise description of the age, usage and pictures of the entire item. You should be prepared to answer any questions the potential buyer has about the item. Remember it?s important to be polite, timely, and patient when answering these questions. Answer all the questions. You want smooth transactions, positive feedback, and people to vouch for your credibility.

The deal itself has three basic stages: the advertisement, the negotiation, and the closing of the transaction.

The advertisement phase is where a lot of good deals are lost and a lot of quick transactions are made. When posting your gear for sale you need a concise and catchy title to your forum thread. “Tippmann for sale”  is a poor title, “Mint Tippmann A5 with red dot FS” is a much better one. If a title doesn’t have all the relevant information people won’t pick it up when they do a search and they’ll skim over it when they’re browsing the forums. It’s also ok to use colorful descriptions (eg) mint) but if the thread doesn’t deliver you?ll hurt your reputation. Include photos! At first glance I generally judge sellers that don’t include photos as lazy or trying to hide something (most people do think along these lines). Photos give buyers something to salivate over which helps with the negotiations. In the body include all the upgrades, modifications, and usage. It’s also important to be clear if you’re FS, FT, OBO (for sale, for trade, or best offer, meaning you’ll decide based on what comes your way).

The negotiation phase is difficult to describe because it is very subjective but I’ll try my best to put it in a framework. It begins when a buyer responds to your thread or sends you a private message. When you are selling a piece of gear you MUST be timely, coherent in your communication and polite. The faster you can swap MSN/instant messaging details the better. Give your contact information in exchange for the potential buyer’s, this establishes a level of trust. It will also give you a faster way to answer questions and establishes that the buyer is interested in a transaction instead of just wishing they had the gear but aren’t committed to the idea of buying it. Deals fail because it takes over 24 hours for people to respond (something better will come along, the buyer will change their mind) to inquiries. Deals also fail because the communication isn’t easily understood or written in a manner that is to the point. The negotiations may include a request to drop the price (for this reason I generally set an expected price slightly above what I’m happy selling it for) to beat a comparable or identical item. Your price flexibility should be based on who you are selling to and which market you are selling to. It is good to state right off the bat (generally in the thread you advertise in) whether there is flexibility in the price. If a person expresses interest but does not have the cash in hand (cash available for the sale) at the time of interest, politely explain that you have noted their interest but people with cash in hand will get priority.

The matter of finishing the transaction is again a personal preference thing. I will discuss a few options and highlight my own style. It is almost always preferable to meet the person face to face if it is a piece of mechanical gear. There are several different styles of payment, again meeting face to face removes any chance for postal mistakes or confusion. When meeting face to face be prepared for the buyer to attempt to drop the price. Being patient and polite is to your advantage. Some people like mailing cash and the item simultaneously. This is not to my style. I am happy to send items COD (cash on delivery) where the buyer pays for the item as it is delivered by Canada Post. This costs a little bit more but it worth the security for more expensive items. Tracking numbers are something I insist on for all mailed items. When the transaction is complete, insist on leaving feedback, this is something that should be agreed upon before shipping. I always asked for feedback as soon as the item was received and used. Don?t ask for feedback weeks after the sale, it?s likely too late. Leave feedback on the buyers thread and state that you will be doing that before a deal is reached. The feedback threads keep everyone accountable.

There are a few special scenarios I wanted to include but didn’t want to understate them in the previous paragraphs.

Flakers are people who commit to a deal and then pull out, usually citing some event requiring the money they would have used to buy the item (I have heard every excuse). Some people chose to immediately post negative feedback about the flaker. I prefer to put it in the actual selling thread. Usually it works like this: deal is agreed upon, buyer flakes, at the time of the agreement I post that the item is sold to the person (using their forum name), when the buyer flakes I post that the item is back up for sale (this implies the buyer has pulled out) as a separate post, the other forum users can do the math. The added bonus is that when sellers are doing background checks on the buyers that their username pings the posts about pulling out of the deal. It’s a good strategy in my opinion because you?re passively posting the situation, usually without provoking a flame war. Don?t ever rule out the idea that a buyer could flake, it’s frustrating but just carry on with advertising.

Selling to teammates. It is unwritten, but it is implied that if your teammate is interested in a piece of gear, you give them the first opportunity to make an offer. This usually means posting it on your team forum. There are benefits to both members of the transaction and the team as a whole. No shipping costs, reliable support for the item and a sense of working within the team. However, the seller doesn’t need to make discounts for the buyer and it is fair for the seller to direct the potential buyer to the price they were hoping to get it for it on the larger market. If a fair amount of time has passed as judged by the seller it is fair to open it up to the larger market. Teammates should leave feedback in the same way as if the transaction was done outside of the team.

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I think that wraps up the gist of selling your gear in the various stages. I’ve tried to keep it simple. I’m aware there are some thin areas in this article so please comment if you would like more detail. I’m always happy to help!