What you should focus on for cheap paintball gear is a common question asked by many beginners.

I hear it all the time from my readers. 

This makes a lot of sense, thinking back to my first few years in the game…

I used rental equipment for a long time! 

Specifically I think the basics can be had on the cheap, not only the paintball gun, but many of the essential gear you will need until you figure out what kind of games you want to participate in long term.

The internet has made finding cheap paintball gear a cinch, but you have to be smart about it. 

When I sat down to write this article, I did a quick craigslist search to see what was available in my area. 

Lots of results came up, but the descriptions were lacking a lot of depth. 

Make sure you are not buying a gun that has been through several owners, because you don’t know the abuse the gear has gone through. 

For instance we all fall into water, crawl through dirt and mud, and occasionally drop our paintball gun, right? 

Well the inner workings for the trigger mechanism or the CO2 feed are not made of material that was meant to last forever.  Each dive in the dirt and particle of crud that finds its way into your gun add up. 

Oh, and those little suckers burst inside the gun sometimes… that ever happen to you?  Haha!  So find a gun that has optimally had one owner, and don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions about its use. 

Did the owner play mostly in indoor or outdoor paintball arenas?  You clean it after every outing?  How long have you had it?  Questions like these will ferret out if you should buy the gun or not, without having to travel all the way across town.

The rest of the paintball gear you need can be purchased cheaply from the same sources, or purchased from your local supply house.  Do some research for what kind of mask you want, and what you are willing to pay for it before hand. 

Again, we are trying not to waste time running all over town or paying too much on an impulse buy.  You really don’t need a full paintball mask to start with… that is, until you take your first stray paintball to the lips because it sneaks under the mouth guard! 

You will know the right time, trust me J  From a practical standpoint you really only need the mask and the gun to get started, it is easy to get into a spending frenzy and buy too much stuff.  Stick with the basics and build your inventory slowly and steadily. 

I usually apportion a reasonable amount each month to my paintball account (ok, it’s a crown royal bag on my dresser) so when I see something I want, or something breaks, I have some money ready to spend on my fun and I am never left high and dry.

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