In the past few years paintball has exploded in growth, these days the growth has leveled off.  With growth you have new companies entering paintball offering new products, and trying to make a buck, mostly trying to make a buck.  Even the older established companies are more geared toward making money than putting out a solid product.  These days its not uncommon for a company to come out with a gun and 1 year later, discontinue the gun (flavor of the day) and not offer support for that gun.  So a player ends up spending $300 or so for a brand new gun a year ago, and this year not be able to find a core part to keep the gun working.  Nows hes stuck with a paper weight and has to buy a new gun.  I think this issue is mostly consumer driven by always wanting the newest and “best”.  Just because a product is new, do not assume its better than something else.

Smart Parts, Planet Eclipse, Tippmann, Ben Tippmann, WDP, has always been reputable paintball gun manufacturers.