PbNation hosts the largest used paintball B/S/T in the world and it is free to use. We used to allow people to post new items for sale there too. However, stores and people who could get gear for cheaper than retail started posting items for sale sometimes below what a normal store would pay for the same item. Now you might think this was good for the guys who got really good deals, but this was causing some stores to literally go out of business. With no local stores, who is going to talk people into going and playing paintball for the first time? Or talk to parents who are concerned about their kid playing? We felt we needed to protect stores so we made a
New or Unused Equipment / Services and insist that new items are listed for sale in there are priced at MAP so stores can still make a profit and stay in business.
The next problem we ran into is some users started selling new gear and trying to pass it off in the used equipment forums (we'll call them profiteers). They would take things out of the package, lie about items being used or do anything in their power to try to sell new items for less than a store would. They're the ones who screwed everything up for the average user who wanted to sell something he'd bought for himself. These profiteers lying about new products being used hurt stores by lowering the perceived value of new gear and have gone to great lengths to deceive users. Their dishonesty and never-ending efforts to exploit the system are the reason why we have to be so rigid in how we handle the sale of new and un-used items.
It's not something we enjoy doing, and it takes a lot of our time and resources, but it's something we have to do. I understand why you're upset with this, and I sympathize with you. Hopefully this explanation will give you a better insight on why we handle these things the way we do. This is the best solution we've found that helps us protect local fields and stores and provide our general users with the hundreds of free forums and services we currently offer.
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