I have an Ego 07 that's new and waiting for spring to go to the field and an '07 Etek. I have owned a lot of guns over the years and never thought anything would surpass Dye in terms of fit, finish and the overall feeling of "It was worth it!" but when I opened the box on my Etek I was very pleasantly surprised and all thoughts of other electro's left my head. Due to my love for the Etek I soon sold off my other guns and bought the Ego7.
I understand you're having issues with your gun but I'm going to go out on a limb and blame it on the fact that it was used. The board issue may have been rearing it's head before the original owner sold it to you and he ditched it when he did before he was the one stuck buying a new board. The inconsistency issues can be traced directly to the board and the failure of the LCD may be just another symptom of the board's swan song. PE specifically states that rechargeable batteries should not be used in their guns yet many owners who are too cheap to buy new 9volts a couple times a year(after spending $1250 on a gun, go figure) insist on using them. Rechargeables have too much voltage and will often kill a board slowly by doing a little more damage each time the gun is turned on and used. Just because a gun "looks" like it was taken care of well does not mean it wasn't abused in some unseen way.
If you're new board doesn't fix the problem I'd say give PE a call or contact Bill at
www.paintballshowcase.com and they will hook you up. If your Ego hasn't been registered you should do so and PE may even take care of you for no charge. I've heard of it happening before even for 2nd and 3rd owners.
The Zick kit made a huge difference in both my Etek and my Ego7 so something else may be going on with that. Be sure and check/replace the o-ring in the Zick ram cap as well. Although the "cushion of air" is the big selling feature the conical end of the Zick ram interfaces with the o-ring in the cap and if that's worn down you will lose Zick performance and it will seem like it's not even there.
Finally, the reason the resale sucks on PE, Dye, SP, DP and just about any other electro on the market is twofold;
1. All these companies come out with a new gun every year that's a little bit lighter and milled a little bit different. As soon as that happens people with more money than brains buy the new hot gun and flood the market with barely used guns that are no longer any good because of nothing more than the year they were produced.
2. The prices in the paintball gun market have crashed since the Ion came out. A few years ago guns like the Mini, Fusion and PMR would have been in the same "mid-range" category but they would have cost $500 to $700 leaving the "high end" $1200 to $1500 category to the DM's, Ego's and PE Shockers. Since the Ion came out the price categories remain but they have all moved down in price except for those "elite" few at the top. Now guns that used to be worth $500 to $700 are priced at half that because the electro Spyders are no longer alone in the $150 to $250 "low end" electro category thanks to Smart Parts who forced everyone else to compete with the Ion. It won't be long before Dye and PE, MacDev, Alien and the others in the $1000+ range have to drop their prices to compete with all of the lower end guns that offer comparable performance(although not necessarily quality) for much lower cost.