Paintball

[DocsMachine]

Reading the thread about which maker/brand of marker has the most eliminations of all time, made me start to wonder if anyone knows any specific production numbers for various markers.

I've heard lots of rumors and rough estimates over the years, and a few from reasonably reliable sources (for example, some six or eight years ago, Tom Kaye said that they'd made somewhere around 150,000 'Mags by that point) but I don't think I've ever seen any hard data.

Anyone have the straight dope? And by that I mean reasonably reliable info- not just rumor or "I heard that..", but something like a company announcing they'd just made their 1,000th marker, or millionth, or whatever. Or a reasonably accurate look at the gun's serial numbers, etc.

And let's see if we can get both ends of the spectrum; As in, how many Model 98s have been made? Or Ions? Or Spyders? And, how many, say, Ice Epics, or Palmer's Typhoons, or first-gen Soverigns.

Doc.

[voodooballer]

Ions had a metric crap ton. We had a issue one year with them when SP asked us about a potential sale saying our SN's werent matched. Ended up being a issue with a previous supplier that didnt record their SN's and then when SP started their own production of it they had alot with matching numbers. At that time ours were somewhere around the 300k mark.

[jc_10]

300k Ions? I highly doubt that number. Maybe 30k is realistic but 300k is ludicrous.

[voodooballer]

pretty sure it was in the 300k area when they cataloged the duplicate SN's. Could be wrong like I said it was quite a few years ago. Everyone and their grandmother had ions for first 3 years. :P

[DocsMachine]

Originally Posted by jc_10

300k Ions? I highly doubt that number. Maybe 30k is realistic but 300k is ludicrous.

-Why is it ludicrous? Between the time the Ion was released (what, '03-'04 ish?) and the economy going belly-up in '08, the sport of paintball was growing in the double digits per year. As in increasing by 10% or better every year.

And the Ion was really the first almost-tourney-grade marker (electro spooler, ramping modes, eyes) with a starter-gun price ($200-ish.)

We kind of take it for granted today, along with a whole host of other budget-priced guns like the Rail, but at the time it was a game-changer. Up 'til then, the only thing you could buy for less than $250 were blowbacks- basically just Spyders and Tippmanns. And except for a couple of cheap seartripper Spyder clones, none were electro and none had eyes.

They sold a pile of 'em- how many, I don't know, but that's kind of the point of this post. I'm pretty sure it was more than 30K though...

However, it does bring up the point: How do we know how SP numbered them? Did they start from 000001, or something like 100001? I know some companies (not necessarily paintball companies) "encode" information in a serial number- for example, the first widget produced this year might have been 1300001.

I know I have a PGP from back in the knurled-pump days (mid-late 80s) with a six-digit serial number. The PGP only came out in what, '83 or '84? Think they had made 100,000-plus within a few years?

Actually, it's possible, but it's also possible that Sheridan continued a pellet-gun serial series, or started a second series for the paintball versions, or whatever.

Bud started numbering the Snipers and 'Cockers from basically #1 (though the first several hundred were handmade.) So today, if you see a 'Cocker with a serial number of 56,789, yes, we can be pretty sure there's over fifty-six-point-seven-thousand 'Cockers (and Snipers) out there.

What's the highest 'Cocker serial anyone's got? Bacci's got a couple listed in the 160-170K range, and those are '03-'04 guns.

AGD similarly started numbering from 00001 or so. What's the highest number anyone's got on a 'Mag?

Doc.

[trueblue]

I've got a '05 Prostock that's #5046xx for a serial. Wish I knew what it's matched, but now gone Superstock sister markers was.

[Dusty Bottoms]

I've searched this topic a few times on AO for mags. What I found was that no one from AGD, including Tom, actually knows how many mags in their various makes have been built. It was apparently not recorded or kept track of. The letter codes in front of the serial numbers were apparently randomly made up to differentiate different production batches of mags.

I couldn't even find out how many Classic RT's were made, or when production actually ended (2000 maybe?), even though that gun had a relatively small production time span compared to either the classic mag or the Minimag.

Part of the mag mystique I guess!

[Crimson Death]

I know a guy that has/had the 24th Ion.

[Karnokr]

Good topic, I've always wondered this myself about various items. The only thing I've ever heard is Simon from Empire saying "10's of thousands of Z2's". Now that was on a forum, so take it for that. But just think about how many 98's or A5's are out there. How about Ego's!?

[MorueM]

From what I remember, AKA's were numbered sequentially, but not assembled in order. So the highest Viking and Excal serials would be the production number. And iirc, there was around 2700 vikings and 1750 excals, all years included.