Meeting a guy to buy a "Enormous Paintball Lot"

[shooter311]

Yesterday on Facebook marketplace a BNIB JT elite Raptor mask popped up for sale in my hometown. My town is tiny and I never see paintball stuff there, so even though I didn't need the mask I clicked on it. In the description the guy says he has tons of paintball stuff for sale. So I message him and ask what he has. He responds with "Tons of stuff, come meet me in my garage tomorrow at 9am:. I ask again, what kind of stuff he has and he says "masks hoppers, guns, come meet me in my garage"

At this point I am worried I am getting myself into a human centipede situation. He has about 100 listings on FB marketplace and has 15 perfect feedback ratings. I see my coworkers husband is FB friends with him, so I message him and ask about the guy. He says the guy is legit and buys tons of stuff and flips it for a living, so I am good.

I meet up with him in his garage later today (I think I will be packing heat just in case). Anyone wanna guess what I am going to find? Could be high-end markers, or more likely broken BE talons that need a ton of work. I am just hoping it is not a cage. full of his captives.

[Meleager7]

It does seem odd that a guy who buys and flips a lot of stuff, can't even take the time to lay the crap out on the floor, and at least take one overall pic of the lot....?

I mean it could be to your advantage if there is a gem hiding in there, but it could still be load of scratched up rental garbage and a waste of time.....

Anyhow, good luck to you, and we all hope you won't end up as the new Gimp in Zed's basement.....

[NONOBLITUS]

Could be something pretty cool. Interested to see what you find.

[OpusX]

If he is "legit" and "flips for a living" as your friend suggests, then he most likely doesn't know, in detail, the types of gear he may have. This could be an amazing find (vintage flexs or ultimate rarety, or crazy cockers) or just total crap (a pile of abused 98s, and jt elites). Adventure awaits!

[shooter311]

By the sounds of it, this guy is in a professional flipper. It seems like he's retired and does it just as a hobby. I figured it was a old rental fleet or something that he picked up, but he has listed for sale two masks that are brand new in packaging, some wondering if it was a sporting goods store that shut down. We have a local surplus store marden's that every now and then we'll get paintball stuff in but it usually sits forever cuz they mark it up so incredibly high. I wonder if he buys the stuff that they don't sell for dirt cheap. Which wouldn't be bad cuz there's some surprises there. This summer my buddy went in there and they had a shelves full of die i-4s and i-5s. They were asking something like 150 bucks a piece so they just sat there cuz this is not a area that anybody really paintballs seriously.

I asked if you could get pictures of the stuff or just tell me what kind of guns they are how old they were. And he just said it's in his garage buried under tons of stuff. It'd be better if I just came to the garage and looked at it. He's literally .4 miles from my house. So I might as well just check it out.

[NONOBLITUS]

Man this is getting more and more interesting.

[maggot]

It does seem odd that a guy who buys and flips a lot of stuff, can't even take the time to lay the crap out on the floor, and at least take one overall pic of the lot....?

I hear you. It's more likely, IMO, that this guy deals with a ton of tire-kickers and won't take the time unless you show willingness to come check it out. Also, it's super unlikely he's looking to blow everything out in one large bulk deal - he's probably looking to get close to retail one package at a time.

Overall, doesn't sound fishy to me at all, but you're probably not going to hit gold here. This guy knows what he's doing.

[Ecapnation]

JT raptor mask?

I'm betting he has nothing but vandalism grade equipment.

[MrBarraclough]

Enjoy your box of incomplete VL Tritons and broken ER2s!

[iamthelazerviking]

This is fun. I'm eager to find out what happens!

[dano_____]

Posting to follow along with this adventure!

[Señor Leo]

Im guessing "newer" JT markers like Cybrids. Cant wait to see what you find

[punkncat]

I have run across similar situations along the southside of Atlanta. Often turns out to be a complete waste of time, or worse. The last one broke me of even bothering to follow up on future attempts at such. This lady claimed that she was selling a "giant" lot of markers that had been used by her husband and son over the years. She fully refused to directly send me pics but did a highlight pic directly to the CL ad. Among the items was a Shocker Sport, 4x4, and other related items like the MaxFlo and such. I contacted her back, we agreed to the price she was asking and off I went. I get there to a car pulling out of her driveway and she had sold the lot to some other guy that contacted her after we made an agreement and offered her all of five dollars more than we agreed. Never mind my hour drive and time.

Ends up that she was buying storage lots and everything she had came from there with 'a story' about her husband and son doing this that or the other to add that personal scammy touch. I still see her posting stuff off and on.

I really hope this turns out to be something more than a lot of broken rentals and out of date adapter style CO2 tanks. Be awesome to see some cool stuff come out of your experience.

[Axel]

Anybody hear from shooter311 lately? Did it put the lotion on its skin, or did it get the hose again?

[Cdn_Cuda]

I was going to say he was going find a bucket with lotion in it....but you've already done it. Keep up the good work Axel!

[shooter311]

Whomp Whomp....It was a let down. It could have been worse, but overall a let down.

So, I show up and it is very clear he is one of those guys that has a Yard Sale every day from Spring through Fall with stuff he found, 99% of it is junk. I let him know I was looking for the paintball stuff and he says "I am glad you showed, people keep calling me, and I tell them I promised it to you" which I am sure is a complete lie. He says he has to dig everything out of the garage.

As I am walking past the junk I realize a lot of the kids toys and stuff seems familiar. Then my 3 yo that was with me goes "My Bike!" sure enough it is his old tricycle that I know was his due to my handy work or re-attaching the rear wheel. We put all our kids old toys out by the street for parents to grab for their kids. Everything always disappears within the day, even the stuff we don't want to go. Like when we put stuff out on the table and put a sign on it "Please don't take the table" and sure enough that disappeared. Now I know where all our stuff is going. From now on, we give it to Goodwill....

Anyway, he brings out a medium sized tote with some stuff in it, nothing looks paintball related. For instance the first thing I saw was a kids toy night vision goggle thing, and then some kids fake scopes. Then the second bin had mostly cheap looking airsoft stuff (I have no idea what airsoft stuff is worth). Then the third tote had a camo Stringray 1 sticking out of it. He says that is all

Tote 1: Kids toys and junk on top. Under was two boxes of 1,000rds each Walmart Paintballs I think called inertia or something. I opened one and the paint was covered in broken paint.

Tote 2: Mostly airsoft stuff. One nice looking gun it was heavy had a battery pack and clips and felt metal. Then really small junky feeling ones. Then 5 20oz co2 tanks dated 2010. Two new cheap masks.

Tote 3: This is what made me not think it was all a waste. First was a Stingray 1 painted camo with a 12 gram changer on it the one with a cutout so it just falls out with a twist of the knob. A 98 with ACT, and a Tippmann A5. There was also a brand new padded empire armor shirt, two barrel swabs, gravity hoppers, and like 20 10rd tubes with 20 year old paint in them, but at least the tubes were the older style with the better caps.


I set all the paintball stuff to the side, with the tanks and paint, and asked how much he wanted. He said he had no idea how much it would all be worth. I told him, where it is condition unknown and I would have to break down the three guns and rebuild everything and the Stingray prob will not be worth getting back to working, I thought $100 would be fair. He said "With the tanks and paint? I don't know the value, but I did look them up online and that stuff is not cheap" I told him the tanks were scrap, and the paint is useless I would have to roll out all the paint and selectively pic what I could use and even then it would only be good for testing out the guns. Long story short he kept the paint and tanks, and I took the three guns, 10rd tubes, and Empire padded shirt (no way I am fitting in it, but maybe I can give it to a kid trying out PB for the first time) for $100.

I assumed the stingeay would need a complete rebuild and the Tippmans would need to be taken apart and at least greased. To my surprise the Stingray shoots perfect at 270s, and on closer inspection I think the Tippmanns are brand new, but rough looking from being banged around and left in a dusty garage.

I asked how he got them, and he said he bought an army duffle bag and it had that stuff in it.

I am sorry this story didn't end with me finding a lot of 10 xmags for $50, but it had my mind wondering.

[MrBarraclough]

Better haul than I was expecting, honestly.