I paid enough. It's got to be good...

Paintball needs a Consumer Report magazine. You know, the magazine that doesn't accept advertising so it can present fair and unbiased reviews of products. Nearly every day someone comes into the shop wanting something because they read something positive in some paintball magazine or saw a rave review on some forum.

Just today I read in a popular paintball newspaper a review on the Planet Eclipse Etek 2. It was a glowing report written by a player on a particular team. A couple of pages further into the paper was an article about this player's team receiving a sponsorship deal from Planet Eclipse. A couple more pages into the paper was a full page advertisement for the Etek 2.

For all I know the Etek 2 may be the best thing going (I'll never know since I can't afford the 1000+ dollar price tag). Why cast doubts with such an obviously biased review?

I see it again and again in nearly every paintball publication - editors pandering to manufacturers and distributors in exchange for advertising dollars. On top of that, many reviewers write good reviews in hopes that manufacturers will notice and send free markers for review. There's nothing like a free high end gun to get the old creative juices flowing!

And imagine the review you get on the forums from a kid who has already charged Mom's credit card and has already told all his friends he's waiting for UPS to deliver his new Galactic Blaster marker. Do you really think he's going to go on a review forum and tell the world (and his friends) he's stuck with an over priced piece of junk? It's going to be hard convincing Mom to buy all the after market stuff needed to get the marker in some sort of working condition if he gives it a bad review.

As a result nearly every review is a glowing review OR it's a negative review (deserved or not) by a writer that will never be convinced a piece of junk FORD could ever be as good as a CHEVY!

So what do you do? Where do you go for real information on all the stuff out there?

You could ask me. Paintball is not just my hobby. It's a business and I study it daily. I hear things, test things, use things and fix things and I've been doing it for 14 years.

Course, the problem there is all you get is my opinion.

And we all have those!