In the Merry Melodies cartoon episode Hare Brush, Fudd has a mental breakdown and believes he is a Bunny.  Bugs is lured to the sanitarium where Fudd is in residence (wearing a bunny suit).  Fudd escapes, Bugs is discovered by a psychiatrist who thinks he's Elmer and, using drugs and hypnosis, convinces the rabbit that he IS "Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire".

It's a very funny episode that pokes fun at psychiatry, but the reason I bring it up is because for most players, this is the only kind of transformation that would allow them to afford to play as often as they want, wherever they want, with the gear they want.

In other words, playing this game and doing what needs to be done in order to play at the highest levels requires serious scratch.

Back in my serious days (early to mid 90s), I maxed out two credit cards supporting my team, because there was always someone who was a bit short on any given weekend, or "we need five more cases for the next rounds and no one has any money left".  On my own, I recognized the need to "keep up with the Jones'" when it came to gear and, back then for example, "top of the line guns" typically ran 400 bucks and more.  That's over a thousand dollars in todays coin. 

Paint was also an issue.  You all do know that the paint you shoot at an event is the smallest percentage of paint you ought to be going through, right?  The big nut is paint for practice.  Back then (pump guns and early semi-autos like Grey Ghosts, Carter Termites, Bushmasters, PMI IIIs, Illustrators and Golden Eagles) we pretty much figured a case per player per day of practice, and practice was both days, every weekend, plus Wednesday or Thursday afternoons during the summer.

(We did try to make this as economical as possible - it wasn't just scrimmages:  we did controlled drills with limited amounts of paint to get the most ball for our bucks.)

But regardless:  15 (usually 17) players times 40* weekends times both days plus say 12 Wednesdays is a lot of paint (1,380 cases for the year, not counting event paint).  I honestly don't remember what we were paying per case (Nelson) back then, but it sure wasn't forty bucks.  More like 75, I think.  If so, our practice budget was something over a hundred thousand bucks - which falls right in the middle of our annual estimated expense for a player of between five and ten thousand dollars each.

Minimum wage back then was $3.80 an hour.  The average salary was between 15k and 30k;  minimum wage workers could not afford to play, and low-level salaried employees were spending a third to half of their annual incomes. 

These days, while paint has come down a bit (I'm not factoring in subsidies and sponsorship here), something like 1.75 or 2 cents per shot now instead of three and three quarter cents per shot (whenever I write about this subject, the first thing that pops into my head is Paul Fogel, owner of Skirmish USA, saying "No one would play this game if we were shooting nickels."), but on the other hand, the volume of shooting has gone up.  Up as much as a case per game per player (multiply that out by events and practice!).

When we originally made these calculations in order to figure out the team budget for the year, we were astonished.  Yes, paintball IS just like gambling in the way that it divorces the player from remembering the cost of what they're doing (paintballs instead of chips), and I know of quite a few players (including myself) who got themselves into financial hot water when prioritizing play over things like food and rent.  (But ain't that the way when it comes to thing you're passionate about?)

I guess my point here (in addition to the nostalgia) is - play, but be mindful of what it is  costing you.  It's kind of tough to get to the field for practice when your car has been repoed.