If you're just getting into Paintball a huge deterrent is the amount of money you must spend just to start paying. Most beginners start with a gun and package of around 100-150 dollars. This means you are looking for a decent preforming and extremely durable marker. You do not want to blow all of your money on an electric marker that's going to shoot faster than you need. Do not buy any of the $50 gun packages at Walmart unless you are planning only to play one time.

A short answer would be to look at the: Tippmann 98, US Army Alpha black, Azodin Kaos, and Spyder Mr1 and decide for yourself.

A detailed description would be:

The most common starting gun is the Tippmann 98, https://sp8.coupons because it is sold at most sporting goos stores. It is usually sold in a basic starter package with a mask, loader, and tank at a lower price than usual. After you've played for a few moths, it is also easily upgradeable to fit your needs. However I do not feel this is the best option

My recommendation would be the Azodin Kaos. It is a stacked tube blowback that won the TechPB award in the <$100 category. It has a nice trigger and detention system for a starter marker as well as completely industry standard parts, so all stores carry barrels, feednecks, asa's, and macro line parts for it. Azodin Took the sub-par (non-mr) spyder designs and put quality and durable parts into them.

If you already have the basic Paintball gear and only need a gun Tippmann also makes a Carver One and Alpha Black, which are basically 98's but were built, in part, with the US army and come cheaper, but are not sold in packages usually. They also have slight modifications like : the carver one does not have a forward handgrip, and the Alpha black has a carrying handle.

Another marker to look at is the spyder MR1. It is a cheap marker that comes with a stock right out of the box, which can be good for people who are very used to actual shotguns and rifles or are uncomfortable with shouldering CO2 tanks.

edited for: spyder uses the same internals in the MR series as they do in all their other markers so one being more durable than the other is just a myth, also, the tippmann design changed in 04 where they started using plastic power tubes and not quite as strong metals, they are not indestructible as tippmann would have you believe but they are also not repair buckets. in all reality durability between tippmann and spyder is a wash at this point as both markers depend more on how the owner takes care of them over how they are built. if you really want the tank that the tippmann 98 once was it is still made as the BT-4 as that is where Ben Tippmann went and started when the board at tippmann pneumatics let him go - Trbo323