friend of mine just picked one of these up in a fit of weakness instead of ordering a kracken to come with me to play and see if he wants to jump in with both feet.
I have the panther m4 as a shop plinker/stress reliever and it's put up to being beaten up for a year and still functions like when I bought it .. infact it's earned a place in the rifle case as a backup(incase of malfunction) or CQC gun.. possibly a desperate loaner
the crossman AK so far seems to be alot nicer in range, accuracy, ROF, power then the M4 ... but my opinion might be a little biased as I'm not a fan of the M4 I perfer the AK
honestly if it survives 3 or 4 games and gets my friend hooked (he already knows he'll need to purchase a better gun)... then it's worth the sale price
(that is ofcourse if you can't wait for a Kracken)