The Price of a New Minelab

Gday all, Is the new GPX 5000i coming out? My source says no, well at least not yet any way, Minelab can,t keep up demand with waiting lists passing 100, I think the GPX 4500 will be around for a while so if your after the GPX 5000i I wouldn,t hold your Breath. the 4500 has been the best selling detector minelab has ever had, so why would you replace it? yes sure there are proto types out there, but minelab are allways testing new technology and thats why we pay so much for our detectors, so we can have the best that money can buy. What are your thoughts Regards Johnny

Hi Johnny
My thoughts are when it does come out I bet the cost will be much more than the 4500 was ,as I'm sure ML don't like seeing others making a profit which seems to be going on now with the 4500 .
cheers Mark

MS wrote:Hi Johnny
My thoughts are when it does come out I bet the cost will be much more than the 4500 was ,as I'm sure ML don't like seeing others making a profit which seems to be going on now with the 4500 .
cheers Mark

Mark, what are you talking about? Minelab are a reputable public company and I can assure you there would be no active gouging of prices on Minelabs part for the plain and simple reason it's bad policy and secondly is not ethical, you should think about things for a second before you make loose comment on a public forum. Logic would tell you it would be madness on Minelab's part to release any new gold detector models with the demand of the 4500's still being so high (this includes Australia BTW with sales from what I am hearing from various dealers still being very strong on the home turf).

I for one am rapt that Minelab are doing so well considering the way the world has been of late (and still is if you cared to look), I hope Minelab make a squillion out of their detector sales because that means they will have more money in the future to sink into R&D which will then hopefully keep me gainfully employed searching for gold until the day I retire. I think we have all heard the rumors of dealers getting higher than RRP for detectors which are being shipped off to the Sudan, even if this was true this does not reflect on Minelab the company because I would say from a legal standpoint dealers can sell to whom they like so long as the sale is done within Australia, not so sure about the higher than RRP price though, but once again something that is out of the parent companies immediate control.

Supply and demand is always going to be the driving force behind economies that work in the free market, at the moment there is an unprecedented demand for 4500's world wide, no different to the demand for the SD2000 back in 1995 where prices were being paid of up to AU$10 000 for even second hand ones. If you are in the market for a 4500 a ring around of the various dealers will soon let you know who is prepared to look after the local people, keep this information in mind when the bubble bursts (as it has to do like all gold rushes the world over have done in the past), when the hubbub dies down remember the dealers who did the right thing and then support them as they have supported you!!!

For Minelab to increase the price dramatically would be suicidal because their main customer base (people who frequent this forum for example) would take exception and soon vote with their dollars by not buying. Our goldfields have seen a lot of attention over the years so the customer base here in Australia and also the US are more hobbiest than professional (trying to make a quick dollar) and as such would not accept a major price hike even if the demand was extremely strong elsewhere in the world.

My 2 cents worth,

Regards

Jonathan

Well said JP I had already come to the conclusion that in the current climate a new model was a bit unlikely any time real soon' but I'd be happy to be proven wrong if I could be lining up for a new 5000

Hi Jonathan
Looks like you read more into my statement than I was implying.
I have no problem with dealers and they deserve to make a living selling
detectors and associated equipment.
My statement is the high prices for the 4500 as seems to be the case on
ebay and the like ,and if this is the market setting prices higher than
what ML is asking, it it obvious they will be looking very closely at
what they will be able to sell their new products for .
Yes this may or may not be the case and I think the next models price will
even go up even further{ my prediction }
Your faith in large companys / corporations is much higher than mine
and I have worked for some over the years at management level and I can
tell you it's all about the dollar and the people who work for them are
just a number ,and at the end of the day, the bigger a company gets the
less we all receive and at greater cost.
Look for yourself and you will easily see the best service and usually
price that can be obtained from the market place is from small
privately owned businesses who still care about what they are doing and
I wish there were more of them.
I have every right to make a comment on a public forum as do you .
Mark

I can't think of a single Detcor manufacturer that brought a new model of an existing unit to market with a lower price...I have been buying detectors since 1980..it does not happen! And why would it happen? If model A does well then the "improved" model B must be worth more...at least as much as the buyer will pay or the market will bear.

My rememberance is that Minelab was selling their Pi units as mine-detectors, if they still are, I wonder if they keep their retail price at , below or above the unit price sold to Mine Detecting Personel???

Jonathan...my friend, you have miles to go before you retire, may that road be paved with gold...

Fred

MS wrote:Hi Jonathan
Looks like you read more into my statement than I was implying.
I have no problem with dealers and they deserve to make a living selling
detectors and associated equipment.
My statement is the high prices for the 4500 as seems to be the case on
ebay and the like ,and if this is the market setting prices higher than
what ML is asking, it it obvious they will be looking very closely at
what they will be able to sell their new products for .
Yes this may or may not be the case and I think the next models price will
even go up even further{ my prediction }
Your faith in large companys / corporations is much higher than mine
and I have worked for some over the years at management level and I can
tell you it's all about the dollar and the people who work for them are
just a number ,and at the end of the day, the bigger a company gets the
less we all receive and at greater cost.
Look for yourself and you will easily see the best service and usually
price that can be obtained from the market place is from small
privately owned businesses who still care about what they are doing and
I wish there were more of them.
I have every right to make a comment on a public forum as do you .
Mark

Fair enough Mark, although I think Minelab are bit more ethical than most in this regard. I took exception to this comment

.... as I'm sure ML don't like seeing others making a profit.....

which smacks of a lack of respect for a company I have a huge amount of respect for, the way I read it your comments were implying Minelab don't give a toss about their main customer base and are just in it to gouge as much money as they can but I can assure you they do care especially the Australian marketing arm of the company. Even though there is unprecedented demand for 4500's at the moment I can just about guarantee Minelab are still very aware the market is still only small comparatively speaking (compared to say the mobile phone market for instance) as such I seriously doubt if they would drastically change their pricing stance based on a short period of frenzied activity.

The price of the Minelab detectors is based on more than just what the market can bear, I know this from first hand experience because I suffer from a similar problem with our videos, I would prefer to have the pricing point at a lot cheaper than what we offer them for (mainly to cut down on pirating and loaning/lending) but just do not have the volume of sales to be able to do that relative to the cost of production, Minelab also suffer the same fate to some degree, the biggest expense for them is the countless hours of R&D that goes into each and every machine. Minelab are one of the few companies that still has a bigger R&D budget than marketing budget, more often than not it is marketing that pushes product out the doors, however in Minelab's case it is the ingenuity of their product that does the selling for them, this is good because it allows them to concentrate on improving each subsequent model release. Minelab's biggest competitor is themselves, their latest offerings always have to compete with the second hand market because the customer base is not growing proportionally to the people purchasing new machines each model release (although I think that is slowly changing with all the retiring Baby Boomers).

I think this is a good opportunity for dealers Australia wide to make a few dollars (especially during the summer months), but don't feel it is a good thing to see local people having to wait for months on end to get their hands on a machine because a dealer can get better dollars selling their machines to the grey market, hence my comment about ringing around and finding the dealers who are still looking after the locals and keeping that in mind once the bubble bursts. I think though once this all settles down there will be less discounting going on in the industry as it seems the dealers are learning a thing or two about the size of the local market and what their customers really need in the form of aftermarket support and basic training.

Mark I never once said you didn't have the right to comment on a public forum, just that your comments seemed to be a little loose and not well thought out relative to the subject at hand. From my stand point your original post was thrown out there to garner the popular vote based purely on rhetorical innuendo, throw away one liners based on the general consensus of opinion always stimulates a positive reaction from the rank and file because no-one is going to argue with you, except me that is!

Regards

JP

Jonathan
Fair response and well put, not much more I can add except to say we all have varying views and that keeps things interesting which intern leads to more knowledge.
Cheers mark

And that folks is how a difference of opinion should be handled, both Mark and I disagreed in each others comments but at the end of the day we found some common ground.

Good on you Mark for being open minded, I for one could learn a thing or two from your setting a good example.

Regards

Jonathan Porter

Gday



Some of you may have missed the point when it comes to selling detectors to these Nigerians, sure some may be brown Australians as it was so nicely put, but have you ever seen any of these people out on the goldfields, nope didnt think so, the one and only reason that they want one of these machines is to on sell it at rip off prices to their countrymen, or to send to a family member who will then probably on sell it to some other bunny.

The reality is that it is only the rich and the powerful that are making the money in that country, I dont get all warm and fuzzy when I think about these people in Africa, all you have to do is have a look at all the conflicts and see what has been done to the poor and all the the people that have been in the way when something of value has been found, many many thousands have been misplaced and killed, it has happened with rubber, diamonds, and now it is happening with gold all over again.

Sure there are plenty of rip off artists about both black and white, there are many people here in Australia that are just as guilty as the rest of them, all contributing to this mess, but thats the way of the world and its going to go on no matter what we think.

Australian customers have never really recieved preferential treatment from Minelab !!!!, we have always been in the back seat, the US market demanded and got the lions share, remember when it was cheaper to buy any minelab machine from a US dealer even with the cost of freight to Australia, and that these US dealers were under contract from Minelab not to on sell to Australian buyers.

We should be getting preferential treatment from Minelab, yes us Australians who have paid the premium prices for their products, and I am not just talking about detectors I am talking about all of their products like coils and accessories as well, I have bought more than a 12 minelabs over the years, and thousands of dollars worth of accessories, so why shouldnt I get some preference over some of these other more recently interested types, I have been a constant minelab supporter, and they are after all they are an Australian company, do the Japanese pay more for cars in Japan than we pay for them here, bet they dont.

When all the dust settles and they find something else shiny to attract their attention then they will lose interest in minelab products, but us true supporters here in Australia will still be buying them.

Its time some people take off their "rose coloured" glasses and see it for what it really is.


cheers


stayyerAU

Hi JP,

Any thoughts on how Chris is able to sell at this price? I'm not trying to stir the pot. Just interested to know how he can do it.

AZO's Minelab GPX-4500 Package Includes:

<table id="table55" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="575"> <tr> <td> If you're not buying from Arizona Outback you're not getting the best deal!</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 11" DD Coil w/ Skid Plate Lithium-Ion Battery w/ Amplifier KOSS UR30 Headphones Power Cable 110V & 12V Chargers 3-Year Warranty Instruction Manual PLUS... (1) FREE 8" Round Monoloop Coil (value $200) (2) FREE Protective Control Box Cover (value $20) (3) FREE GPX-4500 Training DVD - 2.5 hours (value $30) (4) FREE Premium Detector Carry Bag (value $50) (5) FREE Padded Armrest Cuff (value $10) (6) FREE Nugget Recovery Scoop (value $7) (7) FREE 2009 Full Color Gold Nugget Calendar (value $10) ( FREE Trial Subscription to Lost Treasure & the Mining Journal Magazines (9) FREE Technical Support (Phone, Email, Forum) (10) FREE Private Training Session in the Goldfields of Arizona w/ Professional Prospector Chris Gholson! (11) FREE STANDARD SHIPPING w/ Insurance (lower 48 only) </td> </tr> </table>

Item: MD-GPX45

Model: MINELAB GPX-4500

GPX-4500 MSRP: $5,995.00

Our Price: $4,495.00

Robert

Sorry about all the goobbldygook with the AZO ad. I'm not smart enough to clean it up

Robert

MSRP stands for the suggested retail price by Minelab in America which is US$5995, however American laws are different over there so Minelab can tell their dealers they are not allowed to sell below a certain price point which I assume is US$4495 going by what you have posted up. However if all the dealers sell at the same discounted level (you rarely see anything in America sell for MSRP) then how do they create an advantage to attract customers? Quite simply they value add with sweeteners.

In Australia the RRP is AU$6150, dealers were selling them for as low as AU$5500 before the Sudan gold rush kicked off however you have to take into consideration all prices quoted in Australian dollars also includes the GST which is 1/11th of the purchase figure, where as the figures quoted by AZO are without state taxes added in. If you added GST to the AZO figure it would be more in the region of US$5000 this would be around the AU$5500 mark which is in the ball park of what the Aussie dealers were originally selling them for here.

Hope this helps,

JP

Thanks Jonathan,

Yeah, I was aware that our GST component isn't applicable to Chris' price.
I know of at least two dealers who price their 4500's at very near to $5500.
Unfortunately the waiting time is still close to two months
They have an inflated price for the grey market. They understand what may happen if they don't
look after the locals first.

Robert

Hi All,
I have deleted numerous posts on this topic as this website was not being used for the purpose it was designed for.
Dig24crt Admin

Well done Dig.
Hopefully someone will detect something of interest soon and we can move on.

Cheers

I heard that someone who frequents this forum was recently given a 5000 to do some field testing?

He hasn't been home for a month now because he's finding too much gold. Taken all his leave owing to him and trying to get permission to use this years leave in advance. MMMMMmmmmmm That's what I'd be doing too.

Dicko..

Some dealers are informing me this back order situation on the 4500 will be over in April.... hmmm wonder why.

I think new machine/s in April, back orders or not.