Are we being ripped off here in Australia. Check this out

Hi 24kt,
Nice to see there are a few others out there from the same universe as me. As you rightly pointed out, my initial question had absolutely nothing to do with importing a GPX5000 unit. My post was to do with the massive difference in price between the US and Aus.

I understand some peoples points regarding "sales tax" etc but as i was trying to say in an earlier post .... it still works out to be alot cheaper for a US citizen to buy one of the units (including their sales tax) in the US and use it out there than what it costs for an Aus citizen to buy one here. The maths is not that hard........

It seems that so many people just except paying over the odds for an exact same product. C'mon people, with attitudes like that we will all soon be paying $2.00 for a litre of petrol.

Basically, at the end of the day, all I am trying to say is if i am importing a top quality piece of equipment, that is not made here in this country, then I would exect to pay more for this said item than another person buying it in the country of origin. WITH THE MINELAB RANGE OF DETECTORS THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

I'm told there are 20 new GPX5000 owners attending Talbot demonstration every month...there are also demonstrations held in most of the other States monthly........
Obviously Minelab and their dealers are having no problem with selling their current state of the art detector the GPX5000....at the moment.....simple really...if you want the latest pay for it...if you dont then dont....if you cant afford it then that is your problem and not Minelabs or the dealers I would suggest....wait until the obvious strong demand is less....then if they start discounting like any business including GMH...then put up your hand and buy one...or does the whinging start all over again if there is then a GPX5500 available and its again out of your grasp....what is your collective points.....its too dear?.....then market forces always dictate what a product will sell at, or not....the fact its cheaper in outer Mongolia is totally irrelevant particularly if Company marketing is pitched to establish greater market share....
I believe much R & D and much $ development is spent by Minelab to produce each new detector design...money perhaps not being spent by competitors..then why should they be priced the same as competitors..of course they shouldnt and you would have to agree.....<unless you were getting less than current state of the art from Minelab and I dont think that can be disputed they are the market leaders>
I dont like spending that much money on anything like everyone else....is it a want or a need.....?....its a want in most cases and folk are paying for that want..just like buying and maintaining a leisure/fishing boat.....my Whiting used to work out at about $50 per fish in straight dollar terms.....and my boat was also a want not a need.......there's no extortion in either example.....you know the best argument you can put to anyone that wont give permission to go on their land...tell them to buy a detector and see if they can recoup the cost of the detector from the amount of potential gold on their land...its nearly impossible so going halves with giving permission they will likely be way in front.....I personally believe there is currently only very few working in the Golden Triangle exclusively that actually can recoup the full cost of a GPX.....small stuff thats fun to get....I know lots say they do...and only they really know the truth.....there are undoubtedly some that can without kidding themselves...its a hobby and a great one.....hardly lucrative ....
If you want a Porsche and can only afford a VW then its ridiculous to complain.....as there is no basis to the argument....
based on your premise if the arse dropped out of the detector market here and the GPX5000 was heavily discounted to move them however were still selling well in the US, are you going to offer to pay more?......to local dealers....hardly..so your point is irrelevant..if you can do better buying from the US why not do it and set out your full landed costs here..thats all I was pointing out in my posts as I buy many items from the US <but they are not available here>...sheesh. Hoo Roo

Again, That was not my point.

Must clear up a few points of your remarks here though,

Firstly, I am luckily enough to be in the position to be able to afford the new machine many many times over. (You dont get rich by squandering)

Secondly, Yes a detector is a "want and not a need"- Just like my boat was. but that was built to my specs so I expected to pay top dollar.

Are you honestly telling me that you believe demand is higher for this machine here rather than th US. Dont fool yourself. population 23 million vs 260 million.

Oh and by the way. quick geograpfy lesson.....outer Mongolia is a hell of a long way from the US....It is actually closer to Aus so shipping should be cheaper.

Quote original post --Now seeing as the Aus and US dollar are basically one for one, why is it that a machine made in Australia is over $1K cheaper in the US and they get all those extras thrown in for good measure.

Anyone who thinks this is fair to the Australian dealers and ultimately Australian consumers has their head firmly planted in the sand, the way I see it is This is not the Australian way of a fair go and looking after your own, it's got nothing to do with as the previous poster said{ why complain if you want a Porsche and can only afford a VW} that comment is a put down and misses the point, and remember a lot of prospectors are doing it tough and this game is to most only a hobby so is it unreasonable to ask why they pay more for a product made here than one shipped half way round the world. maybe there is some export benefit that creates these differences but the only thing we know for sure is the balance is wrong .
Getting off the point a bit but another thing which doesn't add up to my way of thinking is all the knocking of anyone who dares to use anything other than a certain brand of unit and who in there right mind would dare to mention publicly that they are developing something that may take over or actually outperform the latest offering, I for one would love to see the day when that happens and openly encourage anyone who tries,
Mark

MS .... Nicely said

larry303 wrote:I'm told there are 20 new GPX5000 owners attending Talbot demonstration every month...there are also demonstrations held in most of the other States monthly........
Obviously Minelab and their dealers are having no problem with selling their current state of the art detector the GPX5000....at the moment.....simple really...if you want the latest pay for it...if you dont then dont....if you cant afford it then that is your problem and not Minelabs or the dealers I would suggest....wait until the obvious strong demand is less....then if they start discounting like any business including GMH...then put up your hand and buy one...or does the whinging start all over again if there is then a GPX5500 available and its again out of your grasp....what is your collective points.....its too dear?.....then market forces always dictate what a product will sell at, or not....the fact its cheaper in outer Mongolia is totally irrelevant particularly if Company marketing is pitched to establish greater market share....

PMSFL larry303 with all due respect ............LOL by the way larry303 I'm a Ford man..... this has nothing do with can I afford a GPX? ........ and lets get this cleared up I own a GPX5000 with quite a few accessories with it. As far as cars I have 15 in total and several race cars now back on the topic. Looking into buying a Ford Mustang 2011 shelby GT350.

Larry303 lets think logical you and I can make all these assumption why the minelab is cheaper but still doesn't place any clarity to the exact answer of " why are we paying more here in Australia ? ".

Maybe a high ranking Minelab person should be envited onto the forum and give us his/her version of a worthy explanation why is this so.

larry303 at the Talbot training day ? did Russel mention any brand names metal detectors other than Minelab ? if the answer is NO, why would you think this is the case ?

We already had this debate on this forum on this topic until it was closed/blocked due to the nature of the responses. The topic turns to abusive name calling and disrespect to other peoples opinions. Forums are supposed to be civilised and we can bring on a debate. Yes i don't have to agree with your thoughts and yes you don't have to see eye to eye with my opinion but YES we can bring on dialog and discussion on the topic I hope this one doesn't end up the same way the last debate end up.

Cheers



PS - link to old debate - https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t2572-best-deal-on-a-5000?highlight=cheapest+place+to+buy+a+GPX5000

24kt, MS et.al.

Why...don't...you...ask...Peter... Charlesworth... or...Ian...Aitken...or Nenad... Lonic at...Minelab?
We can only speculate as to the answers to your questions.

Robert

Our Kiwi mates don't complain. They fly out for the winter, buy the latest Minelabs, find a heap of gold, fly back to NZ for the summer and get the GST refunded at the airport, fly back next winter with their GST free detectors, and find another heap of gold.

The only way to keep ahead of the Kiwis and Yanks is to get out there and find more gold, and that's what I'm trying to do!

Regards,

Col

Col Douglas wrote:Our Kiwi mates don't complain. They fly out for the winter, buy the latest Minelabs, find a heap of gold, fly back to NZ for the summer and get the GST refunded at the airport, fly back next winter with their GST free detectors, and find another heap of gold.

The only way to keep ahead of the Kiwis and Yanks is to get out there and find more gold, and that's what I'm trying to do!

Regards,

Col

PMSFL whose whing , my last ten ( 10 ) outings have been very unprofitable when one does the mathematics and add up all the 1's and 0's of my running costs, I haven't found any GOLD. Remember we all chasing the same colour yellow and if you plan to recover you money ( to pay of your detector investment, don't bother buying one then at all LOL ) on picking up all the 0.1 , 0.15 , 0.2 , 0.25 , 0.3's grams pieces and so on on goldfields that have been prostituted by detect after detect you may be kidding yourself. Yeah the od occasional find some lucky person might stubble on that is worth bragging.

All this said, its not what the initial question was asked in this thread that people seem to forget and the focus is all else where. " Are we being ripped off here in Australia. Check this out "

LOL another loop hole !!! " and get the GST refunded at the airport" and not to mention many more ???? I thought you had to be a Australian resident/citizen travelling overseas to be able to use the duty fee feature when travelling aboard. Correct me if I'm wrong ????

Ask your Kiwi mates this ?
Question Why don't the kiwi's buy minelab detectors back in New Zealand Minelab authorised dealer(s) ?

cheers

brookesy888 wrote:Again, That was not my point.

Are you honestly telling me that you believe demand is higher for this machine here rather than th US. Dont fool yourself. population 23 million vs 260 million.

Australia is a bigger market for the GPX 5000 than America is, hard to believe but true.

JP

It might seem unfair but when you export goods overseas, you can get Government grants and subsidy's so there fore you can export goods cheaper than the local markets, I would only buy in Australia because you don't know what taxes you are going to be hit with when you import it from overseas.

Regards Johnny

Jonathan Porter wrote:

brookesy888 wrote:Again, That was not my point.

Are you honestly telling me that you believe demand is higher for this machine here rather than th US. Dont fool yourself. population 23 million vs 260 million.

Australia is a bigger market for the GPX 5000 than America is, hard to believe but true.

JP

Hi JP and others, I have followed your comments here and as price has always been a sore point for me with concern to ML, I would usually say that as a company with no competition and a staff of, what, around 100+ persons? can certainly and would need to charge or overcharge on a product that only has a model expectancy of 18 months to 2 years. I also would have thought the population and sales on the 5000 would be more in the US and so we all know the more you buy the cheaper it is, BUT (always a but... ) Jonathan you say we buy more or ML has more sales here than the US? If so WHY exactly are we paying more? I don't want to put you on the spot with this and know that you were just pointing the fact out but you have also unknowingly pointed out that we are being ripped off...

A funny thread as we have this with all the models of PI's from ML every time they come out. I would have hoped that ML would have taken the ethical thing and maybe lowered it for us for a change. Although sales are good ML would make a lot more by lowering it's margin slightly for us as more would be enticed to buy.

Having said that I suppose ML just know we would buy the machine at the higher price as we want the best, it's just a pity that an Australian company doesn't have the Australian ethics...

Ismael wrote: Hi JP and others, I have followed your comments here and as price has always been a sore point for me with concern to ML, I would usually say that as a company with no competition and a staff of, what, around 100+ persons? can certainly and would need to charge or overcharge on a product that only has a model expectancy of 18 months to 2 years. I also would have thought the population and sales on the 5000 would be more in the US and so we all know the more you buy the cheaper it is, BUT (always a but... ) Jonathan you say we buy more or ML has more sales here than the US? If so WHY exactly are we paying more? I don't want to put you on the spot with this and know that you were just pointing the fact out but you have also unknowingly pointed out that we are being ripped off...

A funny thread as we have this with all the models of PI's from ML every time they come out. I would have hoped that ML would have taken the ethical thing and maybe lowered it for us for a change. Although sales are good ML would make a lot more by lowering it's margin slightly for us as more would be enticed to buy.

Having said that I suppose ML just know we would buy the machine at the higher price as we want the best, it's just a pity that an Australian company doesn't have the Australian ethics...

Hi Ismael, firstly just let me categorically say that my opinions and thoughts on the matter are just that, thoughts and opinions, only Minelab a public company can truly know the whys and wherefores on pricing etc. Having said that lets look at this logically for a moment, back in 1995 Minelab released the SD2000, for many months they couldn't keep up with demand, due to this demand prospectors out there were willing to pay way in excess of double the price of RRP, thereby setting an indication point of the detectors value relative to ability etc. I myself would have happily mortgaged the family home (I was on the bones of my bum at the time so no home to mortgage I'm sorry to say) if it meant I could be one of the first or one of only few who had one of those "Deeper Bleeper" metal detectors as I knew in my heart that the investment would have payed for itself over and over again.

Logically speaking Minelab at the time would have then done some serious marketing brain storming and come up with a few figures that suggested that the market was small but lucrative from a pure cost to sell point perspective. I myself am caught up in this merry-go-round where the market is only X amount in size with a window of approx 18 months to 2 years where I might sell a ratio of 1 in 5 of our DVDs to Minelab customers, therefore I have to lift the price point on our product to give us the best chance of recovering expenses (filming, time spent editing, reproduction, distribution etc) but there is no way our customer base is going to fork out the required amount of dollars if they feel they aren't getting good value so a huge amount of effort goes into making sure the content is both useful and entertaining, a hard ask when you're doing it all on your own, but I digress your post was about Minelab not looking after the local bloke wasn't it?

America was slow on the uptake of the SD2000, firstly because there was no point Minelab trying to build that market when they were flat out trying to supply the local scene, so it wasn't until the SD2100 that things started to percolate along in the US. Historically the US has been a fickle market for Minelab especially on the Prospecting front, this is due to a number of factors one being the opposition such as Whites and Garrett already having a strong foothold in the US, especially a very strong marketing presence, but also due to the fact that American customers are very loyal so will support the local made product. Secondly and probably most importantly the US goldfields are not as heavily mineralised as Australia so the immediate advantage of a $5000 machine over a $1000 detector are not as obvious as it is here in Australia.

OK with all of the above in mind, namely Minelab having a unique product that performs extremely well, Minelab customers happily demonstrating historically their willingness to pay top dollar for a top performing product (in other words, cost of product compared to ability to recover expenses is proportionally very achievable), with Minelab then setting such prices and moving the price only marginally as the product comes to end of life and a new model is released (means the product holds a lot of its value when second hand), America has played catch up due to a fluctuating dollar disparity. The prices for the Minelab in America is always going to be a hard ask, especially with the world economic position looming large. America is suffering badly at the moment, something us Aussies are taking for granted thanks to our resources boom, as such a huge price increase thanks to Aussie dollar parity is just not an option if Minelab ever want to maintain position in the US market, I would say the prices set for their product was done well before the Aussie dollar rose so high. If Minelab was to increase accordingly then I seriously doubt if the US market would accept it.

My take on it all is this, Minelab are in this game to make some money, their customers are buying from them because they have a unique product. We're prepared to pay top dollar because we also have a chance of paying for our purchase many times over, a far greater chance than any other similarly priced hobby on the planet and thankfully we live in a lucky country where we have the freedom to do so. Australia set the bar for Minelab a long time ago, so all pricing stems from Australia and then flows out to the rest of the world markets and from what I am seeing and reading the rest of the world have been very willing to pay for that privilege.

Lastly, Ismael I take exception to your suggesting Minelab are not ethical. Is it ethical to make modifications to metal detectors that are largely placebo effect and charge money for it? Is it ethical to make a profit from such actions? If you don't like the prices then don't pay the price, if you want to be part of the Minelab money making story then buy some bloody shares in the company. But don't come on here and denigrate an Aussie success story when you of all people have been bottom feeding off them for years now. Might I suggest you purchase yourself a Garret Infinium, I see their prices have come down lately, who knows you might even come up with a mod for it? Sorry to be sarcastic but after reading your post I'm not in the mood for being all feely touchy!!!

JP

Gday


Simple fact of life "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR" if you dont want to pay for it then theres plenty of cheaper options available but dont complain when you dont get the desired results

People pay the price because the minelab machines perform as expected and "DO FIND GOLD", consistantly and under almost all conditions.

cheers

stayyerAU

Goldnomad wrote:24kt, MS et.al.

Why...don't...you...ask...Peter... Charlesworth... or...Ian...Aitken...or Nenad... Lonic at...Minelab?
We can only speculate as to the answers to your questions.

Robert

Has anyone bothered to do this yet? Minelab isn't full of boogymen as far as I know.

Robert

Goldnomad wrote:

Goldnomad wrote:24kt, MS et.al.

Why...don't...you...ask...Peter... Charlesworth... or...Ian...Aitken...or Nenad... Lonic at...Minelab?
We can only speculate as to the answers to your questions.

Robert

Has anyone bothered to do this yet? Minelab isn't full of boogymen as far as I know.

Robert

Hi GUYS

Maybe Jonathan Porter could be the peoples' spoke person as he has VERY STRONG ties with Minelab and he can ask the minelab CEO directly and get the proper answer from the horse mouth.

Jonathan Porter you explanation has no merit nor warrants the personal attack on someone's business cause you yourself are been feed by minelab and obviously a financial gain for your professional ambassador association with minelab.

Jonathan Porter I didn't read anything in Ismael's post having a personal attack on you, I don't have any affiliation with Ismael nor his business or can I comment does his modification on older detectors make any enhancement to minelab metal detectors. One reason i could see why you attack the gentleman is to discredit his technical expertises and discourage people from having mods done by Ismael to their old machine and promote the people to buy new machines again this is my perception. Of coarse Minelab wants more sales.

No one explanation you gave has explained why the price difference other than like you quoted this is you own opinion, "just let me categorically say that my opinions and thoughts on the matter are just that, thoughts and opinions, only Minelab a public company can truly know the whys and wherefores on pricing etc. Having said that lets look at this logically for a moment, " so why speculate all the financial down turn in the world economy in the last few years is the cause of this price difference, when this has been a issue from many years gone by about price.

As far as "sarcastic" I think your using this word very loosely more like a backhand slap and personal attack.

Once again we have deviated of the true topic that is being debated upon

" the price difference from Australia compared to USA "


Cheers

24kt wrote:

Once again we have deviated of the true topic that is being debated upon

" the price difference from Australia compared to USA "

Cheers

I think my post was well and truly on topic if you bothered to read what it said. I took offense to the term ethics or the suggestion there was a lack of ethics. If Minelab were not ethical they would not fix detectors that are well out of warranty, another example is they could have jacked the price up even further and restricted supply into Australia when the Sudan thing went ballistic and the grey market was making a killing. The bulk of the gray market detectors that were originally bought here and in the US including all the second hand ones people sold on E-bay ended up in the Sudan at ridiculous jacked up prices, is that ethical?

I would say the price of the detectors in the US was worked out back when the Aussie dollar was way below 90 cents, now we have parody and you guys want to bleat away and cry fowl. Like I said above, prices of all products sold in Australia and around the world are worked out on what the market can bear, or is prepared to pay for it. This was determined long ago when the SD 2000 first came out, small market, potentially large return for investors and then suddenly a massive demand outstripping manufacturing capabilities. I wish (and I'm sure a lot of other do to) I had something that everyone wanted so badly that I could put a large mark up on. At least Minelab have re-invested their money back into R&D instead of making the thing look slightly different and marketing the hell out of it.

Minelab make a unique product of which they obviously make a healthy profit margin, BUT they consistently invest some of that money into developing new technology, something I have high hopes will allow us to maybe one day see another scenario like the SD2000, I rather fancy my odds of an established leader in the field with the runs already on the board doing something like that is far greater than some of the other options out there.

Ismael and I have crossed swords numerous times over the years and I'm sure we know each other well enough by now to be able to take each other to task if we feel the other person is in the wrong. I made the analogy of his modifying detectors and making a profit as being no different to Minelab having a margin on their product (mods are something I have always disagreed with and made no bones about publicly) , the only difference being they're doing it with their own concepts and ideas. Our whole economy is based on profit and loss, are you trying to tell me making a profit is ethically wrong? If people stopped buying Minelab product I'm sure we would see changes in pricing, this might suggest to you that their product lives up to expectations due to the demand and consistency of pricing.

JP

Lack of genuine competition in any industry rarely produces the best deal for the consumer.
If we are being ripped off then simple...why doesnt someone produce similar product and sell it cheaper....we all know the answer to that one...you'll likely disappear up your own QED...
I didnt see any unhappy campers at the last Talbot training day and everyone had paid their $6000 plus for their GPX5000's....they obviously perceive value for money or they wouldnt buy...where's the victim here....the fact that every spot in the Triangle is not literally covered with thousands of 5000's.......its also why every shopping centre is not filled with Mercedes.....<I've personally never been able to justify the cost of a Mercedes to myself to buy one> however I can see the value in a 5000.......
I agree with JP on this <and dont always agrre with his point of view> and I am also disappointed in Ismaels' take on this.....being Cape Crusaders is never going to alter the profits to the big end of town......they have their shareholders to consider....and as long as the consumer is buying they are all happy....where's the victim in all this?...sure I would like to buy a GPX5000 for $4000 then the howls of protest from the value loss <rapid depreciation> by the 4500 owners would be deafening...Hoo Roo

Whoa there JP, firstly, my intention was not to smear you or ML just that the topic "Are we being ripped off" and people had stated that in the US the GPX5000 was cheaper than here and it was suggested that the population difference (more sales) was the reason to which you stated it was NOT... so why then are we paying more. A simple question. I also stated that ML had the right as their overheads in staff salary and the lack of competition dictates the price. Yes I modded detectors for those that could not justify the cost upgrade. Ask anyone and see even on my site, when the GPX4500 came along I stated that 4500 was a far superior machine than a modded detector due to the innovations and quietness. You must realise that people modded their detectors due to the price factor and nothing else. Whenever I was asked whether to mod or not I gave my honest opinion that if you can justify and afford a GPX (not 4000!) then buy the GPX don't waste time modding your detector. That is why I only charged $275 for the mod and not $600+.

Ethics was probably the wrong word to use but I could not think of a different one. I know that you can return the cost of any detector IF YOU FIND GOLD but a lot don't. So back to the topic WHY DO WE PAY MORE, considering that here in Australia we only pay 10% GST on top of the detector, no freight, no duties etc... The US have to pay all of that on top of the detector. It just stands to reason that: Australian Sales are more (your words not mine) so we should be buying at a cheaper price. As I said ethical was not the correct word so what do you consider of a company that charges more to the larger buyer (sales) and local people than it does overseas, not very PATRIOTIC (that's the word I was looking for last night), is it?

I am as others would say "Pro Minelab" I gain nothing from then for my support of them and have never had a grievance with them other than price and the tech team in the US. You can even ask Kevin in service of this. I think ML service in Australia is great. I can also support paying $6K for a GPX but not when the US can sell for $4.5 to $6K with close to $1K worth of extra's. So what do you say on this. I don't want a fight with you as you and I (I thought) had closed those bridges quite a while back, I just want to know as well as others what the justification is for the above pricing?

I hope that this is clear to what I was trying to say in the last post and apologise for using the term ethics instead of patriotic.

As a PS: I can also understand if what has been said about the currency exchange but we will have to wait a few weeks to see if the prices change to reflect that, seeing as we have been at parity for quite a while now it should have been reflected by now. Also I did own an infinium and it wasn't worth the effort to mod. That's why I understand the pricing no competition. I would have just liked to have seen the reverse for a change and Australians get the better deal rather than others...

Hi Guys , JP I have read and fully understood your post if Ismael used the wrong word " Ethical " I would have to say you throw it back in his face and you yourself used the wrong word also.

I would say the price of the detectors in the US was worked out back when the Aussie dollar was way below 90 cents, now we have parody and you guys want to bleat away and cry fowl. Like I said above, prices of all products sold in Australia and around the world are worked out on what the market can bear, or is prepared to pay for it. This was determined long ago when the SD 2000 first came out, small market

How far back are we talking about JP ?

From this remark I would have to make a educated guess and say so all the GPX5000's for sale now on the market in the USA are still old stock when the aussie dollar was weaker than the green back dollar? So that's why people in the USA are enjoying the freedom and libarty of purchasing the Minelab GPX far cheaper than what we can here in Australia???

My better judgement would have to suggest that is not the case. Still today with Australia dollar to American dollar face value people are buying ML GPX detectors cheaper. The evidence is on the net as far as the eye can see. Not to mention the extras that are thrown in.

Larry do you have any idea what any model Mercedes Benz is worth in Europe or Germany itself. Do you research and I think tou will be astonished at the price difference as apposed to what we pay for supposed labelled luxury cars here as to what is a common vehicle in Germany.

The reason we pay so much money for Mercedes Benz and many other brands of vehicles here in Australia is it protects the local manufactures from oversea products and most of these vehicles are labelled luxury vehicles and lumbered with a exorbandant taxes. I would expect this to be the case with ML detectors in the USA but not the case.

Cheers

There's one thing here that is an influencing factor which hasn't been brought up:

The major appliance manufacturers did a lot of research in 2006 and found that people in Australia WILL pay more for any desirable product... especially an expensive one. Sony was the first company to come up with this information in relation to computers and cameras etc. When asked WHY Australians were paying 3 times the price that Americans were paying, the Sony spokeswoman said first that "Australia is a smaller market and buys less units" but later admitted that "There was no real reason" [why Aussies were charged so much more] but that they happily paid more because they were more influenced by Brand Names and were more Brand Loyal than any other country. She also said that Americans simply wouldn't buy at our prices. They discovered that Americans will pay less for a couple of reasons: One is that they are NOT brand-loyal. This means they don't care who makes it but will buy the cheaper alternative nearly every time. The other reason is because Americans prefer to buy things that are Made In America.

I don't doubt that larger orders of any product usually results in a bigger discount to the seller that places the order. Simple matter of fact is that Americans are not used to paying our prices for televisions, radios and cars or homes. Unfortunately for us, we are. And with more goldfields that can be accessed in every state around Australia, there's more chance to find gold here than in the USA. I have NO IDEA on the sales figures though I would guess that Americans would be just as likely to consider a Garrett Infinium over a ML SD2200v2 over there. When you work out the Custom's Duty and various import fees and taxes etc, importing a new GPX detector from the US works out to be very close to what you pay here. Assuming the seller will violate his trade agreements to send you one as they are far less likely to risk doing this today compare to say a year ago.

I actually thought the 5000 might have been released closer to $8,000. There would be plenty of whining and moaning about the price by those people used to paying less for a similar product but the pros would leap onboard because some of them make a living with these machines. The day people stop spending $10,000+ for a set of golf clubs for non-professional golf will be the day others will stop forking out for an expensive professional detector for their detecting hobby. Even now, you can go buy a German GPR portable system for treasure hunting for around $65,000 and those things still sell (for reasons best left to another thread).

I'm not defending prices in my reply and have no real opinion other than what I have mentioned above.. Not at all. It certainly doesn't affect me in any way. But I do think that Americans are in a different situation where they simply will not buy at our prices. When Americans and Canadians come here to visit Australia, the one thing that STUNS them is the price of food here. They are used to buying a meal for $10 or less. McDonalds might be an exception. The can't believe we sell meals in cafes for $30 or more. It's almost unbelievable to them. I saw a house with a pool by the beach in Florida back in 2004 for just $33,000. That's the price of about four GPX detectors here. We can't possibly compete with those expectations unless we sell our products accordingly on different markets. Europeans pay the same price for detectors as we do here (or thereabouts) so perhaps the only folks with a different spin are the North Americans. If you took Kellyco out of the picture, I'd doubt we'd be having this conversation although they no longer ship to Australia on Australian made products. They have been been the source of a lot of stress to all the other guys selling all brands of detectors over there in the States. But they also sell some prospecting accessories that are known well to be scam devices such as LRLs and platinum pendulums etc. Just sayin'.

Here is a graph of the US vs AUD from September 2010 until now. Currency Graph

Using this data at it lowest 91.7c AUST. a GPX 5000 that retails for AUD$6000 (ex GST) is USD$5502. Still USD$5595 as advertised on AZO with all those extra's is considerably less than what it would be in Aust with the same. So at it's peak the AUD was AUD1.017 so the Aust price still at 6K equals USD$6060 still cheaper than we can buy here and this of cause is without all the accessories. Now I can't remember when the GPX5000 was released as I was and still have been involved in other areas but it would mean that the GPX for sale in america must have been purchased for around USD$4195 (AZO price $5595 normally $6995) less the $1400 worth of extra's and remember this is without a profit margin yet and based solely on Currency exchange from US$0.917 to 1 AUD. So how much profit is either our dealers adding or ML to Australian customers. I know the argument is that we will pay whatever for the best but I would have thought it would be at least comparable with OS pricing. If I was going bush all the time and finding even a little I would pay the $6K+ but that is just not the issue we are asking here...

nero_design wrote:There's one thing here that is an influencing factor which hasn't been brought up:

The major appliance manufacturers did a lot of research in 2006 and found that people in Australia WILL pay more for any desirable product... especially an expensive one. Sony was the first company to come up with this information in relation to computers and cameras etc. When asked WHY Australians were paying 3 times the price that Americans were paying, the Sony spokeswoman said first that "Australia is a smaller market and buys less units" but later admitted that "There was no real reason" [why Aussies were charged so much more] but that they happily paid more because they were more influenced by Brand Names and were more Brand Loyal than any other country. She also said that Americans simply wouldn't buy at our prices. They discovered that Americans will pay less for a couple of reasons: One is that they are NOT brand-loyal. This means they don't care who makes it but will buy the cheaper alternative nearly every time. The other reason is because Americans prefer to buy things that are Made In America.

I don't doubt that larger orders of any product usually results in a bigger discount to the seller that places the order. Simple matter of fact is that Americans are not used to paying our prices for televisions, radios and cars or homes. Unfortunately for us, we are. And with more goldfields that can be accessed in every state around Australia, there's more chance to find gold here than in the USA. I have NO IDEA on the sales figures though I would guess that Americans would be just as likely to consider a Garrett Infinium over a ML SD2200v2 over there. When you work out the Custom's Duty and various import fees and taxes etc, importing a new GPX detector from the US works out to be very close to what you pay here. Assuming the seller will violate his trade agreements to send you one as they are far less likely to risk doing this today compare to say a year ago.

I actually thought the 5000 might have been released closer to $8,000. There would be plenty of whining and moaning about the price by those people used to paying less for a similar product but the pros would leap onboard because some of them make a living with these machines. The day people stop spending $10,000+ for a set of golf clubs for non-professional golf will be the day others will stop forking out for an expensive professional detector for their detecting hobby. Even now, you can go buy a German GPR portable system for treasure hunting for around $65,000 and those things still sell (for reasons best left to another thread).

I'm not defending prices in my reply and have no real opinion other than what I have mentioned above.. Not at all. It certainly doesn't affect me in any way. But I do think that Americans are in a different situation where they simply will not buy at our prices. When Americans and Canadians come here to visit Australia, the one thing that STUNS them is the price of food here. They are used to buying a meal for $10 or less. McDonalds might be an exception. The can't believe we sell meals in cafes for $30 or more. It's almost unbelievable to them. I saw a house with a pool by the beach in Florida back in 2004 for just $33,000. That's the price of about four GPX detectors here. We can't possibly compete with those expectations unless we sell our products accordingly on different markets. Europeans pay the same price for detectors as we do here (or thereabouts) so perhaps the only folks with a different spin are the North Americans. If you took Kellyco out of the picture, I'd doubt we'd be having this conversation although they no longer ship to Australia on Australian made products. They have been been the source of a lot of stress to all the other guys selling all brands of detectors over there in the States. But they also sell some prospecting accessories that are known well to be scam devices such as LRLs and platinum pendulums etc. Just sayin'.

The one thing from the first few lines of this Nero is that SONY is not an Australian company and SONY have lots of competition and well established in its field the same as ML are. The other side to this is as JP pointed out sales quantity is not a consideration on the data as is the case with other multi-national companies. I am sure that Sony sell more products in the US than in Australia. I suppose that it is as it is because ML as Nero has said can afford to charge us the higher price knowing we will buy. If this is the case then I suppose all you can do if you want it cheaper is to get a friend in the US to buy it (without the accessories) the US$5000 for the GPX, freight will be around $US250 so the total price will be US$5250 plus GST and Duty (15%) as stated previously equals $6037.50 and if you can get the correct currency exchange it works out to AUD$5978.... Almost 1K less than the RRP.... BUT do you want the hassle?

I personally think the crunch will come and prices will crash when people twig that $6700 for a detector that can find a few grams per day on a good day doesn't make sense when compared to a $10 gold pan and a good creek.

Australian sales for prospecting detectors built a solid foundation for that company, I think there should be some official response to what is going on here, speculation will only continue and it's clear we as customers and even the Aus dealers are not getting a fair go.
Mark

Hey if your not happy buying it in Australia, buy it from the US, I paid $6500 for my new detector and I am happy with the product, the service, the training, THE Gold. I don't go on US sites and cry because they are cheaper there. If I want to pay less for a machine I'd wait until a new model comes out and buy the previous Model. It is what it is, I don't hear people crying about the price of JPs DVDs, he puts a lot of work in his DVDs and Minelab puts a lot of work in there detectors before you get the best product that money can buy, yes its a lot of money but its worth it. RIPPED OFF HUGWASH

Regards Johnny

HOBO'S Gold wrote:Hey if your not happy buying it in Australia, buy it from the US, I paid $6500 for my new detector and I am happy with the product, the service, the training, THE Gold. I don't go on US sites and cry because they are cheaper there. If I want to pay less for a machine I'd wait until a new model comes out and buy the previous Model. It is what it is, I don't hear people crying about the price of JPs DVDs, he puts a lot of work in his DVDs and Minelab puts a lot of work in there detectors before you get the best product that money can buy, yes its a lot of money but its worth it. RIPPED OF HUGWASH

Regards Johnny

lol HOBO'S Gold " RIPPED OF HUGWASH " , maybe these words are a bad choice " RIPPED OF " but explain the price variation from Australia to the USA. Remember the GPX is supposedly manufactured here in Australia and shipped out to the USA which would incurred more costs but not the case LOL

cheers

G'day Gents.

Does not supply and demand dictate prices? Does not the supply and demand differ in every country of the world on any one particular item,due to each countries individual circumstances.Greeds got nothing to do with price fixing,but i can assure you,demand for a particular good or service does.If the demand is there on anything in life (regardless of cost) people will pay the price to get it.

Cheers kon61.

HOBO'S Gold wrote:Hey if your not happy buying it in Australia, buy it from the US, I paid $6500 for my new detector and I am happy with the product, the service, the training, THE Gold. I don't go on US sites and cry because they are cheaper there. If I want to pay less for a machine I'd wait until a new model comes out and buy the previous Model. It is what it is, I don't hear people crying about the price of JPs DVDs, he puts a lot of work in his DVDs and Minelab puts a lot of work in there detectors before you get the best product that money can buy, yes its a lot of money but its worth it. RIPPED OF HUGWASH

Regards Johnny

Hey Johnny , if your happy to pay above the going rate the manufacturer has set on the world market just because your in Australia and see less profit margin for the Australian dealer even though it's a Aust product then thats your view and right to spend those extra $, if the majority have that same view it's no wonder this situation is continuing, importing isn't much of an option due to the extra costs and hassles involved.
What is wrong with standing up and asking why, just as you have right to say your view and are happy with your purchase , but realize and appreciate there are many who are not.
Putting a HUGWASH at the end is most likely just to convince yourself of your purchase and gain some brownie points or whatever .
Ive bought most of JPs DVDs and I don't have a problem with that, I don't see them any cheaper OS and I wouldn't touch a Burnt copy .
It's not about getting something for nothing it's about paying a fair and reasonable price from a level playing field.
Mark