Is Hobby Metal Detecting Dying

First Tesoro folded then White's. Is Fisher next then Garrett?
Tesoro had a large following but failed to keep up with technology. Whites have always been big in the States and world wide and yet they closed.
Fisher was the first but also has not kept up with hobby metal detector technology and may be struggling plus their detectors were always a bit costly in Australia. Minelab and garrett have military and security contracts but will that be enough to keep them afloat?? Sales will have collapsed during this Corona virus pandemic and people are staying home. If the world economy does not lift soon all,we will be left with will be Cheap,unreliable toy Chinese detectors

Adrian, Reading FaceBook and other media outlets, prospecting interest is skyrocketing, many newbies asking questions and involving their children which is a good sign.

Adrian, Coiltek here in Maryborough can not keep up with the demand for new and secondhand detectors. I saw a secondhand 5000 coming into their shop and go straight out again, "sold" At that time they only had one secondhand machine in the shop. And that was a cheap coin & relic machine.
wombat

That is good news but will the sales of gold detectors be enough to keep the industry going when the entire metal detecting game has survived of coin, jewellery relic and scuba machines, the sales of which far outstripped gold hunter/prospecting types.
Obviously I hope all goes well for the future of hobby metal detecting

I follow a few facespace groups up here in QLD and can assure you the coin/relic hunting is charging ahead, especially on the beach. Unfortunately for relic hunters, the QLD sites are few and far between and don't have the age of the sites in NSW & Vic.

During all of my years metal detecting in the gold fields, on the beaches and in the school grounds, parks and gardens. (60 years) I could count on one and a half hands the number of detectorists I have encountered. Mind you I did go to some out of the way places for the sole purpose of getting away from people.

Adrian, maybe folks were forewarned of your presence, or you were detecting in truly long shot areas.

Both the above maybe Reg.

If you are thinking of getting a new detector , you should buy it now . Due to the virus, they might be in short supply soon .

As the years have rolled by, there are more and more people swinging on the beach . It is no longer as good as it was . Also people are using less and less coins . Mainly you are picking up " junk " coins . Worn out and just about worthless . Every time I go to my local beach there is one or two guys swinging a detector and they are not the same guys .

I remember in the Mid/Late 80's I would go down to the Beach at Glenelg probably Adelaide's most popular beach on Monday mornings, Tuesday after a long week end between 6am and 7 am and do really well, After a while I noticed it slacking off and detector operators walking off the beach when I was starting. Tried a few times an hour earlier, and there were operators on the beach B4 me. So then only went down after really hot weekends at the old time.

Eventually heard that there were operators on the beach late Sunday night to beat the rush and one got beaten up by a boozed up group.

Reminds me of the old saying,the early bird gets a black eye
Hopefully technology will bring out the next generation detectors for the gold fields,go an extra guaranteed 6 inches and we're off again for another decade  


cheers   moredeep

I used to work on Balmoral Beach with my Garrett Deep Seeker , in the old days before $1 and $2 coins . Running 6 x9 volt batteries it was not very profitable ! Can't remember seeing any body else with a detector at that time . Early 1970's I think .

In the 70s I used a relic magnum and Fisher 553D and later a GS15000.
The Relic M was a bit of a pain due to threshold drift. The 553D found a ton of stuff at the beach and in the picnic grounds; Probably more items than what I have found since with my all singing and dancing higher tech stuff. Still have that tecta.
During the 70s - 80s I did not encounter any other detectorists..Anywhere.....They were out there , I just never came across them.

I did have a few hassles from the lesser humans with dread locks and junkies on the beaches but none that i could not handle. I would not like to run into those types today coz I can't run as fast now.

Re the GS15000 Era, I had the shaft mount, Margaret had the control box 15000 on a belt.

Some Early Sunday Mornings John G. would ring me up, ask what was I doing and suggest detecting on West Beach/Henley Beach in Adelaide. I used a Tesoro Golden Sabre and he, his 15000, Many times he would ask what I thought of a signal, me, mostly I would not dig it. He persevered with the 15000, became very proficient in using it, rather than buying a coin machine. His early introduction into gold machines had a big impact in the detecting manufacturing/sales industry in later years.

Minermike wrote:I used to work on Balmoral Beach  with my Garrett Deep Seeker , in the old days  before  $1 and $2  coins .   Running  6  x9 volt batteries  it was not very profitable !   Can't  remember  seeing any body else with a detector at that time .  Early 1970's I think .

Mike thanks for reminding me of the 9v battery. They were the only downfall of the Deepseeker back then. Once the one and two dollars came out, it was always a contest between the wife and I to see who got a $100 first on the beach for the day. I won't say who won as she might see this post.

You were doing better than me ! Would be very hard to do that these days . I picked up $17.10 for 2 hours yesterday with the Nox 800 . Not had it long but I like it .

In the mid 80s I spent some time in Commonwealth Park Canb and Found 2000 dollars in one and two dollar coins in 70 hours along with a fair bit of jewellery.
I would go there in the early morning (5am till 8:30am) until the tour buses arrived.
The Aussies asked if I was finding any gold, the Chinese and Vietnamese thought I was searching for mines and the Japanese just wanted to see what I had found and then get their friends to take some pics of them standing alongside me and the detector.
After some other detectorists made a mess in the lawns I was told that metal detecting was no longer allowed in the park.
Do not know what it is like now, I have not been back there for anything other than Floriade.

I am thinking of spending more time in parks . But the ground is like concrete in Sydney . Just about a waste of time on the beach , every thing is hoovered up !

No need to dig deeper than 4 or 5 inches in parks.
Don't know if you go into the water but I have done well 20 to 50 mt past the low tide line. at approx waist deep.Very good for rings and watches. Have found wp Rip Curls and Casio G Shocks still running nicely.
Can be tough going with the waves and rips and blue bottles  A wet suit is handy if you don't want to freeze.
Make a floating sieve tied to your belt and dump your scoops of sand into it.

With the massive damage done to the beaches is NSW as Adrain said the low water line and behond is a good spot. In the early 1980s my brother in-law was telling of is finds in QLD on one beach. Over a 3 month period he was over 300 gold rings. I was up there during the Easter Holidays for a couple of weeks and scored more than 50 gold rings myself. Knowing the lowest tide occurs during Easter I was out as far as I could, I am sure that why I got so many after he had hit the spot. "THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND" as the song goes.

I've only seen one other detectorist in the last 10 years - and that was last year at Avoca Beach up near Terrigal (near Gosford).  In the goldfields I met two different panners on two occasions but that was it.  

I was told by a dealer in the detector business earlier this year (as the lockdown commenced) that the hobby is nowhere near what it was.  He said there's fewer younger people buying machines and that many of the folks who have been doing it for decades are either passing on with nobody replacing them, or they just get fed up with all the new "enforced" regulations and lose interest.  There's less nuggets being found in accessible areas and the younger folks aren't getting into the hobby because they are so addicted to their iPhones that they panic when they go places where there's no cellphone reception.  No idea myself, but that's what he said to me.  I think it's a shame but when I see other people glued to their phones in restaurants or in a park, it's hard not to take it seriously.

The television shows about gold (Gold Rush Alaska, Aussie Gold Hunters etc) sure attracted a few people into the hobby since around 2011 but since then I think folks realized that gold is a lot harder to find than they thought it was.  And most aren't prepared to throw down more than a thousand or two for a metal detector.  They certainly won't be buying GPXs or GPZs... although I'd bet you a few cashed in on their Superannuation early to buy some of these things.

With the recent Bushfires in 2019 and early 2020, people stopped driving to many of the Eastern goldfields.  And with COVID-19, people are locked down, which means no trade in those country towns... and less examples of people buying new equipment.  It's particularly sad and I can't see it getting any better unless something new happens (new equipment, new technology etc) and even that will be expensive of course... so only a few will have the cash to spare as employment dwindles and risks of a Depression exceed those of the current Recession we are in.  It's a very difficult situation for anyone in retail, let alone prospecting.  You'd think that soaring gold prices might drive people out to look for gold - but, unlike the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, people aren't able to take control of their lives any more as the world economy crashes and jobs and health and even freedom are uncertain.


A Counterfeit (Left) and Genuine (Right) GPX 5000 metal detector I photographed a few years ago.  A guy bought the fake one in to show me because it "wouldn't find a 20c coin"

Just 5 years ago, Garrett were almost bankrupted by all the Chinese counterfeits of their equipment.  Minelab lost their US military Contract due to their frequency hopping technology being stolen by Chinese hackers.  And they too have been hit to the tune of millions (like Garrett) due to the endless parade of Chinese counterfeits and those from Turkey.

The manufacturers themselves are struggling from massive losses.  They've fired their advertising teams.  They've fired their most talented staff (including those in the technical divisions) and they've sold off assets to stay afloat. It's very hard to predict where this will lead but it looks dire.

I did not know that ML had lost their military contracts. Maybe that is why we saw military mine detectors being modified for gold detecting a few years back.
Garrett has not been the same since Charles garret passed on handing the reins over to others.
     It is difficult to see how the industry can survive the gradual decline over the past 8 years or so. That combined with the effects of the pandemic could end it all for high end metal detector sales.

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-cybersecurity-australia/australian-metal-detector-company-counts-cost-of-chinese-hacking-idUSL3N0YX2OX20150624

I believe the number I heard from a member of the media was that it initially cost them AUD $10M+ (presumably in annual contracts) and the details have been printed in the media (see link above and screencap below).  I suspect the US did not take kindly to Australia sharing their shared restricted technology with China.  I believe the theft included the frequency-hopping technology that Minelab had developed and this was considered a devastating hack. Reuters news group mentioned that many blueprints were accessed (stolen) during the hack and that this later caused Minelab to slash prices to compete with the counterfeits that later came about (though the last time I looked, Australian prices hadn't budged).

It began when a Codan representative went to China as part of Minelab's expansion during the gold rush there in Mongolia.  The Codan representative turned on his laptop and connected to the Hotel WiFi and hackers working for the Chinese government dumped spyware onto his laptop almost instantly.  When the representative returned to Minelab/Codan in Australia, he activated his laptop inside the building which allowed the hackers to access the otherwise 'secure' technology and transmitted it back to China. Presumably this included Radio technology and data from Minetec (a company which Codan purchased in 2012).





According to reports in the media, the CEO of Codan believes that China's theft is responsible for the collapse in sales (and presumably loss of other venture elements of the company).  The Australian government seem to ignore his requests for assistance and he concluded that the Trade Deal between Australia and China was simply too important for the Australian Government to want to "rock the boat".

Why any company with contractual ties to the Pentagon would not have more stringent safety measures to protect IP and Technology is the probably the question quite a few of us should be asking ourselves.

G'day Nero

Just reading the spelling mistakes on the stickers, such that of  the words "Geunine" Instead of "Genuine" Minelab inside & This device "Complis" instead of "Complies", should have been more than enough to set off alarm bells as to the items authenticity. This is why we should all stop to read the "Fine Print" (so to speak) & not just take things on face value alone. It always pays, to thoroughly inspect or go over any item before purchasing.
On another note, It wouldn't surprise me if China's replica copy fighter jets, work in the same manner as their counterfeit copy Minelab detectors.

Cheers Kon  

Kon,
While there are many, who ignore the "Buy cheap, buy twice" these sort of deals will be ongoing.
You can't only blame the Chinese for this, it is rampant on our own door steps.
BTW: Would never trust media reports..............