I hear Minelab is raising their prices on several of their detectors Sept. 26th.------WOW, a one shot $250 price increase on the Sovereign GT!------If that happens, what is that going to do to sales, etc.?------Looks like they are going to price us right out of the market (at least me).--------Del

I feel you pain buddy. Ive read the same messages as you about the increases. I suppose with our weaken dollar and of coarse gold prices they are trying to gouge us a bit on the popular machines right now. Trying to recoup some of their move money. Its going to be like the new car market soon if they dont wake up..... we are quickly learning more bells dont make a better product..... so more of us will be looking to buy USED or live with what we have. I just got my Xcal.... so im set with it and the SE. Dont think they will be getting any more of my hard earned cash.... ever, unless i see something different.

Dew

Wow! You'd expect something like this at the beginning of beach season, not now nearing Fall. Where did you hear this? To me, they're certainly gonna be pricing a few people out of the market. B-U-T...

Not as many as one would think. Look at it this way, they basically have a LOCK on the beach hunting segment of the hobby with their Excals & Sovs. If people don't want to spend the money, what other options do they really have? A CZ-20/21 or one or two of the Tesoro's or Whites. That's it. End of story. And we all know MOST people ARE using or WANT to use the Minelab's. So, will they REALLY lose any business? Very little IMHO. Matter of fact...

This might be a brilliant move on their part. They know EVERYONE is flooding the hobby now with the current price of gold. So, they figure 'strike while the irons hot'. Smart business for them, bad news for buyers. End of the day, I say the lost business is slim to none. Less machines sold means lower production costs. Lower production costs WITH a price increase means BIG revenues. So, who cares about losing a few customers.

If this indeed happens, the used market for ML products is going to explode



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2011 07:06PM by njnydigger.

Glad I bought bought my E-trac before the price increase, although I suspect that the Etrac2 will be coming out any day now

Yeah, it's a good thing you got your Etrac when you did Brian.-----That one report I seen said the Etrac was going up fifty bucks.------Biggest increase was that whopping $250 for the GT though.-----One of the Xterras & the Eureka Gold was actually going down in price (at least according to the report I seen).--------What with these price increases I've kind of changed my line of thought about them coming out with a new detector to upgrade/replace the ones they just increased the price on.-----To me, that wouldn't make much business sense.---------Del



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2011 11:23PM by D&P-OR.

When is the new X-terra coming out? Anyone know...Heard they have sped the target response up on the new one....

Guess it will be soon?

I think the part's for the Sovereign are starting to get expensive to get hold of.....That's 20 year old part's now probably not a lot of manufacturer's use the part's for other item's ...... Older I.C's they might be paying a premium to get them built?

Keith

Haven't heard of a new Xterra coming out Keith.-----Did hear that the Xterra 505 will be decreased $50 and the 705 will increase by $30.-----This report was coming off of Tnet (hope it's ok to say that here).----Interesting times, huh?-----------Del

Everyone thought that since the price of the Soveriegn was raised , that it would bring the price of used ones up ........I never saw that happen .....You can still find a used Sovereign GT when they are for sale for right around $650 .....That was the price I paid for a used one in good shape about 4 yrs ago .... Other than the Etracs , I would be happier with the older Sovereign , Excal , etc . than the new ones ..... My Excal 1000 just keeps on going and going .....My Soveireign never skipped a beat ,and thank God my newer Etrac is still working well .....I guess with all the faulty Excals they had to fix , they had to recoup the money somehow ...... Ya gotta love the mentality " Hey we made a costly move, and we screwed up a bunch of new machines " " Let's raise the price and get our money back " ..... Very similar to " We spent a bunch of Social Security money bailiing our mistakes out on other programs , and we loose money on everything we deal with that has to do with money , and we surely have to make sure that we have a good retirement fund for ourselves , let's come up with new taxes , and raise the ones we already have !!!" ......Sound familiar ??....... Jim

New ML is still profiting from old ML's models.
They really haven't come out with anything new since the new company except Etrac.(and it isn't that much different than Explorer)

Hey FT, we are still waiting...to take advantage...... Send me your proto...I'll shorten the time to get the kinks out......ready it for market!

Don't matter to me....think I own half of them anyway!

I don't think, I know!!----and ya got 90% of the coils ever made to boot!!------Guys like you & I are what keeps 'em afloat Michael! ha ha ha



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2011 05:02AM by D&P-OR.

Two very strong factors at play here. 1) Pricing Power - a quality name with a very satisfied customer base = repeat and word of mouth sales. 2) Market Elasticity - they believe they have identified the sweet spot for the product on the price/demand curve where in an ideal world the slope of the curve would be zero.

I doubt that I will ever buy anouther new Minelab.

Hobo,
I'm with you on that one ..... I might be tempted to get an older GT for the right price ....even a control box .....There's just something addictive about those tones ..... They keep me comin back for more !!...... .....JIm