OK read all the psots about the new minelab, but

who is going to try one??? I think I will, but do not like the 5 lb. weight report. Just hope that is not true but time will tell.. Anyway let us know who wants one...I do!

when you get it,fill us in on all the juicy bits won't ya?
another thing! make sure we don't see it up on classifieds in a week,
because the next guy will buy it for e-trac money! just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Not me. I went the Deus route. Maybe next year. I need you guys to sort out the problems for me. If I ever do get one it will be the lite version. I want a truely remarkable detector. Not a 2500.00 McGyver tool. I wonder what this will do for other company releases this year. Man that is over a ton of money! For the price of E Trac and an Excalibur. To be very honest I would need to come up with a lot more properties to search to justify the purchase. Nope! Not any time soon. Unless it is just leaps and bounds above the E Trac.

I wonder which models are going to be discontinued.

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not me. I went the Deus route. Maybe next year. I
> need you guys to sort out the problems for me. If
> I ever do get one it will be the lite version. I
> want a truely remarkable detector. Not a 2500.00
> McGyver tool. I wonder what this will do for other
> company releases this year. Man that is over a ton
> of money! For the price of E Trac and an
> Excalibur. To be very honest I would need to come
> up with a lot more properties to search to justify
> the purchase. Nope! Not any time soon. Unless it
> is just leaps and bounds above the E Trac.
>
> I wonder which models are going to be
> discontinued.


"unless it is leaps and bounds above the e-trac!"
i echo those sentiments!,and "only" if they put it on a diet,
"and" lower the price! dreamin? yeah! don't cost nothin' to dream!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

I say that all that will have to happen is a few people get them and start showing videos of how much better it can do this, that, or the other and then people will start dishing out the dough...and if their finds increase and echo what others are saying....it will be a short time when people will b posting the comment "its a big investment but worth every cent...wish I would have got one sooner". I remember back in the early 90s my parents were shopping for bass boats. We drove all over TN and north GA looking at them. The boat they bought was $16,000 after taxes....big money to us back then. Now that same boat new....just the updated version of it with new electronic bells and whistles ...is $40,000 BEFORE taxes. The cost of playing is high but all people have to do is start saying its great and people will let go of their clinched wallets.

Back before the pulse machines took over the Diggin in VA hunts, I was asking about getting a GPX and EVERY body told me I was crazy if I spent $4000 on a detector. Well 3-4 yrs later and now 80+% of the DIV participants have pulse machines and probably half have those $4000-$5000 GPXs....ALL of them that said I was crazy, have one now lol No matter the price....when people start showing what they have is far superior to what you have....it wont be long til you have one just like it....or at least on the wish list.

I keep looking for the gas cap on the new Minelab......it looks like a weed whacker to me. Apparently Minelab don't listen to their customers asking for something lighter and easier to swing...instead they make it bulkier and heavier......no thanks.
I will stick to my CZ and my Tesoros. From talking with Robert at Tesoro it sounds as if they will release a new detector this year.....his exact words were" 2012 is going to be a very good year for Tesoro". I would rather spend my money with Tesoro
and get a lifetime warranty and super people to deal with. I have never heard much good about Minelabs service and can promise they won't rebuild one of their detectors 5 years down the road at no charge. The average coin hunter can't afford an E-trak now,
so they sure won't be able to buy the new detector. I hope the new detector is a step ahead of Minelabs current technology, but you can only do so much....the rest is bells and whistles that serve no purpose to me.

Roger

Uncle Buck,I sure hope your right about Tesero. But they better come up with something really good,cause theyre starting to lag behind.

It's sure not like you to go out on a limb and try a new detector, Sonny...LOL

Kidding aside, any salesman worth a lick knows how often "can't afford" really means "I choose not to afford".

Many in our hobby can choose to afford and will drop multi-thousands to have a detector they consider to be the best.

The percentage of wealth held by middle age and older white males, the primary detecting demographic, is very high.

A new top-of-the-line Minelab has a sizable amount of built-in market based on Minelab's reputation and high-end popularity.

Well Sonny-----I want one---but--payin for it is a "different story"! ha ha------Go for it and let us all know how it is for weight, balance, operation---the whole ball of wax!---------Del

Oh it will get great reviews. The one horrible thing about our hobby. Every magazine is going to love it. Every new owner will tell it is the best 2500.00 ever spent. And then they will start appearing in the classifieds. Maybe not for performance. People realize that they over extended on $$$. Some suffer personal hardship with health or a loved one. The cycle continues.


The weight issue is often one with balance. I learned that with the Excalibur. I had the oppurtunity to use a spare battery caddy on my E Trac. Adding more weight actually made the E Trac nicer to swing. It was just added to the right place to add balance.

A very good point about the coil connection. Being a former AT Pro owner I should have thought of that. That means the coil collection I have is obsolete. That also means we will not see any third party coils for the new detector. Minelab price control runs amuck some more. It looks like the Pro coil size wise. Too big for iron and trash. No way can they speed up FBS to make that coil work where I want to hunt. So I'm looking at another 200.00 for a smaller coil.

This detector in my opinion is not going to be a make my old sites new again detector. It is a detector that merges detector models. The future of the Minelab detector line up. The waterproof to 10 ft is the nicest part so far for me. But I will tell you one thing I learned about my AT Pro. I don't like hunting in the rain. Digging through mud is not for me. Bringing a detector home and rinsing it off is nice.

I hunt the salt water beches in the Mid Atlantic Region. The Sovereign has always been my favorite beach detector. Wanting a Sovereign that could takea wave has always been on the top of my wish list. Well this detector is my answer. But instead of BBS I am offered FBS2. This detector needs to have an ace up it's sleave that the public is unaware of to justify the price. It will be at Atlantic City in two weeks. The day that we all will find out.

Del if you want one you will get one.. LOL.. I am convinced of that as nothing has ever stopped you in the past. if it seems to do better than the E-trac you will have at least one.. wanna bet

Daniel - Very well said. You know, I don't have a lot of money - I'm an English teacher. And I live very simple in general. Even though 2500 Euro is a lot of money for me, if it is my only detector and this is my only hobby, then I can pretty much justify. I don't have a car payment, don't have big bills, and to think of 2500 or so over 3 to 5 years of use (or more) - it isn't a lot of money. But, again, I live very simple so I can have one area in my life where I get the occasional toy so to speak.

Roger - I'm really unhappy about the weight. If the E-Trac weighs 4.8lbs with batteries and the CTX3030 weighs 5.3 pounds BUT is perfectly balanced (which I heard it is) and the handle is in a better position, then this detector is probably much easier to swing than an E-Trac. We will see, but a badly balanced "lighter" detector can be much worse to swing than a perfectly balanced 5lber. But I think 5lbs is the cutoff point - as much beyond that it is still heavy.

It is fun regarding having a leader like Minelab put out a new product, or any company for that matter. Something to chew on - Minelab is a very large company relative to the other detector companies. They have made a ton of money off thier high end gold machines. I would think it is pretty much a given that they start to cross integrate technology where possible. I don't put it past them that this machine might be something special regarding depth and separation - but we'll see.

Albert

Lets see how you beach people are going to modify that heavy sucker. Second best, price wise, Deus and Blisstoe isnt looking that bad now huh? I cant see me using that screen in neck deep water.... so the Xcal isnt threatened. The Sov..... well simplisty may still be the best choice. Ill wait a year..... i remember the AT Pro issues and that machine was great for the price. Id be wanting to blow something up if my $2500 leaked in the salt water first time out..... especially if you read MLs warranty it can always be your fault.

Dew

They say a picture is worth a thousand words however perhaps the many words spoken on its abilities once it hits the bricks is what will count to buy or not..

Looks like Tesoro and Fisher are gearing up for a new unit also so keep tuned...

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh it will get great reviews. The one horrible
> thing about our hobby. Every magazine is going to
> love it. Every new owner will tell it is the best
> 2500.00 ever spent. And then they will start
> appearing in the classifieds. Maybe not for
> performance. People realize that they over
> extended on $$$. Some suffer personal hardship
> with health or a loved one. The cycle continues.
>
>
> The weight issue is often one with balance. I
> learned that with the Excalibur. I had the
> oppurtunity to use a spare battery caddy on my E
> Trac. Adding more weight actually made the E Trac
> nicer to swing. It was just added to the right
> place to add balance.
>
> A very good point about the coil connection. Being
> a former AT Pro owner I should have thought of
> that. That means the coil collection I have is
> obsolete. That also means we will not see any
> third party coils for the new detector. Minelab
> price control runs amuck some more. It looks like
> the Pro coil size wise. Too big for iron and
> trash. No way can they speed up FBS to make that
> coil work where I want to hunt. So I'm looking at
> another 200.00 for a smaller coil.
>
> This detector in my opinion is not going to be a
> make my old sites new again detector. It is a
> detector that merges detector models. The future
> of the Minelab detector line up. The waterproof to
> 10 ft is the nicest part so far for me. But I will
> tell you one thing I learned about my AT Pro. I
> don't like hunting in the rain. Digging through
> mud is not for me. Bringing a detector home and
> rinsing it off is nice.
>
> I hunt the salt water beches in the Mid Atlantic
> Region. The Sovereign has always been my favorite
> beach detector. Wanting a Sovereign that could
> takea wave has always been on the top of my wish
> list. Well this detector is my answer. But instead
> of BBS I am offered FBS2. This detector needs to
> have an ace up it's sleave that the public is
> unaware of to justify the price. It will be at
> Atlantic City in two weeks. The day that we all
> will find out.

Regarding the "good reviews" all machines get. It looks like folks like me with video cameras are helping to really bring some balance to that. I bet you we will only see more and more of this, especially as it becomes less cumbersome for us to do so.

Weight - The E-Trac is 4.8 pounds with batteries and this one, I think, is 5.3 pounds. If it is perfectly balanced as I have heard, then it in a way will be effectively lighter than an E-Trac.

Cost - Well, if it can replace a few machines, then cost isn't terrible. It is like smart phones now - They are somewhat pricey, but they replace car navigation systems, GPS systems, assist with software - email -etc.

I agree, it does have a bit of sticker shock IF that's going to be the going price. We don't know yet...it might be like everything else with Minelab...carry a huge price that the dealers can only ADVERTISE at....yet can actually sell for a couple/few hundred dollars less. It's like the eTrac and all the other Minelabs are now. You wont find the eTracs for under $1,549 advertised. Yet you can get them at most dealers for $1,300 or some odd dollars and if you look in the right places, you can get them cheaper than that. Same goes for the GPXs....you can get a GPX 5000 for around $4,550 vs the advertised prices of $5,795. So I'm gonna say, let's use the $2,550 price that seems to be popular. If that's gonna be the dealer advertised price...I bet you'll be able to get them for around $2,100 actual price and possibly lower. Which is right there with the Deus, and a slight raise from what most of you probably paid for an eTrac (which if I remember right, was quite a raise from the Explorers....seems like the Explorer II I had, I gave $900 something for it new and advertised price was $1,099 or something like that).

Now if this thing turns out to be the hybrid of Time Domain technology....neither pulse induction or vlf....yet handles the ground like a pulse but can ID like a vlf...well that would be unlike anything we've ever seen before and the $2,100 is still a bargain compared to the GPXs.....and you can get it wet, whereas you better be running for the truck with the GPX.

I'm not a rich fella either. I am a machinist and run CNC lathes for a living....I represent the fine low-middle class of America....the bread and butter that helps pay the way of the low life's living off the govt and willingly, too lazy to work. LOL 1/4 of my paycheck goes to gas in my vehicle just to drive to and from work every day. But I like digging old stuff out of the ground. And thus if I think something is better than what I have now...I will go for it. I paid $1,100 for a Blisstool detector...a company in which just a few months ago, I had never even heard of or knew they existed. I bought it due to watching one YouTube video of how it handled in red dirt like what I have here...and it doing better than any VLF machine I've ever seen. I paid for it about a month ago now, and I've yet to know where my unit is, other than probably stuck in customs at the mercy of the customs people. THAT is a sick feeling right there....having prepaid $1,100 for a detector from a company you don't know, and the added up days since I've paid is making me a little nervous about whether I should have waited or not, and with each passing day without knowing where it's at, it gets me a bit more antsy.

I thought the MAP (Manufacturer approved pricing) for the e-trac was $1549 and MSRP was $1975. If somone is/was selling under $1549, it's probably best to keep that hush-hush, since selling under MAP generally get's your dealership pulled. BUT, your point is probably correct - $2300 MSRP - and around $1800 MAP.

MSRP, Dealer Prices, and MAP are three different things. No need to keep anything hush hush...Minelab isn't like Tesoro who has a set limit the dealers can't SELL a machine under. Minelab only restricts the prices they can ADVERTISE them at....thus why you find all the prices exactly the same on the Internet and such for their detectors. When you go to a Minelab dealer they can sell them for whatever they want to sell them for. If they wanted to sell you one at their dealer cost, they can do that....but most wont do that unless you are really good friends with them, because a dealer has to make a living too. Trust me...if you saw dealer price was on the eTrac and GPX, versus the advertised prices...you'd probably blow a head gasket. The only limit Minelab puts restrictions on, is the price point they advertise them at online and such. Most dealers will sell you one for several hundred below the advertised limit price, and still be making a few hundred on the sale over their dealer cost of the unit.

not for me unless its has REALLY REMARKABLE PROPERTIES that can determine with great accuracy pull tabs ,foil and beer cans from good targets .
otherwise its a lead balloon .
xp dues rules the roost for now

sonny(IN) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Del if you want one you will get one.. LOL.. I am
> convinced of that as nothing has ever stopped you
> in the past. if it seems to do better than the
> E-trac you will have at least one.. wanna bet


It's a no go Sonny--can't find the gas cap!!!-----It does appear to be a quite "interesting" detector (except the weight).-----Not sure an ole guy like me needs all the "stuff" they've put in it tho.----If it beats the Etrac in performance--now that's what is going to "perk" a lot of ears! grin

Dan-Pa. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They say a picture is worth a thousand words
> however perhaps the many words spoken on its
> abilities once it hits the bricks is what will
> count to buy or not..
>
> Looks like Tesoro and Fisher are gearing up for a
> new unit also so keep tuned...

From xxxx at Tesoro, they are badly in need of producing a land based PI unit.
Don't read too much into this as it was just a comment when discussing thru a PM trying to
obtain some parts for the PI I am building.
[www.treasurelinx.com]

By the way, my PI gets a 1/2 dollar coin at 36 inches in heavily mineralized soil. Oh,.............. that was in my dream...LOL

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

Quote

MSRP, Dealer Prices, and MAP are three different things. No need to keep anything hush hush...Minelab isn't like Tesoro who has a set limit the dealers can't SELL a machine under. Minelab only restricts the prices they can ADVERTISE them at....thus why you find all the prices exactly the same on the Internet and such for their detectors. When you go to a Minelab dealer they can sell them for whatever they want to sell them for. If they wanted to sell you one at their dealer cost, they can do that....but most wont do that unless you are really good friends with them, because a dealer has to make a living too. Trust me...if you saw dealer price was on the eTrac and GPX, versus the advertised prices...you'd probably blow a head gasket. The only limit Minelab puts restrictions on, is the price point they advertise them at online and such. Most dealers will sell you one for several hundred below the advertised limit price, and still be making a few hundred on the sale over their dealer cost of the unit.

I was a signature away from the dealer agreement with pricing in hand. No one's blowing a "head gasket" over a $350 profit. The margins were a mess. I can make 20% on things bought at goodwill and sold on eBay, and I don't have to spend 10K to get started. The dealer contract two years ago specifically said you can not sell under MAP - EVER (same with the contract from outdoor outfitters). It was nearly impossible to do anything but be a dealer just for fun unless you live on the coast. There's no money in it.

However, if someone wants to sell me an etrac at cost, I'm in. I won't blab on the forums