High performing budget detector for under £200 !!

Cheers peeps and appreciate the comments....... Looking forward to getting out and filming other machines.

lytle78 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Coinranger's post made me think he was sayimg that
> First Texas's detectors, like the T2 might not be
> made in the USA. Here's what their Marketing
> Manager, Mike Scott posted about this on Findmall
> a while back.
>
> All Fishers are proudly made in the USA
> All Teknetics are proudly made in the USA
> All Bounty Hunters except for one model 'Jr.' $69
> retail are proudly made in the USA
>
> Mike


I would bet though that most of the inside electronic components are not made in the US probably just common sense now ? The consumers get shafted one way or other, in my line of work it is common practice to see brand name labels on lower quality brands.
Otherwise you pay for a proven product name when inside the workings or of a lesser quallity..

I don't know where folks get the idea that Asian electronic components are of lower quality than those manufactured in the US (or more properly were, since at the component level a lot of prodiction no longer exists here.)

My iPhone and iPad work just fine and are of superb quality even though probably nothing inside them was made in the US.

I,m no happier than most about the hollowing out of US manufacturing, but for electronic components, asia has long been a source of not only low cost production but innovative design and top level technology.

As far as First Texas goes, they at least design, assemble, test and support their products at their facility in El Paso, which, thanks to some events in 1845 is firmly in the USA.

As far as the consumer being victimized, better design and more power efficient components means tha a machine like the new F44 cah have a long run time on two AA batteries, be a feature rich and powerful as machines costing over $500 and sell for $350 while returning a reasonable margin over costs to the producer.

My next wish is a true discriminating Pulse Induction or totally new technology detector which will revolutionize the field, allowing discrimination to the depts that current top of the line machines can provide in all metal, do,it in any soil, including salt and cost $1500.

I would also like a pony. LOL

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

I used to work in a Fishing Hunting sporting goods stores.
As an employee we got a huge maunfactures discount straight from the factory Rep.
if we wanted to buy any fishing reels and rods.
At the time a high end super quality $150 retail reel was expensive, we would get them at 50% off wholesale.
Upon talking to the rep........... about manufactures cost in Japan, to the distributor, the reels cost $15.00

Anything made overseas in China, Asia rim countries instead of the USA provides big profits for them and the products they have made there.
No incentive to sell them for less profit if there are people who will pay the price and can afford it.

Those that can't afford a high end machine will have to settle for less, in the way of performance too.
So we shop at Walmart............etc.
Those China made re-branded detectors selling for cheap, now sure look good.....If you get a good model and it performs like a high end model of one of the popular US manufacturers,
your golden. It's a gamble many will take.

Open up a T2 and see how many elcectronic component parts are actually made in the USA.

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

@Rick..Quote:"I don't know where folks get the idea that Asian electronic components are of lower quality than those manufactured in the US"

The problem here is grouping "Asian" all together. I work in the electronics industry. There's a mile of difference between a Texas Instruments manufacturing plant in Malaysia (say) and a "never heard of them before" manufacturer in China. There are some very cheaply-made components available, if you choose to use them. And even if these T2 'copies' are very authentic (electronics-wise), it's easy to substitute a Motorola part for a "Hwang Sun" equivalent part. It may work OK, until it's a warm day, then it doesn't.

Quote:"My next wish is a true discriminating Pulse Induction etc etc.... and costs $1500."

Why would you want it to be so expensive? To stop common underlings buying it? Surely no-one really wants to tie up more than 500 US Dollars on a detector?

I hope Ziggy gets chance to open up his Goldfinder soon.

Hi,Pimento,

Heck no, I want the dream detector to cost $300, but that will never happen. To date, no PI's have sold for much under $1000. Ground balancing PI's have cost $1500 up to $7000. Add discrimination and the value increases. Companies price based on their expectation of what value the buyer will place on the product. A famous,example is how the price of Minelab PI's escalated as the gold price took off!

First Texas has publically stated that,they are working on a PI. Whites has theor,hybrid patent, Garrett has the ATX that they could put into a simpler case and sell for $1500. Maybe out of this my dream detector will emerge.

Another arguement for a sub $2000 price is that by far the biggest market for my dream detector for the forseeable future isn't the US or Europe, but Africa - artisanal gold miners. High volume at twice the price of today's Gold Bug Pro means big money.

I agree with all your observations about components from asia.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Rick. I guess you're not familiar with the British C-Scope CS4PI machine, then. 255 Pounds is about 390 US Dollars. I've no idea what they would actually sell for in the US. It's a very plain machine, no ground compensation, not waterproof. But it's used by beach detectorists here, with success.
[regton.com]

Yes, C-Scope is the outlier. Perhaps because of their profile as the home-grown budget line, they had a different propicing profile.

I just glanced at my August 1987 issue of treasure hunting and they tested Eric fosters minipulse - it cost 200 pounds. And online inflation calculator I looked at tells me that's 524 pounds today Or about $800.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

6 or 7 years ago, the GPX was counterfeited.

Oh sure, they've come after Bounty Hunter for years with some cheapee knock Offs, but American sporting goods chains are very serious about the equipment they sell and sent them packing.

Since the Chinese like to sell their dubious copies in lots of one thousand, there are few detectors, other than Bounty Hunter, that meet that quantity of1000 in a single order. Since the gold rush in Africa, it hasn't been hard to sell in lots of 1000.

Not surprising then, the GPX 4500, was the first to get hit. The second to get counterfeited, in 2011, was the T2. The third, in 2013, was the Goldbug. The Ace 250 was unsuccessful in the gold market, but sold so many along the Pacific rim, that they copied it too, along with the pro pointer and now I understand they have counterfeited the Ace 350.

That's about all of the detectors that have been counterfeited.

Because Minelab, and First Texas came down on the counterfeiters hard: we raided their warehouses in Africa and the UAE, we arrested the top management of these outfits, we even had their passports seized. And we've hurt their business. Together with Minelab, we've confiscated several million dollars in counterfeit detectors and destroyed them. Several law suits are still pending. We are in process of a large raid, as I write this now. Just a few weeks ago, we successfully raided a warehouse of First Texas and Minelab counterfeit products. In fines and seized counterfeit goods, this will cost the copy criminals close to a million dollars.

Based on trademark infringement laws, we have taken very strong legal actions against the intellectual property pirates. We have run the detector counterfeiters out of business in Dubai.
As a result, the counterfeit organization decided to use these counterfeits as base models, and rename them. Afro Gold, Gold Finder, Gf2, are just a few of those names. Now, they are no longer breaking the law from a trademark standpoint.
BUT, they are breaking the law by stealing our patents.
So these products, named differently are still very illegal.
And we are not letting up.

Don't think for a minute the counterfeiters are a small business. They are the worst part of the Chinese mafia. There are several huge warehouses in Dubai selling various illegal counterfeits. Detectors are a very small part of it, although we estimate our losses at 10 million in sales to these crooks.

They enslave workers into midnight production in at least three factories in China. Enticed by financial reward, once a poor soul is made part of management in the counterfeit ring, they never escape. They threaten your family if you try - nasty people.

No Fisher or Teknetics product is made in China. Every part is sourced in the USA and built in the USA. But, we do purchase our electronic components from Texas Instruments and Mouser. And do they source capacitors and circuits from over seas? Yes, like most electronic companies, they do.

So the counterfeiters reverse engineer the products, but use different, cheaper, lower quality components, the sautering is not to spec. The tolerances and specifications are not at the same tight standards First Texas products employ. But the physical appearance, the box, the paint, the tones...seem all exact.

We cannot disclose the specifics of the counterfeit detectors and their weakness. If we did, they would fix those problems. Why help our enemies?

From a strictly product performance basis, here are the flaws of the counterfeits.
1. They don't last. In Africa they fall apart in months.
2. Because they don't have our tolerances or follow any disciplined tuning of the machines, you don't know what you will get.
3. They simply are not as good. If they will lie about their name , why wouldn't they lie about their fake products performance. They do lie, they are lying.
They will spin out a good unit for tests or for marketing...but they don't do it consistently.
4. Any purchase made to a reputable metal detector company sees some percentage of the purchase going into innovation, deeper machines and better discrimination. Not so, the counterfeiters. You are instead supporting child labor, long hours and low wages.

We will have nothing to do with anyone selling counterfeits, by word or deed, by field report or wink and nod. We will prosecute counterfeiterst, and hound them and their friends anyway we can. It is illegal, immoral, and just flat wrong to promote such obvious and clear stolen intellectual property.

Tim Mallory
Vice President Sales and Marketing
First Texas Products
915 309 3783 C
915 633 8354 X 123

that seems clear enough.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Hell yeah Tim!!! Get em!!!