Garrett Goldmaster 24K Australia

[karelian]

Only a matter of time before these start to ship out in Australia. Full credit to Garrett for doing a better job in marketing and sales, they are moving fast. Now available for sale in Australia.

[Steve Herschbach]

Good to see, but it boggles my mind how much more expensive imports end up being in Oz. Here the machine is a real bargain price at US$679 discounted (MSRP $799) but in Oz it ends up at AU$1359? Yikes!

https://www.bundyoutdoors.com.au/garrett-goldmaster-24k

[phrunt]

The 24k is starting to appear at Australian dealers websites as in stock ready to sell, this is the place I bought the 24k Concentric coil from in Brisbane, really helpful store by the way.

https://losttreasures.com.au/products/garrett-goldmaster-24k

$1449 AUD which ends up about $1070 USD

Unfortunately in NZ we are even worse off than Australia, if it's $1449 in Australia it's going to be an extra few hundred by the time it gets here.

[Jim McCulloch]

True Simon, but with gold at over 2500 NZ$ per ounce I'm sure that it won't be long before you pay it off. "How do you pay off a $1500 detector? One $10.00 nugget at a time." HH Jim

[phrunt]

2 minutes ago, Jim McCulloch said:

True Simon, but with gold at over 2500 NZ$ per ounce I'm sure that it won't be long before you pay it off. "How do you pay off a $1500 detector? One $10.00 nugget at a time." HH Jim

Now that I've used it I think it's worth every cent 😉

[Dances With Doves]

At least Whites( originally)went out of business with it's last machine being a home run.This machine will be a hit for Garrett because it's a  great machine  plus  the way they will market it.My favorite tot lot machine by far. 

[Tony]

14 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Good to see, but it boggles my mind how much more expensive imports end up being in Oz. Here the machine is a real bargain price at US$679 but in Oz it ends up at AU$1359? Yikes!

……and that’s why they will struggle to gain sales here (again). I can’t recall seeing the last detector not made by Minelab here in Australia……prospecting, land, beach or water. We’re a tiny market here so the likes of Garrett will never be too concerned and Minelab sales will continue unabated. The ridiculous dealer prices will only strengthen Minelab’s market share……if that’s possible considering where they are already at !

[karelian]

Tony given the exchange rate, transport and logistics I understand pricing is always going to be higher. I don't mind it when there is local sales and aftersales service, repair and warranty. Look after your dealer and he should also look after you. Minelab enjoys big advantages in Australia, not enjoyed by the importers..  but yes the price does hamper local sales. The Minelab Gold Monster does enjoy a price advantage, but it is not all about price.

Sometimes we just 'click' with a machine, be it a car, rifle, camera or metal detector. It just does things the way we like, feels the right way, balances well etc. There is a market for the Garrett Goldmaster 24k in Australia, because it is different. It gives us choice. Wait for the feedback, I think people will be happy with little buyer remorse. White's GMX, still loving it.

I'm with phrunt on this one.

[phrunt]

If I was a dealer in a gold field area I'd let potential buyers hire out detectors at cheap rates, and the 24k would be one of them.  I think if people try before they buy they'd work out what suits them best in their price range.  I wish I could try detectors before buying them, I'd own far less detectors as some detectors you just like right from the first use 🙂

I see the Gold Monster and 24k a bit like the Vanquish and the Equinox.  The Gold Monster being the Vanquish, and the 24k being the Equinox.  The GM is limited in it's settings and just switch on and go just like the Vanquish.  The 24k can switch on and go like the Equinox but you've got the settings for when you need them that can give you an advantage over the fully auto machine.  Is that worth paying more for? I think so.  

The other side of it is the bump sensitivity, I can only imagine that's even worse in hot soil than in my soil but it does drive you mad.  I like to run my detectors hot, as hot as they'll go being in rather mild soil.  The GM runs perfectly fine maxed out in manual 10 here, never a response from the ground, but whatever you do don't bump the coil into rocks, it will sound off, in a very rocky area it's sounding off every few seconds from all the bumping as if you're scrubbing and run across a small stone that's enough to jolt the coil and sound off so you have to lower the sensitivity not because of the ground but because of the bump sensitivity.  The Equinox is similar although not quite as bad.   I never really understood the bump sensitivity thing as my GB2 is must higher kHz and more sensitive than the GM and Equinox on the tiniest of targets and has absolutely no bump sensitivity. 

The performance is there on these Minelabs, the bumping is just a distracting annoyance.  The 24k has no bump sensitivity for me, absolutely none so you can focus more on finding gold rather than controlling the bump sounds even when maxed out in sensitivity.  How much gold have I missed by masking, not from targets or junk, but from bump sounds distracting me and dismissing a small nugget as a bump noise. 

It's easier for a ground scrubber to scrub the ground without having to worry about knock sensitivity.      That alone is worth paying more for and why I always hoped Nel would be able to make Gold Monster coils as I assumed their epoxy filled Snake might work very well on the GM1000 and not have bump sensitivity.  Well, as it turns out Nel won't be making GM or Equinox coils, but will be making Garrett 24k coils, so for me that's the clincher, coil range means a huge amount to me and the fact Nel will also make coils for the 24k means the 24k wins the battle hands down and is worth paying more for.  I'm now wondering if others will follow and we'll see Detech coils for it along with any other brands that want to jump onboard.  This is what I've always wanted....

The 24k isn't perfect, it's missing things some expect in modern detectors like wireless audio and waterproofing and perhaps they'll come out with a newer version of it at some point with these sort of features, for me it doesn't matter as I only use onboard speakers and the 24k's speaker is nice and loud so that wouldn't be enough for me to want to upgrade.

[Steve Herschbach]

The Whites GMX was the waterproof version of the 24K. It had an even greater need of wireless built in due to the poor placement of the headphone outlet and required dongle for alternate phones. Most people were not running it fully submerged, so wireless would have been very welcome in that machine. The 24K less so, as I ran it without headphones the entire time I was using it in Alaska. Plenty of speaker volume for quiet locations.