GPZ 7000 Price Drop

[Steve Herschbach]

I suspect that the GPZ 7000 at $9999 will have set a high water mark for pricing in consumer metal detectors. Declines in the gold price and market saturation are having their effect, as will - in my opinion - increasing competition. I would hate to be in Minelab management these days as they went through a detector bubble much like the housing bubble, and when bubbles pop business is no fun at all. Nothing but a struggle to stem declining sales and declining margins and the pain that comes along with that.

[jasong]

The thing I hope Minelab and their dealers realize is that for many of us these detectors are expensive enough to not just be tools but also investments. The same way a truck is. I am willing to pay more for Minelab for the same reason I am willing to pay more for a Toyota truck, because they retain so much of their value, I know I can resell my truck when I need to for a good and fair price.

Similarly, people like me are only able to justify the expense of a high dollar detector because we know Minelab has always retained its value and its always been very easy to get a fair price for used Minelab equipment. To me, the Minelab brand is the Toyota of the detecting world - dependable, best in class, and rock solid values.

That brand recognition takes years to build up, weeks to lose, and decades to rebuild (look at US automakers for reference). As another poster also recently brought up in a different reference to US detector manufacturers as well. Just something for corporate to consider.

I know Minelab is accountable to shareholders, but they are also accountable to customers via our loyalty and pocketbooks. I hope they don't forget that if the customers "shares" (our metal detectors) get decimated then we are just as unhappy as the shareholders when their stock (or our product) declines. No one wants to invest in a stock that just keeps going down and no one wants to invest in new products which the company and their dealers continually devalue.

[Tortuga]

5 hours ago, Swifty said:

Has anyone heard the rumors about a new 20 inch coil for the Z due out in March?

 

This is what I'm interested it.

Won't be fun to swing (gonna be heavy) but would love to take it back to some deep patches I've already found with the 14" stock coil on my GPZ.

[AussieMatt]

19 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

This is what I'm interested it.

Won't be fun to swing (gonna be heavy) but would love to take it back to some deep patches I've already found with the 14" stock coil on my GPZ.

I've heard that it will be a spoked coil & could even be as light as the 14" DOD? Have to wait & see I guess.

[idahogold]

Lower the price sell more! ............Thats what got me in the game........I ve had to watch from the sidelines on my budget for years! Expensive ? Not as====anymore it seems

[matt]

If the price comes down to a reasonable number, I will buy one and my son will learn the ways of a gpx. Now we just have to find time to get out and prospect!