Dumb Facts - Africa Gets The Good Stuff (gm1000 & Gpx6000) Before Australia & U.S.A. - With A Laugh

[Gerry in Idaho]

Covid Stress Relief Read...

Warning, There is some DUMB sarcasm in this post.  When it comes to metal detecting, I have no issues with any country and or how dumb/smart we/they/you/me be.  If I offend you, no worries, it won't be the last time either.

We need to go back a few years for some to realize, some dumb facts.... I figured it out.

Gold Monster 1000 - Remember when Africa was sent the Gold Monster 1000 and nobody else.  We in USA were told it was designed for them people and it even came with an adaptor for the broom stick (I'm not joking). Yea that detector, the one with Arabic writing on it.  The one that's so simple and dummy proof that anyone could use it. But America and Aussies were left out?  Well what happened?   Australia gold hunters cried like little babies and said "we just as dumb as Africa" and want that detector.  Poof and a few months later it happened.  Then USA gold hunters cried like little spoiled brats we are and said, "we just as dumb as Africa and Australia" and we want a turn on & go machine.  Poof and a few months later it happened.  You see, even though this (now the #1 selling gold detector in the world) was never meant for USA or Aussie land, it has earned the respect and accolades as the most STUPID PROOF VLF gold detector out that that actually works quite well for ALL DUMMIES including myself.  And that is the #1 reason I prefer selling it.  Minelab struck it rich with this detector even when it was never intended for other markets.  Hats off to the dummy Minelab Engineer (do they even have dumb Engineers?) who thought of it, but spill your beer to the marketing person who said it's for Africa Only, so I was told.  I strongly feel this does make since, after all who in America reads Arabic and who has put a broom handle on the adaptor (would love to see pics).  Heck I was going to do a video of just that, but then realized I wasn't smart enough to figure out the adaptor part's usage.  

GPX-6000 - Now we are coming to the most sensitive DUMMY PROOF Pulse Induction detector to ever be released and almost everyone seems to realize USER FRIENDLY (Dumb Operators) and ERGONOMICS is a MUST.  Hats off to the Minelab team who realized this.  Spill your beer to the team who thinks USA/Australia don't want the 17" MONO coil.  After all we want what Africa gets...is what I hear us spoiled brats are calling.  Well, well it's not so simple Mr. Scrooge.

COILS -1st off, everyone is getting a MONO coil (yippie), but many of are not happy with DD coil we are getting.  I feel it seems to do with the amount of EMI we run into the US, amount of transmitters/receivers, cell towers and airports/military across our land.  I know for a fact there are good gold areas I had issues with EMI on my current detectors and MONO coils.  Australia is probably close to the same issues I mentioned for USA, but I do know they have vast openness, but much more mineralized soils and salt as well.  I tried detecting the salt flats there and even my old DD was not very productive, the MONO was useless and the best coil was the CoilTek Anti interference/salt.  So I'm sure that's why we are getting the DD to begin with.  The good thing is...after time and when Covid might be over, we'll be able to order the larger, deeper 17" MONO down the road. YIPPIE...Down the road!!!

Batteries - Africa gets 2 and we get 1.  Heck no, I can easily count two to two one...heck you know what I mean.  Why is this Gerry?  I thought this hard through and through (bout gave myself a headache), I thought so hard.  And a lightbulb across the street came on...  I realized to the conclusion, if we are just as Dumb as Africa and forget to charge our GPX-6000 battery that night (I've seen it happen on my 5000 and 7000), then we deserve 2 batteries as well, cause we just as dumb and forgetful (speaking for myself or am I?).  Anyway,  The best way to fix the not charged battery, is to get up before your hunting buddy and take his battery, put it on your machine and then put your dead battery on his charger.  A bit later, everyone gets up, grabs their gear and heads out for the day's hunt.  About 2 to 3 hours and 6 miles from the truck, he realizes his detector is down for the day and you get to keep digging gold.  That's not dumb on my part, but being impromptu..until your buddies realizes anyway.

Back to batteries and a strong thoughtful reason of why we (Australia & US) are only getting 1 battery in each box?  Could it be because of the restrictions on shipping batteries in US and Australia is different than Africa?  Heck, if you go online and try to decipher the allowance of a metal detector on a plane, you'll get quite confused and want to call their Help Line.  Please don't do that,  you'll get a dummy at the other end, that owns a Gold Monster 1000, and is afraid to tell you anything.  Heck they won't even tell you if they take their detector on the plane.  Does anyone know if Africa rules are much more allowable for electronics and battery devices coming into their country is different?  I'm too DUMB to know, but I sure would like a 2nd battery.  

I will say this with pretty much certainty though.  After time and when Minelab is caught up with GPX-6000's, I do feel we'll get the option to purchase a 2nd battery.  Lets just hope its nothing pricewise like the GPX-5000 battery ($441 US), That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard of.

Can anyone shed some light to my dumb thinking?

BTW.  You know what that Arabic writing says on the GM-1000 as I'm to dumb to know?  I heard through the tomato vine, it meant "Dummy Proof Detector".  Heck, sign me up.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

It’s crazy stuff, but all due to lack of genuine competition. Aggressive competition keeps nutty stuff like this from happening, but Minelab has reached monopoly status in some ways, especially as regards gold prospecting. Imagine if every Minelab detector disappeared tomorrow, just how far we’d all be set back. ATX, TDI, and QED would rule. Yikes! With competition like Minelab has, they can pretty much do what they want.

[Dances With Doves]

I wonder if they send it to  Africa first because they do it for a living to put food on the table for their families.

[Ridge Runner]

I don’t know but some people wouldn’t be happy if you hung them with a new rope.

Gerry if that chap stick is not helping it could be your using it on the wrong end .

 Chuck 

[Steve Herschbach]

On 3/24/2021 at 12:36 PM, Dances With Doves said:

I wonder if they send it to  Africa first because they do it for a living to put food on the table for their families.

It's where the majority of sales are. That simple. They also have to get as big a jump on the counterfeiters as possible, so the early sales in Africa are all important in that regard.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/13913-minelab-2020-full-year-report/

When they decided to sell the Gold Monster in the U.S., you'd think they'd have put in a standard rod and 12V charger. But that would have slowed things down, and somebody pointed out people would probably buy it anyway, so why bother. That's kind of what we are down to with this. Actually, in my opinion White's made a better Gold Monster in the 24K due to that oversight, but unfortunately it was too little, too late for White's. And now even that option is gone, though hopefully not forever.

[Gerry in Idaho]

1 minute ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Minelab has reached monopoly status in some ways, especially as regards gold prospecting. 

That's exactly what pisses me off about the American detector manufactures.  Fisher (an American company) patented the 1st MD'er in 1931 and still in business today (but slowly bleeding).

Garrett, the next best thing is their dumbbell weight ATX Deep Seeker (which needed redesigned 3 yrs ago).

Tesoro and White's have died off.

I'm coming to the conclusion in my 45 yrs of detecting, the American Engineers are not as bright (I won't use STUDIP), but give me a break.  What does the future of Fisher and Garrett hold?  I'm starting to read the bathroom wall writings and it's not looking good and it's certainly not in Arabic either.  But maybe it should?

[Steve Herschbach]

I think Garrett still has a decent shot, if they can digest the White's acquisition and use the tech infusion to help catch up. Apex + V3i = ???? ATX + TDI = ??? At least they have a coherent product line, with both Multi and PI products.

First Texas? I called the old Fisher going away, then Tesoro, then White's. Sorry to say FT is next on my "weak player" list. Not so much lack of resources, as lack of vision. Half the product line is literally last century. They made some big bets on multi that failed, and are now making big bets on PI in a way that baffles me. Chasing the beach market first, while Minelab continues to mine the miners? I can't think of anything more niche than beach PI, so FT had better have some non-PI product in the pipeline somewhere that will impress people used to Equinox. Bottom line is they are strong financially, so not likely to go away, but they may just finally be what they really are now - Bounty Hunter. A low cost retailer supplying big box stores with cheap detectors. Give up on trying to do cutting edge, and just go mass market all the way. That's my expectation for First Texas.

So for me it's kind of a grudge match between Garrett and Minelab, with Garrett suddenly finding itself getting lonely out there. They really do not have much product I'd want right now, but they could fix that if they wanted to. A new 24K? I'd get one before I'd get another Gold Monster. A light ATX with light coils for $1999 or less? I'm sure it would sell well, and I'd look hard at it if the physical design was right. Garrett could do it, but the current crew is getting pretty old. Do they have the burning desire, that's the question I have. But at least they seem to have woken up to the threat, and made a strategic move to respond. Finally.

[Jonathan Porter]

Ouch I do see all of the points, but DO NOT fully agree with most of them (that’s the fully part not some of the perfectly understandable aspects of the arguments) but realise that’s how it must seem and because there is NEVER any sort of communication being delivered back through regular channels find myself feeling like I have to defend the ‘dummies’ I have interactions with on a nearly daily basis. ML is a big corporate and the Minions who I consider friends tend to disappear inside the corporate machinery, so I will accept the frustrations written here because they are perfectly legitimate and let ML the corporate machine suffer the chagrin directed its way because of the frustrations caused by ‘ML the obelisk’ chumming the market over long time frames.

I too had an issue with the signage etc on the worlds simplest little “Monster” metal detector, the reality though was it was primarily designed for a specific market, so even though the signage jarred at first (for obvious reasons due to political sensitivities), the reality is if anything the signage has actually endeared itself to me, this also includes the name which also jarred my senses when I first got exposed to it. I love the little Gold Monster now. 💕 

The 17” mono is going to be a bug bear for me, I want access to them from the get go and am fielding a LOT of enquiries about it for my Aussie customers, but you have to think about the manufacture and supply chain relative to the pack out, our markets get the small mono and the DD and believe me there will be times you will need the DD, that because we live in so called 1st world countries and as such urbanisation has encroached on a lot of ‘popular’ recreational detecting areas, plus both our goldfields have quite big areas of conductive ground (notice how I use the word recreational and popular). Our markets are driven by a hobby mindset not an artisanal mindset. Taking our conditions into consideration you should be then able to correlate an understanding of the GPX 6000 relative to the way it is going to behave in some environs, as such in time the pack-out for our markets will make sense but not right now because of the emotive nature of the frustration at hand. We want it all and we want it at the exact same time as everyone else at the exact moment or as close to the exact moment as we first found out about it.

So the issue of the 17” will continue because the vast majority of stock being manufactured and then being sent around the world will be swallowed up by the afore-derogatorily mentioned larger markets because our combined respective markets might just scrape through at 20% of the overall market pie. Logic very quickly indicates that percentage wise our smaller markets will therefore not gain access to some parts due to manufacturing going flat out trying to supply coils to the bigger market. I would say those larger markets might feel some frustration at some stage due to not having access to the DD for the very same reasons. Something to ponder anyway. 🤔 

Like I said above I understand the reasons for the rant and can fully relate to the frustrations but the complexities created by such a large and extremely diverse market area and the instantaneous nature of information dissemination can bite any company in the backside, so from my vantage point I can see a feeling-less big corporate sticking to its marketing/release plan and just deal with the millions of little daily hiccups that can easily derail the manufacturing supply chain process, those little annoyances always cause a ripple effect further down the line which is the ever shifting sands of the release date.  I feel for some of the guys at ML but from a corporate perspective “I say suck it up cupcake” and throw the dog a bone. 

Lastly please ignore my words above I know this is not what people want to hear right now so would prefer to avoid argument about something so feeling-less as a big corporate who would in a heart-beat throw me away or any of the many other hard working people behind the facade trying to do their best. 😞 

 

 

[Ridge Runner]

Gerry I hear you and you can bitch until hell freeze over but it will be the same thing when Minelab has something new again.

 Minelab is almost to the point of not having any competition. So as long it continue we will always get the short end of the stick.

 Chuck 

[tboykin]

The fact is that you sell where you can make the most profit. Africa and other emerging markets like Brazil, Mongolia, and SE Asia have little mining regulations, and lots of undiscovered gold. Think of taking a GPZ to the Sierras in 1840. Yes, that level of gold rush is happening in these areas of the world. I got to see it first hand when I worked for White's.

So if it was your company, would you ship dozens of 40 foot conex containers to Africa and Brazil, where the detectors will sell for 2x retail, or send 100 units to the US for retail? It's an easy choice. Maybe even a SMART choice if making money is your goal.

The US and AUS prospecting markets are crumbs compared to the rest of the world. It's a hobby, and the easy gold is gone. Compare that to Africa where you can make a living by panning with your bare hands, and nuggets in the kg range are easier to find.