Great Time To Sell A Gold Detector?

[phrunt]

To me it seems like the prices of the legacy GPX series... particularly the 4500 and 5000 have actually gone up a bit in Australia lately, Most people selling a GPX 5000 are putting them around the $5000 mark with a few coils, the new price of one in Australia is $5000, and they appear to be selling.  They're reliable workhorses though, people buy them with confidence they're not going to be breaking down constantly even though they're out of warranty.    I am a bit surprised prices are creeping up not down with the release of the 6000 though.  Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how it seems.

[Gerry in Idaho]

I too figured the market would be saturated with higher end used gold detectors in anticipation of the new GPX-6000.

I know one thing for sure.  I'm not about to hold many used GPZ-7000's at once as I still feel the GPX-6000 actually coming out and into customers hands, will then start off a sequence of people trying to sell their old units.  3 months ago, I had more customers wanting to trade for the 6000, but now since the drag out of the release, many customers are now holding on, so that actually have something to use.  Heck, who knows when we'll actually start getting the new GPX 6000.

Glad you were able to get a good price on your GB-2.  It is still a very desired old school VLF and I accept them in trade quite often.

When the GPZ-7000 came out, the GPX series on used detectors took a big hit.  

 

[oneguy]

I've got an SDC for sale now and not much interest, at least at my price?  Had 1 serious inquiry last night and 2 scammers awhile back is all....   had the machine all cleaned up and ready to send off but with no interest so far I've put the sdc back in service and she'll probably be out again today......

[strick]

48 minutes ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

 

Glad you were able to get a good price on your GB-2.  It is still a very desired old school VLF and I accept them in trade quite often.

 

 

 

Although it was the first gold detector I bought her she soon gave it up once she got used to the 2300. So it is first on the chopping block. 

The previous posters bring up good points. Australia has more gold and less people so it makes sense that there are many more used detectors for sale over there...people over here buy a detector then use it a few times and throw it in their closet.  The guy that bought the GB2 wanted to see if it detected gold so he dropped his 10 gram gold pinky ring on the ground waved the detector over it twice just to see if it worked...no problem there lol I kinda felt bad...like I was taking candy from a baby......you ever feel like that Gerry?  but I did tell him to call me if he had any questions 😉 

strick 

[phrunt]

In Africa at the moment there is quite a massive number of GPX detectors going up for sale and trade in possibly with anticipation of the GPX 6000, it seems the African prospectors are very interested in the newer easier to use detector than their GPX 4500's and 5000's.

A guy in NZ who is friends with a dealer in Africa has been importing trade in GPX's to sell on the NZ second hand market.  Even with including the crazy expensive price of shipping them from Africa they've largely been selling for well under $2000 NZD at auction (around $1400 USD).  I was able to secure a GPX 5000 for much less than that and it even went into the NZ Minelab service agent to get a new case on it to replace it's worn case from it's life in Africa as part of the price I paid.

This is a story about the particular area the GPX's are coming from.  It's really worth the watch, quite an interesting insight into the African gold rush. 

And this is another must read about the particular gold rush in the area and a side perk of it.  It demonstrates just how many GPX's are over there in use and why Minelab focus on Africa so much, this is just one small area with gold rushes like this happening all over the place.

https://observers.france24.com/en/20200127-gold-rush-mauritania-sparks-illegal-trade-archeological-objects

So in Africa, in the middle of their gold rush it's not a good time to sell a detector, the market is flooded with them and they're selling very cheap.  A lot might be to do with the GPX 6000 coming out which is primarily marketed towards them or it might be the large numbers who bought into the gold rush and invested in a GPX 5000 and found they couldn't make much of a living.

The Africans use these things as a tool, they're not well looked after and protected in a fancy canvas pouch like we tend to do in our part of the world.  They hold up to the abuse well though.  Here are photos of one I was going to get taken by the dealer in Africa.

See the switches 🙂

Note how they mark on the housing the settings to use (switch positions) in the first photo.  This is why the GPX 6000 is great for them, I'm told most don't understand or use the settings, they get told where to put it and leave it there. 

This is the one I ended up getting.

This is after it went into the NZ service center for a checkup and a new housing.

No pen marks on it now to show where the switches go 🙂

Pretty good condition now.

The service agent did a good job restoring it

And what it did look like

So while It might be a good time to sell in some parts of the world, it's certainly not a good time to sell in Africa.   Based off the price I paid for mine, minus about $100 for shipping and then the African dealers cut, along with the NZ importers cut they must be getting paid around $500 USD for their used GPX 5000's, there are just so many available over there flooding the market.

[jasong]

Not a great time to be stuck with $14,000 worth of detectors when I get a 6000. Man, the used market for Minelab used to be gangbusters and dead on reliable... 

Meanwhile I just sold a dump trailer and car hauler used and well beaten up for more than I paid for them brand new 5 years ago, and had a line of people waiting to pay me that much.

Markets are all over the place these days. I think I am going to Ebay my 4500 and coils off while I can, lucky serial #0000007 as a premium collectors item. 😄

If we see big jump in gold over $3000 or something, I bet there will be a big demand for all those 4500's and 5000's.

[Gold Catcher]

50 minutes ago, phrunt said:

This is a story about the particular area the GPX's are coming from.  It's really worth the watch, quite an interesting insight into the African gold rush. 

Truly remarkable, thanks for sharing. I wonder though whether they really would need a 6000 over there. It seems that for most the 5000 would do just fine, i.e. when combined with a bigger mono. There likely is very little EMI in the vast desert areas and not much mineralization, with fairly loose soil. I think Geosense would be overkill. Even the Monster should do assuming you have a good shovel to dig.

[phrunt]

If you look at the settings they use as marked by their pen on the housing 😃

Fixed GB, Coil type - Double D, Ground type - Normal, Search mode - Custom

They seem to use the DD coils the most, they're the ones that come very worn with the detectors.  Perhaps with the desert being quite salty? I don't know.

I guess the 6000 will be the same, they'll want the DD coil in this particular area.  I think when a gold rush is on, everyone wants the new latest and greatest thinking it'll find them more gold.  The GPZ wasn't really known as a good salt detector I guess as it doesn't seem to be the detector of choice in the area.  Don't Minelab not include the DD for the African and Saudi Arabian market? 🙂 It's how the ball rolls!

[Gold Catcher]

14 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Perhaps with the desert being quite salty? I don't know.

Could very well be, I don't know either. The 14DD is not included in the Africa package. From that I conclude that they might not have the problems that we have here in AU/US. I suppose most over there are not as sophisticated and might not even understand all these differences, or they lack access to the vast coil armamentum due to price or supply issues. I think for most it is pure survival there with whatever they have. This is another reason why I am surprised that Africa is actually the biggest primary ML market (supposing also for the 6000)? Who can afford a 6k machine over there? That is likely 5-6 x their annual income. ML dealers there better have body guards. 

[afreakofnature]

GPZ's are still selling good on eBay.  There is a used one on there right now up to $5300 with 2 days still left.  I haven't seen any 6k's on eBay yet though 🤣