Accessory Coil Prices (us $) For Popular Smf Detectors (mid-2023) Vs. Others For Reference

[Chase Goldman]

Based on some posted consternation based on the anticipated price point for the Minelab Manticore accessory coils, I thought I would put out some price points for popular Simultaneious Multi-Frequency (SMF) metal detector accessory coils, and coil prices for other popular single frequency, selectable single frequency, SMF and PI detectors, for reference.  These are approximate retail prices for new coils (in US $) scraped off the internet and don’t reflect dealer discounts, package deals, or sale specials.

Legend

  LG 28 - 11" Stock - ~$135

  LG15 6" Round -  ~$120

  LG24 9.5x6" - ~$135

  LG30 12X9"  - ~$150

  LG35 14" - ~$170

Nox

  6" Round - ~$180

  10x5" Elliptical (Coiltek) - ~$235

  11" Stock - ~$229

  14X9" (Coiltek) - ~$260

  15x12" - ~$240

  15" Round (Coiltek) - ~$290

Manticore

  Stock 11" - ~$??

  M8 - ~$341 (Pre-release estimate based on currency conversion)

  M15 - ~$417 (Pre-release estimate based on currency conversion)

Deus 2

  9" Round - ~$399

  11" Round - ~$399

  13X11" - ~$399

Other Coils:

  Fisher "Triangulated Biaxial 12" Coil" for F75 - ~$199

  Detech Ultimate 7" (Teknetics and Fisher F75) - ~$130

  Detech Ultimate 13" (Teknetics Greek and F75) - ~$180

  Detech Arrow (Simplex, Fisher, Teknetics Greek and G2+) - ~$150 - $165

  Nel Snake - ~$120 - $130

  Minelab XTerra Pro - ~$??

  Minelab Vanquish (Multi IQ) - ~$100-$140 (size dependent)

  Minelab CTX3030 11"/17"(FBS 2) - ~$350/$400

  Garrett AT Series Coils - ~$130 - $160 (size size dependent)

  Garrett Ace Apex Coils - ~$135 - $190 (size dependent)

  Nokta Simplex+ - ~$110 - $170 (size dependent)

  Nokta Impact - ~$110 - $230 (size dependent)

  Nokta Anfibio/Kruzer - ~$110 - $220 (size dependent)

Pulse Induction:

  Garrett Axiom Coils - ~$280 - $320 (size dependent)

  Minelab Commander 10x5" DD (GPX) - ~$225

  Minelab Commander 11" Mono/DD (GPX) - ~$270/250

  Minelab Commander 15X12" DD (GPX) - ~$375

  Minelab Commander 18" Mono - ~$441

  Coiltek GoldenHawk 10x5" Mono (GPX) - ~$420

  Coiltek 14" Anti-Interference DD (GPX) - ~$410

  Detech 12.5" DD (GPX) - ~$300

  Detech 15" Spiral Wound DD (GPX) - ~$425

  Detech 15" Ultra Sensing Mono (GPX) - ~$425

Commentary - Legend accessory coils are a great value overall consistent with the detector itself, even compared with single frequency detector accessory coils.  The unofficial Manticore accessory coil prices (if they hold) are somewhat consistent with Deus 2, perhaps its most direct competitor, although the Deus 2 coils pricing is complicated by the fact that they are wireless, smart, and, therefore, are self-powered which is not the case with the Manticore coils other than perhaps limited pre-filtering and ID chips.  The Coiltek NOX coils demand a slight premium vs. the Minelab OEM Nox coils.  The higher end Deus 2 and Manticore accessory coils are priced similar to GPX pulse induction coils.

[Steve Herschbach]

9 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

M8 - ~$341 (Pre-release estimate based on currency conversion)

  M15 - ~$417 (Pre-release estimate based on currency conversion)

I kind of doubt that will be the actual US pricing. If it is though I'll officially not be getting a Manticore. A Deus coil is actually a metal detector. A Manticore coil? No reason it should cost much more than an Equinox coil except for Minelabs "if the detector costs more, charge more for the coil" history. Equinox 6" round coil $179 - no way I'm going to get bent over for $340 for a 5x8 coil for the Manticore. But I am really hoping it is priced more appropriately in the U.S. like $199 - $249 tops. But $340 and I will learn to love the Deus 2 and keep my Equinox 800.

[midalake]

8 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

I thought I would put out some price points for popular Simultaneious Multi-Frequency (SMF) metal detector accessory coils, and coil prices

Eyeopener..... Thanks

[PimentoUK]

Quote:"The Manticore coil? No reason it should cost much more than an Equinox coil, except for Minelabs "If the detector costs more, charge more for the coil" history."

I'm sure this IS part of the pricing strategy.
But ... the Manticore does have more electronics inside it. It almost certainly has some accelerometer / rate-gyro inertial sensor to measure sweep direction / speed. And the Manticore coils operate up to 50 kHz ( IIRC ) rather than the 40kHz of the Eqx, so it's likely the coil windings may be built to more exacting standards. And the fine-tuning of the mechanical assembly ( nulling the coil ) may be done to a higher standard. The multiple stiffening ribs also point to them trying to achieve greater stability. Plus they have to recoup the extra R & D costs they must have spent on the coil.

[phrunt]

Wonder if our buddy @strick can x-ray some Manticore coils to see what's going on in there 😉

I don't think they should cost that, they proved with the Vanquish they can make Nox coils a lot cheaper than they do, then the X-terra comes out and further reassures us we are being taken for a ride.  I'm sure even if Manticore coils are slightly more complex the cost to make them wouldn't be all that much more.   If XP were aiming at doing cheaper prices with their gear the Manticore would be a lot cheaper than it is, XP kept the pricing high thereby opening up Minelab to do another high priced detector, if it was just Nokta vs Minelab you would watch the Minelab prices fall off a cliff.

[PimentoUK]

I'm not totally in agreement, Simon.
I think the issue you're overlooking is this:
To take something average, and make it a bit better, doesn't increase the manufacturing costs much. To take something high-end, and make it a bit better, means it will cost much more.
Example:
To make a 250 Dollar mountain bike 500g / 1 lb lighter, you just need to change some plain steel bits for plain aluminium, and it would then be a 275 Dollar bike. To make a 2500 Dollar bike 500g lighter, you need to start swapping high-grade aluminium with carbon fibre, and swapping cromoly steel with titanium, and you have a 3000 dollar bike.

The Manticore coil may only be modestly higher in performance than the Eqx, but that could come at a price.

Quote:"Minelab proved with the Vanquish they can make Nox coils a lot cheaper than they do"
Yes, it's true that they are very similar. The electronic pre-amplifier in the V is not made to such a high spec as that in the Eqx ( not such a low-noise design ), which may make a dollar or two difference. But .. the design work, and manufacturing know-how that went into the Eqx coils, has carried over to the V coils 'for free'. Sales of the Eqx have more than paid for the R & D etc costs, so producing a slightly toned-down version is easy.

" .... and then the X-Terra[Pro] comes out and further reassures us we are being taken for a ride"
X-TerraPro coils are not made to the same standards as Eqx/V coils. They only have to work at 5kHz to 15kHz, so they don't need fancy expensive 'pseudo-Litz' multi-strand wire, probably just a single solid enamelled wire, or maybe bifilar/trifilar winding of thinner wire. That would save a few dollars. The pre-amp is probably cheaper ( maybe not such a low-noise design, and it won't have the bandwidth needed to amplify 40 kHz signals ), plus it wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't have any security chip in it at all. And it's probably not nulled to to the same standards as Eqx/V coils, which saves manufacturing time.

[phrunt]

1 hour ago, PimentoUK said:

The Manticore coil may only be modestly higher in performance than the Eqx, but that could come at a price.

You make some sense there, however volume of sales eats up development costs, by charging so much they're limiting the volume of sales.

It's long been a struggle of the business owner, to come in at cheaper prices and get massive volume of sales or try give the impression of high end and charge more knowing less sales.   Either method can work, I think the Equinox hit the sweet spot of affordably vs performance then Nokta came in and has largely taken that away from them with cheaper prices due to their manufacturing costs and whatever other reasons, clearly they're still making a great profit growing to be one of the big players in a small amount of time and this hasn't been unnoticed by Minelab and their lawyers.

Many of the US manufacturers can't compete in a global market because of the costs of producing product at home, Minelab if made in Australia would encounter the same problem with some of the highest wages in the world which is why they moved to a much cheaper country for manufacturing using Malaysia's cheap labour among other things, truck drivers in Australia can earn more than doctors in many countries.  

So while manufacturing costs may seem like they could be much more, in the right countries they're really not all that much different.

I know a guy that invented some odd contraption to use a chainsaw for wood carving, to manufacturer locally it wasn't going to be viable, people won't pay over a thousand for it, so he took a gamble and outsourced as a small business manufacturing to Asia, it ended up costing him a very small amount per unit just over $100 even with shipping included and it has turned into quite a good business.  Imagine how good this process works for bigger manufacturers.

[Chase Goldman]

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I kind of doubt that will be the actual US pricing. If it is though I'll officially not be getting a Manticore. A Deus coil is actually a metal detector. A Manticore coil? No reason it should cost much more than an Equinox coil except for Minelabs "if the detector costs more, charge more for the coil" history. Equinox 6" round coil $179 - no way I'm going to get bent over for $340 for a 5x8 coil for the Manticore. But I am really hoping it is priced more appropriately in the U.S. like $199 - $249 tops. But $340 and I will learn to love the Deus 2 and keep my Equinox 800.

I think you’re right based on some high initial price estimates we were calculating for Xterra Pro based on conversion rates, so all the caveats apply.  But more concerning than price is that many accessories unique to Xterra, Nox 700/900 and Manticore, that have no third party source like wireless headphones, lower rods, and coils that should be available on or shortly after release are simply unobtanium right now (except for the legacy Nox coils).  And as a capper, ML has apparently decided to regress from the direction the took with BT wireless audio on Nox, Vanquish, and the GPX 6000 and lock down their wireless audio accessories as proprietary instead of embracing an industry standard protocol going forward - making 3rd party wireless audio accessories like earbuds incompatible unless you want to hang a BT transmitter off your headphone jack.  And so far, no word of anything like a standalone wireless receiver to adapt favorite wired phones or buds.   It’s all pretty poor form by ML.
 

[strick]

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

Wonder if our buddy @strick can x-ray some Manticore coils to see what's going on in there 😉

 

Theres only one right now and I took a picture of it the day I got it...will get the small coil up there when I get on in my hands...

I have no idea whats going on inside those coils but I do get satisfaction from the comments and analysis from all the "coil doctors"  

I'll end up getting the small coil if it ever become available..and I'll bring my own lube if I have to.. no one wants to spend a lot of money on this stuff..so what I've been doing is to sell something that I'm not really using (anything) to help offset the cost of the new toy...makes me feel better about it.

If I can help myself I wont be jumping on new Minelab detectors for a while...I just don't like how they are doing business...they should have made the manticore coils available a long time ago...and the 6000 coils I've got three now that I prefer not to use just sitting because I'm using after market coils that work better...

strick 

[Steve Herschbach]

8 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

Quote:"The Manticore coil? No reason it should cost much more than an Equinox coil, except for Minelabs "If the detector costs more, charge more for the coil" history."

I'm sure this IS part of the pricing strategy.
But ... the Manticore does have more electronics inside it. It almost certainly has some accelerometer / rate-gyro inertial sensor to measure sweep direction / speed. And the Manticore coils operate up to 50 kHz ( IIRC ) rather than the 40k of the Eqx, so it's likely the coil windings may be built to more exacting standards. And the fine-tuning of the mechanical assembly ( nulling the coil ) may be done to a higher standard. The multiple stiffening ribs also point to them trying to achieve greater stability. Plus they have to recoup the extra R & D costs they must have spent on the coil.

So charge more, I never argued otherwise. Around twice as much.... no. Like there was no R&D costs on Equinox coils? And do Equinox coils really need to be more than Vanquish coils? The costs you mention are trivial at manufacturer cost level and seeing a large multiple at retail. No, the more expensive the detector, the more Minelab feels the buyer is willing to pay for the accessories. That's just sales and marketing, how I made my living, so I know what the score is here. A 5x8 for the Vanquish is $99 and will be $340 on the Manticore? But as long as people are will to put up with it and even defend it, then I guess we get what we deserve.