Minelab Price Increases

[Aureous]

22 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Yeah, the best way to fight declining sales is to raise prices. $1000 more for a GPX 6000, a 17% price increase?  It might goose sales before end of the year as people try and beat the price increase but I don't see more 6000s running out the door for an extra $1000 next year.

Yeah I dont see any other logic behind it, seeing how their manufacture -> wholesale markup is C. 800%. When there is no-one in the board room who is a detectorist or even semi aware of the state of the game currently, then poor decisions are easily made. There are quite a lot of examples of where Minelab/Codan has lost its way recently. Leaving the door open for the likes of Nokta to fill the void.

[Reg Wilson]

All I can say is 'sod Codan'. Codan was the end of Minelab as far as the 'little Aussie battler' that started in an Adelaide shed. I was proud to be there at the start, when Bruce Candy and a few mates took on the world's top metal detector manufacturers and beat them at their own game. Punching above their weight? You bet! And the world took note.

Now what have we got? Just another money grabbing multi national that manufactures in the cheapest country they can find.  They employ the business ethics of a 'hamburger chain', and stick it to the public pricewise as far as they think they can get away with. Whoops! "Perhaps we over did it", so we back off the price of the 7000 a bit just after releasing it. "our R&D is very expensive". BS. Greed is the over riding factor.

Codan introduced a whole new ball game. Most of the old crew left Minelab, and a new batch of 'yes men' and other assorted sycophants replaced them. American styled advertising and promotion took over with such BS as "opening up the goldfields again", and "Minelab doesn't make gold, but it is as if it does".

Now the game is looking after the share holder and to hell with the customer. I still use a Minelab product, but brand loyalty? Loyalty is something that is reciprocated, and mine went down the 'gurgler' some time ago.

[phrunt]

The market sets the price, if people stop buying or if cheaper competitors take the sales away they would react by lowering prices not putting them up, with brands like Nokia with far cheaper pricing along with the Axiom now pushing some competition into the PI gold detectors they really don’t seem concerned at all, quite the contrary.

Many appear to not like the company or their ethics but most including myself like their detectors, in my case I like them a lot ?

 

[Aureous]

16 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The market sets the price, if people stop buying or if cheaper competitors take the sales away they would react by lowering prices not putting them up, with brands like Nokia with far cheaper pricing along with the Axiom now pushing some competition into the PI gold detectors they really don’t seem concerned at all, quite the contrary.

Many appear to not like the company or their ethics but most including myself like their detectors, in my case I like them a lot ?

 

Yeah, thats the crunch....and the argument. Currently (and has been for almost 30 years), Minelab have only had to compete with catch-up company's in certain sectors of the marketplace. The High-end prospecting detector market has previously been theirs to exploit almost unchallenged. They also consistently push the envelope with new tech and ideas and force the other company's to catch up. But, this is now ending and the writing is on the wall....and they dont see it. Whilst we (mostly) all use ML gear and get results, we hate being sucked dry with their ridiculous pricing. To replace lost revenue, Minelab/Codans management have been given 2 choices: (1) release the long overdue GPZ replacement and/or other overdue models or (2) Ridiculously increase retail prices. They chose the dumbest of the 2 options. This now allows the opposition to more easily catch up.

[phrunt]

Well, currently they don't dominate the VLF's at all, Garrett I believe has a better gold prospecting VLF with their 24k than the GM1000, it even has a nice concentric coil option which is increasingly rare.   The Equinox I think is a better prospecting unit than the GM1000 and personally can't think of any reason I'd use my GM over my Nox for prospecting.

The Nox has serious competition with the Legend, especially when it comes to pricing and build quality with very similar performance.  The Nox 900 is sort of playing catch up with the Legend adding the build quality the Legend always had to the Nox 800, and also expanding the ID's like the Legend always had but perhaps a little too far on that one with the Nox 900, from what I've seen people prefer the Legend's ID range and again the Legend destroys it for price, granted the Legend's had its issues with dodgy speakers and buggy software, released far too soon.

The Deus 2 seems to give both the Nox (all models) and the Manticore a run for its money while offering a very different platform.

The Manticore isn't really a giant step over the Nox I don't think although I'd much rather it than a Nox 900 and, in a few ways, prefer my 800 over the Manticore.  The CTX is still in a class of its own for people that it suits but that group appears quite small with its dominance being silvers in mild soil by the looks of it, at least that's what I see as its strong point over the Nox series and few people appear to still use one.  The GPZ still can't be beaten for depth and not far off being the best on small gold sensitivity too, and again deeper on almost all sizes of gold right down to quite small and I believe it to be the superior of the prospecting machines, I can understand many wanting it lighter, but with a small coil I find it plenty light enough.  I just don't know what a GPZ 8000 could bring to the table except for perhaps a 7000 on a diet with a more secure chipping method.

The 6000 has reasonable competition with the Axiom, and in the USA the price advantage it has is very compelling however at the moment I would say Minelab dominate the PI detectors significantly, although it does appear a dying market with shrinking customer base and the possibility of Nokta also entering the game at some point and they will be significantly cheaper, that's a given and will shake up the market the way Garrett should have and could have with significantly better pricing.

[Lynk]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

The market sets the price, if people stop buying or if cheaper competitors take the sales away they would react by lowering prices not putting them up, with brands like Nokia with far cheaper pricing along with the Axiom now pushing some competition into the PI gold detectors they really don’t seem concerned at all, quite the contrary.

Many appear to not like the company or their ethics but most including myself like their detectors, in my case I like them a lot ?

 

A very true statement - the market (supply/demand) absolutely sets prices and Minelab has been discounting detectors due to high inventory. Raising prices in a market that only has demand after offered incentives is not likely a strategy that will yield results.

Codan's view of this business unit is evolving and seems likely they ultimately want to be a communications focused company.  The detecting segment has matured and they probably want to cash flow it. It wouldn't be surprising to see it in new hands in a few years. 

[Gerry in Idaho]

Oh boy would I love to jump in and serve everyone some stinking humble pie and my 25+ year opinion of how this company has changed.  But the wiser part of me says to bite my togue and let it go or I could be outside looking in.

Wonder if the new Minelab boss who was recently promoted has any great strategies to help turn Minelab around?  Wishing him and Minelab the best of luck, as we (detectorists) really need them around for at least pushing for greater detectors and detecting technologies.

[markinswpa]

On 11/16/2023 at 1:42 AM, phrunt said:

Well, it appears the rumours of price increases for Minelab products are true.

This from Lost Treasures in Australia, a dealer I trust and have bought from before.

"Just to let everyone know that Minelab will have a price increase for all of their detectors and pin pointers coming in to effect on the 1/1/24. So there is no better time than the present to grab a machine before everything goes up next year."

These are obviously Australian dollars.

I'm not quite sure why there are two GPZ's on the list but I assume one comes with the 19" coil.  It's impossible to put up the price of the Pro-Find 35 ?

I see this list and realize how much money I've burnt when I add up all my detectors ?

 

They should be offering rebates for the stuff they have been peddling lately.

[VicR]

Have not yet come across a customer who likes a price rise - but when you have inflation running at between 5 and 8 percent for the last 2 years that increase your business running costs you have three options. Accept a lower profit result because of a reduction in margins due to input cost increases (leads to lower share price & increase in financing costs), raise prices (short term adverse effect on demand)  or cut costs (R&D on the chopping block?).

The large price increase in the high end gold machines is interesting - i wonder if they are getting the market ready for a new whiz bang $15k AUD gold machine that does everything you have dreamed of ?