Minelab Price Increases

[Tony]

10 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Yep, $1502 NZD for an Excalibur 2 without GST, $1386 AUD, funny how they price things differently for different markets and how much people in those markets are willing to pay.

 

That's the equivalent of about $900 USD......I think they are paying around $1600 USD in the USA !!!!

That's close to $2500 in Aussie dollars......holy moly.

[Aureous]

This is wholly and solely about the drastic drop in revenue this past financial year... Keep revenue high'ish so that the share price won't drop drastically. Aside from ML's high R&D expenditure, their cost -> retail markup is always C. 800% and they can easily absorb ANY price rises in cheap Chinese/Taiwanese parts and Malaysian labor charges. The bean counters have obviously looked at the potential decrease in sales due to a retail price increase versus the actual return. It must somehow make sense to them. But, I wouldn't want to be a retailer when sales drop by 30%. I'm sure the retailer markup hasn't increased to compensate.

[Steve Herschbach]

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.

Be interesting to see if the percentage increase is as steep in the U.S. as it is in Oz. Minelab tends to bend you blokes over harder in the homeland than they do us Yanks.

[dig4gold]

Is Australia "still" the homeland of Minelab?

D4G

[Reg Wilson]

Let's face it, the electronic gold rush is all over bar the shouting. Prospecting forums here in Australia are dead in the water, and the Internet is flooded with second hand detectors, from the dirt cheap to the top of the range. 

Who in their right mind is going to part with a small fortune to buy a new 7000 for twice the price of a barely used one. Built in the worst country for slave labour in the electronics industry in the world, full of faulty cheap components that turn your 'investment' into a costly gamble as to whether you actually have a machine that works as claimed or a total lemon.  Just like a boomerang, many Minelab detectors keep returning from the nearest agency time and again until they are replaced or the owner just gives up and tosses it in a cupboard to gather dust.

Every dog has it's day, and unless Minelab can come up with a major Quantum leap, Treasure hunting detectors will be all that they will sell, besides the odd mug with plenty of money who thinks there is still a 'big one' out there for them. 

The number of used expensive detectors increasingly being offered for sale tell the story, and the price is dropping regularly.

[Steve Herschbach]

7 hours ago, dig4gold said:

Is Australia "still" the homeland of Minelab?

D4G

Codan is headquartered in Mawson Lakes, 2 Second Ave, Australia.

[phrunt]

I don't think the new Australian prices should change the current US pricing on many detectors.  For example, the new Australian price of 8999 AUD for the 6000 converts over to 5857 USD at the current exchange rate, so the new Australian price is still cheaper than the current US price which seems to average around 6000 USD.  The very high USD exchange rate should insulate the US pricing a fair bit, in fact many Minelab products are over-priced in USA.  The Manticore is pretty similar priced in both countries so the new Australian price will be higher than the US price, perhaps detectors like that may have a price hike in the USA.

The USA dealers seem to incorporate a lot more 'free" stuff with their detectors so US customers must really be attracted by "free" stuff.  

[flakmagnet]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

so US customers must really be attracted by "free" stuff.  

Nah, I'm attracted to detectors and detector companies that actually work.
Sadly, MineLab is notoriously NOT forward-facing as far as customer satisfaction goes, it's a shame.

And Reg, I tend to agree with you as far as the earlier days of gold discovery being over - at least in the easy-to-get-to known gold areas, but I am willing to be there is still substantial gold being found if one is willing to do the research and get off the beaten track…does anyone remember Chris Porters posts from a year ago? And how about the Gold Hounds, whose posts I sorely miss. Many of the posters like those folks are, in todays climate, keeping the results of their hard work out of public view. Who can blame them?

[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.