Huge Minelab Price Increase - And Gold Monster To Come With One Coil?

[Steve Herschbach]

I wonder if I’m reading this right. A huge price increase is coming from Minelab, like nothing ever seen before in the metal detector industry. Basically a 10-20% boost across the board on prices in Australia. No word yet on U.S. prices. The GPX 6000 will go up a solid $1000 Australian dollars and the GPZ 7000 will be over $10,000 again, as in $10,499.

From https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/24431-minelab-price-increases-january-1-2024/

 

 

There is also a special note in the Gold Monster “includes 5” coil only”. Does this mean the Gold Monster will no longer come with 10” and 5” coil, but come with the 5” coil only? While raising the price $200? And forcing people to lay out another $200 if they want the 10” coil. When I had the Gold Monster I never used the 5” coil at all. Seems like right out of the First Texas playbook with the Gold Bug Pro - sell it with the less desirable small coil to make people buy the coil that should be standard with the machine.

It’s all pretty amazing. I was in business for my entire career in retail and even back in the 1970s when inflation was way worse than it has been these days, I’ve never seen anything remotely like this kind of price increase. It’s high enough I have to wonder if it will backfire. Obviously Minelab wants to make more money. But there is a point where a price increase reduces sales so much that a company ends up making less money, not more. This would seem to be pushing that limit and the results in future Codan reports will be interesting to see.

No word yet on U.S. prices. Maybe it’s only the Aussies that need to get out the Vaseline. But if this is for real, I’d expect anyone who thinks they might want a Minelab detector to buy before the end of the year. And for dealer sales to plummet next year. The only good news is there is time to act before the price increase, and that sellers of used machines will see a good boost in value next year.

[Jim in Idaho]

Maybe they'll get to the point they only build them to order, Steve. I could easily see that happening in the US auto industry. Something has to give in all this stuff. Somewhere "affordability" has to enter the picture. Going to be interesting to see what happens.

Jim

[Digalicious]

Increasing prices, only increases profit when you have a monopoly.  If Codan increases prices on their coin / jewelry detectors, then IMO, it will backfire. Reason being? Nokta and XP.

The Legend has been shown to match the performance of its much higher priced competition. That should have been a wake up call for Codan to decrease their prices on their coin and jewelry detectors. Especially considering that a couple of months ago, Nokta introduced the Score models, which are Legends with a few less features. The Double Score sells for a mere $425 US, and the Score sells for $375 US. Plus, the coil costs are also much cheaper than the competition.

So, I could be totally wrong, but this seems like a terrible move by the Codan shareholders. It reeks of desperation, in the same way that the rather pathetic X-Terra Voyager does.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

2 minutes ago, Jim in Idaho said:

Maybe they'll get to the point they only build them to order, Steve. I could easily see that happening in the US auto industry. Something has to give in all this stuff. Somewhere "affordability" has to enter the picture. Going to be interesting to see what happens.

Jim

I doubt it as economy of scale demand large parts acquisitions and production runs. Though it could be build to order at the dealer level.

I was a Ski-Doo dealer, largest in the world at one point. The deal with snowmobiles is dealers order them a year in advance, and the manufacturers build them. It removes all the risk from the manufacturer and places it squarely on the dealer. If you like gambling, think about ordering 1000 snowmobiles a year in advance, and wondering if it will snow next year.  We rolled some pretty big dice and luckily scored more than lost.

Minelab could go that route, just demand all dealers place an order for the coming year and build the combined order. Minelab is abandoning small dealers in favor of large retailers like Cabelas who are used to placing those type orders. I don’t really see that happening though. The more likely scenario is this blows up in their face, and we see a price reduction sometime later next year. I just can’t see a huge price increase working at a time when gold detector sales are already declining. There are plenty of used machines available and people will just buy used instead.

Whatever, no skin off my nose, so as you say just interesting to see what happens.

[Swegin]

1 minute ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The more likely scenario is this blows up in their face, and we see a price reduction sometime later next year.

Yea they will knock 10% off.  Make you feel like your getting a deal. LOL.

I was really hoping for a price reduction.  Why increase the Gold Monster when they where given them way with a 6000 purchase?  

[Steve Herschbach]

26 minutes ago, Digalicious said:

Increasing prices, only increases profit when you have a monopoly.  If Codan increases prices on their coin / jewelry detectors, then IMO, it will backfire. Reason being? Nokta and XP.

The Legend has been shown to match the performance of its much higher priced competition. That should have been a wake up call for Codan to decrease their prices on their coin and jewelry detectors. Especially considering that a couple of months ago, Nokta introduced the Score models, which are Legends with a few less features. The Double Score sells for a mere $425 US, and the Score sells for $375 US. Plus, the coil costs are also much cheaper than the competition.

So, I could be totally wrong, but this seems like a terrible move by the Codan shareholders. It reeks of desperation, in the same way that the rather pathetic X-Terra Voyager does.
 

Yeah, Minelab faces stiffer completion, and all this does is help the completion sell more detectors. This was not a decision made by shareholders though, it was made by the new Minelab CEO. Whose job will be on the line with shareholders if it backfires and hurts the stock price.

[Digalicious]

4 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

This was not a decision made by shareholders though, it was made by the new Minelab CEO. 

Ok, well that changes the dynamic of the decision completely.

In other words, it's easy for a single individual to make a blatant mistake (the CEO), but much less likely for a knowledgeable group to do so.

Within a shareholder group, there's a good chance that "cooler heads" prevail, and strike down potentially bad ideas. Although in this particular case, it seems that the shareholders have little market knowledge, and are putting their trust in the CEO.

[Steve Herschbach]

15 minutes ago, Digalicious said:

Ok, well that changes the dynamic of the decision completely.

In other words, it's easy for a single individual to make a blatant mistake (the CEO), but much less likely for a knowledgeable group to do so.

Within a shareholder group, there's a good chance that "cooler heads" prevail, and strike down potentially bad ideas. Although in this particular case, it seems that the shareholders have little market knowledge, and are putting their trust in the CEO.

Uh…. that’s not how corporations and shareholders work. I own stock in Nvidia but nobody asks my opinion on anything. I can simply own or sell the stock. Only key very large shareholders get any input on company decisions, and even that only indirectly. The CEO is hired and answers directly to the board of directors. The directors in turn are charged with guiding the company for the benefit of shareholders. Long story short if you want you can by Codan stock, but nobody is going to include you in any decisions unless you buy like 25% of the company shares, or more. Otherwise you are just along for the ride and you’d better hope the CEO knows what he is doing. Or sell the stock. It is the aggregate success of the stock that in turn determines whether the CEO is making the right moves or not. So shareholders have a say, but only in a very indirect way. Yet in the end, it’s all about them. If shareholders abandon a company it’s generally going to fail.

[Digalicious]

If not the major shareholders at least having some say in major decisions, then I would hope a knowledgeable board of directors would. Even just 3 or 4 knowledgeable people debating the major decisions would be enough. That would prevent 1 person from having a crazy idea and following through with it unabated.

Anyway, I guess that's all moot, because the decision was made. Now how long before the CEO is fired, and the decision reversed? 😁

 

[Sourdough Scott]

Minelab is just conditioning you for the $15,000 usd price tag for the GPB-end  over 8000 comes out. 🤣