The New Coils For The 23 And 7

[phoenix]

21 minutes ago, kiwijw said:

All I, & most of us I am sure, want is to maximise our detecting experience with the gear we have & choose to use

I agree with that 100% JW.   My comments were not directed at anybody. I`ve seen quite a few people on different forums say "my detector is out of warrenty anyway"      The thought I have had for a long time and I wanted to express it is, if Minelab is going to void warranties I expect they will also NOT repair detectors that have had unsanctioned coils hanging off them. I think people should at least consider that.    Dave

[Steve Herschbach]

No worries JP. I am fully on board with built in GPS and XChange being a waste of money and resources if that is how you see it and will no longer advocate for the system. Silly really if even Minelab does not care about it, as is rather apparent. They broke it for a year so it's obviously not something to get invested in as it could be abandoned at any time. Back to Garmin for me. It's unfortunate though as it is a system unique to Minelab and could have been leveraged for competitive advantage. The fix I propose has nothing to do with hardware and would take a 14 year old coder a day to implement. Too much to expect I guess so I give up. The good news there is I don't have to bother writing part 3 of the series I started and then put on hold when Minelab broke it. I'll possibly do a different thread instead on how to export out of XChange to move on to something else.

On 4/21/2019 at 12:37 PM, Jonathan Porter said:

There are VERY good reasons why ML have not gone down the path of more coils for the GPZ

Which is why there is no need for me to participate in the thread. I wanted a small coil for the GPZ and I won't get a SDC to have one. I also am not interested in the aftermarket stuff. Like Jason I kind of thought the GPZ would have more legs as a developing ecosystem but it sounds like Minelab is already abandoning it to work on whatever comes next. As I have stated elsewhere I am not in the market for a replacement until next year anyway so it really just does not matter to me all that much at the moment. I was kind of assuming that I would be getting another GPZ but the reality is I don't have to even think about it until next winter. By then GPZ will be getting pretty long in the tooth and I may just wait on whatever comes next.

Honestly, I could not be happier with what we already have for options. It's just my nature to always push for more. That and I am a spoiled brat. All I ever wanted was a small coil for the GPZ and the import/export for XChange. Since not even one of the two things I wanted are forthcoming after 4 years I am throwing a temper tantrum and holding my breath until I turn blue and pass out. That'll show Minelab!! 

[jasong]

Thank you JP, this seems to generally addresses some things that have been left to our imaginations for years and tells me enough to feel comfortable in my gut decision to hold off for now and watch how things develop. It does sound like Minelab has not abandoned the serious gold prospector entirely, which was why I was considering going with one of these aftermarket coils, so we'll see what comes about by the time I sell this GPZ and get ready to buy my 3rd when the need arises again. (I feel like I'm in some ways mirroring Steve here now that I've read his response too, and in some ways not)

While we definitely don't have the kind of gold you have in Australia, I manage to scrape by on minimum wage or thereabouts on what I can find over here, sometimes I get luckier, and there are a few others doing the same. A GPZ is not a luxury item for me as it is for some here. It's a business expense which I take a loan out to purchase, and resell when I am done using it to pay off my loan. I do it because I love the freedom and lifestyle of being alone exploring the mountains and desert and having the right tool for job enables me to live a life like that at least part time. I buy one when I feel I can pay for the depreciation plus make money on top of that. That's why I ask the questions I ask, it's a tool for me and I have to be confident that what I'm using will pay for itself and more. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" when it comes to new products to me, I won't buy something unless I'm confident it'll pay itself off and so I ask a ton of questions and I appreciate all the people who take the time to answer some of them.

[Steve Herschbach]

On 4/22/2019 at 4:11 PM, jasong said:

It does sound like Minelab has not abandoned the serious gold prospector entirely

Codan, Minelabs parent, does around $230 million a year in sales, and about 70% or $164 million of that last year was metal detectors. The vast majority of that was gold detectors, mostly in Africa. You can rest assured Minelab has not and will not abandon gold prospectors - it is the business. Coin type detectors are not the driver for Minelab by a long shot, even with Equinox out there.

Here are the sales distribution numbers for the total sales....

Codan FY18 Global Sales

Source

[jasong]

I believe that for sure, I guess what I'm referring to is the GPZ in specific though. My impression is that a lot of prospectors in Africa are using stuff like the Gold Monster and older PI's more, but I really have no idea. I know they are serious prospectors too, more than I am since often there is no option for them but to find gold. I'm just basing that off what people tell me whom I speak with on my Youtube channel mostly.

There is some interesting stuff happening out there which is only just now starting and may or may not lead to more. A lot of global people who never use forums contact me through my videos which is pretty cool. One guy I just spoke with has permits to prospect recently opened areas in Northern Iraq (Kurdish territory) and will be essentially detecting in a war zone as they are still fighting ISIS, a place that has never seen a metal detector before in a non-military sense. He's just a young Kurdish kid, and is going to set up an Instagram page to update his progress. People like this contact me almost daily for detector recommendations, and often I refer them to your gold detector review page. All kinds of people from all over, - Papua New Guinea and a few other places in Oceania, Peru, China, etc.

The large majority, I mean close to 99% if I guessed, want to know what to buy under $500 though. So I'm assuming there aren't a ton of GPZ's being used by the locals in these places and so I really started wondering what it's future was going to hold there.

So I'm guessing Minelab generally has goals to target that price range and market since by far it seems to have the largest growth potential. I just wanted to make sure they didn't forget us.

*On a side note, what exactly does Minelab manufacture in Idaho?

[Steve Herschbach]

Thanks Jason, I appreciate that. Nice to have you back by the way. Believe it or not the number one sales area for the GPZ 7000 is..... Africa! People there were paying as much for a GPX 4500 as a GPZ 7000 at the height of the rush. There is more money in Africa than people think. They of course offer a full range however for those that cant afford the more expensive units - Gold Monster was made specifically for Africa. Selling to the "first world" countries was more an afterthought egged on by people like me.

[Rob Allison]

Hey Guys,

   What ever happen to the 11" GPZ coil that Minelab promised?  I'm 99.9% sure when the unit was first released they mentioned a future  11" and 19" coil release, beyond the stock 14x13" inch.  Correct me if I'm wrong? 

[phoenix]

Yeh Rob, I remember that. When they announced the release of the 7000 they said there would be a 11" and 20" as extra coils.  Down the track the 20" became a 19" and the 11" drifted off into the sunset.   I was told about  3 years ago and I really have no idea if there is any truth to it, that Minelab gave up on the 11" because it kept overloading the detector. Dave

[Jonathan Porter]

58 minutes ago, phoenix said:

...........I was told about  3 years ago and I really have no idea if there is any truth to it, that Minelab gave up on the 11" because it kept overloading the detector. Dave

There is no truth to that rumour whatsoever.

JP