Metal Detectors Are Over Priced but BY WHOM ???

		Quote:			Posted by williamsingr
	And thats a shame and leads to inadequate products that break down or worse yet break down right after the warranty is up.  things should be made to last and not just last for a little while forcing the customer to keep buying new products and if more pride was taken when making a product and not the underlying overwhelming capitalistic greed for the dollar this whole country would be in a better place

Actually, there is a logical formula for calculating a warranty based on MTBF numbers. Those are Mean Time Between Failure numbers that manufacturers provide with each part they sell. An integrated circuit has a MTBF of around 100,000 hours - quite a lot. A potentiometer might have a mere 1,000 hours of continuous use with a much lower number if it gets dirty. In our use, that happens quite a lot. The highest rate of warranty failure is in the first hour of use. It's referred to as infant mortality in the trade. If your machine is going to fail due to a manufacturering fault, it will most likely happen when you first turn it on or within that first hour.

Those are all statistics that I am citing. The MTBF calculations for an item assembled from 200 parts is not the sum or even the average of all the estimated hours. Use Google to look up the formulas for calculations but that 200 part item generates a number based on the lowest part's number divided by 1/10 the part count. So, a potentiometer with 1,000 hours divided by 20 equals a mere 50 hours. Logic will tell you at this point that the pot will no be turned continually for those hours so the warranty number becomes subjective at this point but has its roots in the math.

It's not the greed of capitalists that drives high prices, my friend. It's the cost of labor. I was discussing this with a friend over breakfast just yesterday. He was complaining about the fact that you can't buy an American made TV today. I waited a while and asked how many TVs he had and he said he had four. "Where did you get them?" I asked. He proudly told me, "I shopped around and found the cheapest I could get!" I asked about his cars, his DVR and several other items and the answer was still the same. He shopped around for the cheapest prices in all cases. Never once did he consider buying an item that was American made because the prices were all too high for him.

Look on eBay and you'll find metal detectors made in China and Germany which are exact copies of American made machines. In both countries, it's legal to make a copy of an item and resell it. Then look around this very forum and see how many people ask about those cheap models and copies. It's a sad state of affairs, William, but the consumer has more to do with demanding low prices than the manufacturers do in setting their prices high to cover their costs over the life of a product. We all demand the lowest price even if it's only a few dollars. There's nothing wrong with being frugal but being cheap is costing the future of retail.

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Yep!    More then one way to fish.

If you have the know how, you can build a really good machine for say $100.00

Why pay someone $5000.00 to do what ya need if you can do it for a pile less?

The people I'm talking about NAMES NOT MENTIONED are totally based on Reputation that is dwindling because of the repair and services provided.

They do make the best machine out there!

They do have a Reputation for finding the goods.


They DO have a major market share on the widget.

They just don't connect with the consumer.

They have the mentality that if you have to ask how much it cost you can't afford it.

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No problem, William. The markets of any kind are more complex that most people imagine. With 7.5 billion consumers out there, I'd wager that there are fewer than 1 million who would even buy a metal detector and probably only 100,000 would would actually buy a brand new one. Divide that up amongst the 300 or so current models on offer and you won't see any one manufacturer getting rich.

I know for a fact that Homefire is putting down Minelab even though he won't mention them and I agree that their prices are very high. I think they could lower them but having lived in Australia, I can understand why they charge so much. Their machines are made with uncommon attention to the rugged handling and use they see in the Australian outback. A failure out there can cost a miner $20,000 a day. They count on the rubberized and ruggedized electronics inside. That coating on the board is not there to foil the wanna be technicians. It's there to keep a PC board from cracking in two as it rolls down a riverbank or drops off a cliff.

Posted on: March 29, 2012, 09:06:25 AM

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		Quote:			Posted by homefire
	If you have the know how, you can build a really good machine for say $100.00

And it will perform like one.

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It's sad to say the we (USA) cannot compete with third world countries as labor is CHEAP there and we as want more people just can't keep the wages down enough to compete. We as america can build and make anything anytime just the wages are the incentive to buy foreign. I for one being a retired teamster will not buy a foreign car no matter what (American loyal) I am, and I shop for usa goods if possible.I'm a Vet and it hurts me to see made in xxxxx on my clothing and items.I was a detector dealer for 25 yrs and Minelab said it cost about 25$ to ship a detector into the usa. As it was stated other countries can clone and sell without provication so sad.  I'm glad detectors stand up as long as they do,as most are made dependable.

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My hat is off to all participants on this thread! Great discussion, just lurking and learning.

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