Minelab detectors made in Asia?

[Magilla]

I was looking through our local Anaconda store today and I saw that they had some Minelab X-terra's there. When I checked the box I noticed that they are manufactured in Asia. Are their top models also made in Asia?

 

[Teemore]

Believe so .... yes.
The Anaconda mob occasionally have member specials, up to 25% off, how I bought my Dual Pack, they only stock the 305/705, Minelab obviously restrict the higher end models to a few privileged dealers (and thereby control pricing).
Cheers Tom

 

[slipped disc]

Made in Thailand I believe. while that is probably not an issue. it makes you wonder why m/l like to keep it quiet and why the product is relatively expensive. I wonder how many ''made in USA'' detectors actually are. not stamped on bounty hunter or garrett or tesoro models I've had.

 

[condor22]

The X-Terra is actually made in Malaysia, to Minelabs specs.

Anaconda is a few $ more than Minersden and Minersden are giving a set of $52 headphones Anaconda aren't.

I know, I bought a 705 duel pack last week.

(I have no affiliation with either store other than a customer of both)

My thoughts are if you want a detector go to a detector store, if you want a tent or other camping gear go to a camping shop. I wouldn't buy the Sunday roast at the bottle shop.

 

[Guest]

Minelab detectors are only made in either Malaysia or Australia (from parts sourced from various countries).

http://www.minelab.com/aus/consumer/knowledge-base/news?article=19903
Minelab metal detectors are yet another sign of the global market we live in, designed in Australia, some made in Australia, and some made in Malaysia by an American owned company, from parts sourced from all over the world! One thing that remains constant, is that Minelab products are always designed and manufactured to world class standards.

 

[slipped disc]

Minelab detectors are only made in either Malaysia or Australia (from parts sourced from various countries).

http://www.minelab.com/aus/consumer/knowledge-base/news?article=19903
Minelab metal detectors are yet another sign of the global market we live in, designed in Australia, some made in Australia, and some made in Malaysia by an American owned company, from parts sourced from all over the world! One thing that remains constant, is that Minelab products are always designed and manufactured to world class standards.

Fair enuff, I thought I read somewhere it was Thailand. malaysia is better ? yes they would need be to built to m/l specs. I read the w.a. facility closed down a few years ago and production was transferred - overseas.
where in OZ are they made ? head office is at Torrensville s.a. it doesn't matter really, at the end of the day, I just wonder why the gpx 5000,as an example, is worth $6500 plus.

 

[Guest]

I just wonder why the gpx 5000,as an example, is worth $6500 plus

Probably cause that's what people still pay for them & sales are still high enough to justify the price?
Anything is only worth what people will pay for it & plenty of people are still paying $6500 so I guess to them it's worth it?

"final assembly, testing and coil manufacture carried out at the Codan group manufacturing site in Adelaide, South Australia"

 

[Ryan27]

I just wonder why the gpx 5000,as an example, is worth $6500 plus

Probably cause that's what people still pay for them & sales are still high enough to justify the price?
Anything is only worth what people will pay for it & plenty of people are still paying $6500 so I guess to them it's worth it?

"final assembly, testing and coil manufacture carried out at the Codan group manufacturing site in Adelaide, South Australia"

Not sure if the above is true. It seems the detector of choice is not a $6500 detector.
There has been enormous interest of a $3950 detector of late.
I don't feel the GPX 5000 has recovered the same amount of gold as its previous models ( 4500 )
I could be wrong this is just a gut feeling.

 

[Guest]

I just wonder why the gpx 5000,as an example, is worth $6500 plus

Probably cause that's what people still pay for them & sales are still high enough to justify the price?
Anything is only worth what people will pay for it & plenty of people are still paying $6500 so I guess to them it's worth it?

"final assembly, testing and coil manufacture carried out at the Codan group manufacturing site in Adelaide, South Australia"

Not sure if the above is true. It seems the detector of choice is not a $6500 detector.
There has been enormous interest of a $3950 detector of late.
I don't feel the GPX 5000 has recovered the same amount of gold as its previous models ( 4500 )
I could be wrong this is just a gut feeling.

The GPX5000 has sold a lot of units over the last 5 or so years & is still selling. The "$3950" detector will obviously have higher sales at the moment as its a new "toy". Sales of the GPX5000 will probably slow down now - not because of the SDC2300 - but due to speculation on when Minelab's next top line detector is released. For every SDC that's been sold theres probably at least one other person that hasn't purchased one & is waiting for the "big gun" to come!

How would one measure or ascertain the amount of gold found between different models seeing as though it is an unreported event - no one keeps records or statistics on detectorists gold finds? The 4500 is certainly a great machine in its own right too & has been on the ground for awhile so your "gut" feeling might be right? Who knows?

 

[Magilla]

Thanks guys, I was under the impression that they were all made here.

I have no issues with buying Asian made products in fact a lot of what I own I wouldn't have been able to afford if produced locally. I do find Minelab's pricing hard to explain though if they are made in Asia.

 

[Paulmarr]

Thanks guys, I was under the impression that they were all made here.

I have no issues with buying Asian made products in fact a lot of what I own I wouldn't have been able to afford if produced locally. I do find Minelab's pricing hard to explain though if they are made in Asia.

I'm sure a large part of the price is not manufacturing but research and development ... the raw materials, components, and labour add up to probably less than a couple hundred dollars - the rest is development and profit of course...

 

[Paulmarr]

I also think the price is probably preserving the hobby - you can imagine if they were $800 we would all have one and gold would disappear exponentially ... so they are actually doing the GPX5000 owners a favour!

 

[Guest]

what something is worth is dependent on the competition it has. Its this simple.

There has been some excitement I would think with the release of the Whites $1200 Gold Pi and SDC 2300.
11 plus second hand GPX 5000 have been sold in the past 3 months from that Auction site.

Whites, Fisher and Tesoro are still made in the USA and doubt if this will change not in the near future anyway.

Another Gold PI machine may come out of the USA after the recent recruitment of Carl Moreland from whites.

The good news is that things are changing and patents are expiring and if new technology is not developed by current leaders
in the detecting market its going to open the door for European and Russian manufacturers . This process I think has already started.

 

[Guest]

Regardless of what country the detector is "made" all electronics companies would be using parts sourced worldwide! They wouldn't compete otherwise.

The good news is that things are changing and patents are expiring and if new technology is not developed by current leaders
in the detecting market its going to open the door for European and Russian manufacturers .

From Codan shareholder presentation 2008:
Minelab has:
18 current Patents on Metal Detection Technology, out to 2028
4 more in development including significant technological steps to enhance detector performance

The above would not include new patents on CTX3030 or SDC2300 including the new MPF technology. Also patents for GPX4800/5000 may not have been included in 2008 report?
The only patents expiring any time soon would be old, obsolete machines.
The current pulse technology, (MPS, DVT & SETA) would be wrapped up fairly tightly for a long time yet.

 

[Guest]

My reply was based on gold pi detectors.

Here is the current patent list.

http://www.minelab.com/aus/patents

 

[Guest]

My reply was based on gold pi detectors.

Here is the current patent list.

http://www.minelab.com/aus/patents

The Gold PI detectors on that list (GPX4500,4800,5000 & SDC2300) appear to have standard patents (20 year length) or some innovative patents (8 year length) most from around 2011 on. None appear to expire too soon?

If other companies want to compete I would suggest they need to become innovative & develop their own technology rather than rely on Minelab's patents expiring? Just my opinion.

 

[KarlS]

As someone who worked as production manager in electronics company before retirement I can tell you this. The profit margins are 7 huge. For example,one of the products that we were manufacturing has total cost of the component and labor ( in Australia) $A4.65. This product retail for US$55 . The costs don't include software development costs . But any one reasonably familiar with PIC programming could write software for it in two days . I got no doubt that profit margin on some of the detectors is in vicinity of thousands percents.
Karl

 

[condor22]

Most of my design work was mechanical, so from that perspective; (and I am about 25yrs out of touch on plastics, but)

A plastic injection moulding die to make 1 half of the SDC cover could cost upwards of 1/2 a million $. There are other plastic components.
This cost is annotated across the expected volume of sales per year over what is believed to be the life expectancy of the product. ie 1/2 a million sales = $1 each or 100,000 products = $5 each. Then there is the annotation of the plastic injection machine which could be 10s of millions $.

That is only 2 items of costing over many items in a detector. It can soon add up and, as said, research, development, testing, redesign, retesting, manufacture, packaging, warehousing, transport, marketing etc etc.

If I paid $100 for a metal detector, I might well be buying an ornament...........

 

[slipped disc]

Most of my design work was mechanical, so from that perspective; (and I am about 25yrs out of touch on plastics, but)

A plastic injection moulding die to make 1 half of the SDC cover could cost upwards of 1/2 a million $. There are other plastic components.
This cost is annotated across the expected volume of sales per year over what is believed to be the life expectancy of the product. ie 1/2 a million sales = $1 each or 100,000 products = $5 each. Then there is the annotation of the plastic injection machine which could be 10s of millions $.

That is only 2 items of costing over many items in a detector. It can soon add up and, as said, research, development, testing, redesign, retesting, manufacture, packaging, warehousing, transport, marketing etc etc.

If I paid $100 for a metal detector, I might well be buying an ornament...........

Sure, but the chinese can put out a tecta for $59.95 -jaycar, with all the mouldings etc. most electronics are chinese sourced for bugga all on quantity. the module that holds the info is the key.put the guts into a chinese copy of the gpx5000 and it could not cost

$6500 plus.