Thoughts on how long it takes to pay for a new detector.

[spez401]

Every detector I've bought, I paid for with finds from my detectors. I also search beaches almost exclusively and hunt for coins and jewelery. I'm not into relics, even though some are very valuable.

My first Detector, a surfmaster PI, i took out as a demo, found a ring after about 2 hours, cashed it in and brought the cash to the dealer. He gave me a great deal on the detector i demoed.

When I bought my DFX, it was after about 2 years of sporadic use with the surfmaster PI. Every other weekend at the beach, maybe...

My Excalibur was paid for by my DFX after about 2 weeks. (I got REAAALLY lucky one day).

It all comes down to how much you use the detector, how well you know it, and where you search. If you're not in an area where there are/were lots of people, your chances for finding coins are less. but the more you use it, the more you will find. Remember, that if you use your detector once or twice a month, it is going to take a lot longer to "pay" for it than if you hit the beach every day.

steve

 

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[RC KID]

I have a DFX™ E-Series Metal Detector and at $1099.95. I cleared 19.44 last year plus some silver so I will round it to 20.00 just for easy math. so that means that it would take me 55 years. I hope to hunt so long.

 

[rumme]

for me personally.....if I want to spend time in the outdoors and sunshine..id rather be riding my ATV then walking with a detector and swinging it constantly and then diggin up holes that will more times then not, yield something that nots very valuable. I have no problem in admitting that I only bought my detector because I want to find valuables and hope those valuables give a good return on my investment of the detector. I dont expect to pay for the detctor in one day or one week with these finds..but I do expect eventually those finds will recoup the cost of the machine.

Im all for fresh air and sunshine...but digging holes only to find pull tabs with my metal detector is not my ideal way of being in the outdoors....

for me, there is a monetary driving force to this hobby and if that driving force is not met in a reasonable amount of time and energy, I will more then likely sell my detector and spend more time songwriting/recording, 4 wheeling, weightlifintg..radio control planes..etc.....

digging thousands of holes only to be rewarded with rusty nails and uselss pulltabs just wont cut it for me..

im just replying honestly

 

[Woody14]

Just my opinion, but we all hope to hit the big one. Just some of us don't really mind if we don't. We just keep detecting with that hope always in the back of our minds. All in all its still lots of fun, and beat's sitting home on the couch watching T.V. 24 hours a day.

 

[Woody14]

Oh and rumme...
I see you have other areas that you talk about making your money back on your investment.
Keep me posted and give me a good price quote

 

[DirtyHowi]

ummm. scuse my newbieness, but isn't the whole point of a hobby not to make money, after all if i used my hobbies to make money, they cease being hobbies, and begin being JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rumme]

ummm. scuse my newbieness, but isn't the whole point of a hobby not to make money, after all if i used my hobbies to make money, they cease being hobbies, and begin being JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not IMHO.....one of the major driving factors to get people into metal detecting is the possibility of them finding valuables that are worth MONEY.....

just look at the Whites brand T.V commercials or any advertisement for metal detectors...almost all of them will talk about the dectectors ability to find coins, jewlery, gold, silver,etc......

so let me ask everyone this....would yous consider doing this hobby so intensely if the detectors you purchased advertised their products like this :

" purchase our metal detectors for the sole purpose of getting out in the enviroment and digging holes because our detectors are only capable of finding/identifying worthless rusty nails and pulltabs, these detctors will not identify any valuable coins, jewlery or metals " ...

If the above statement applied to all metal detectors, how many on this site would still be so admant about purchasing a detector and spending countless hours each week swinging it and digging holes and buying batteries and wasting gas to drive to detecting sites ?

lets be honest here.....

 

[Woody14]

I would.
How much money does your ATV'ing pay you?

..If your answer is: I do it because I enjoy it.... than you figured it out.

 

[rumme]

I would.
How much money does your ATV'ing pay you?

..If your answer is: I do it because I enjoy it.... than you figured it out.

but arent you comparing apples to oranges ?

when a person decides to purchase a ATV...those ATVS are not marketed to people for their ability to possibly find gold,silver,jewlry,coins..etc....they are marketed to people who want to ride a vehicle in the outdoors and use for camping, hunting,etc....

metal detectors on the other hand, are marketed to people with the marketing directed towards the possibility of a person finding valuables...

IMHO...the amount of metal dectetors sold and people involved in the hobby would drop enourmously if these metal detectors advertised that all you could ever find with them would be junk, rusty nails or pulltabs..

I find it difficult to beleive that if people wanted exercies and fresh air so badly..they would be willingto sepnd hundreds or thousands of dollars on a detector that was incapable of finding anything valuable and demanded that its user/s dig holes , many inches deep, over and over and over again only to know 100% of the time they would only find useless and invaluable junk...

 

[rumme]

it boils down to common sense really..and honesty...

if peopel are claiming they only do it for the exercise and could care less about finding anyhting thats valuable, then why spend so much money on a metal detctor in the 1st place ? Just purchase a $5 garden trowel and dig holes in parks, school yards,etc...you would then get that exercise you wanted and not even have to spend money on a detector...

common sense.....

 

[rumme]

and for anyone on here that keeps claiming they could care less about finding valuable items..please do me a favor..whenever you find anything worth money { gold,silver,jewerly, coins,etc} send all that valuable stuff to me...Ill even pay for the postage.

Ill take a bet that I dont recieve any takers on my offer above

common sense....

 

[warsawdaddy]

rumme
If you are in this strickly for the material things your detector will find,then,maybe just maybe,eventually you will find items you can convert to money against what your detector cost.But so many others are in it for far more riches in what it brings to us and if you are not able to understand that,I believe you will the older you get and able to see a bigger picture of life.Enjoy your hunts.

 

[Woody14]

If its all about the money, you might as well sell your detector now, because you will get sick of it soon enough. As I stated me and the wife are looking to get another one, so make me a deal

 

[BuckleBoy]

RENTING a detector places too much pressure on us to make that money back. The only detector I'd ever RENT is a water machine for a few days at the beach or an few old swimming holes on a weekend. You can't earn a living at this hobby, and no one should expect to be reembursed for anything. That said, it did cause me to smile big when I realized that the value of what I had found was more than the cost of my Fisher 1266-X about 10 years ago. I've "paid" for it 5 times over by now, but I've only sold one item I found in 15 years of detectin'. I even keep the clad to pay for detector repairs in the future.

Regards,

Buckleboy

 

[rumme]

If its all about the money, you might as well sell your detector now, because you will get sick of it soon enough. As I stated me and the wife are looking to get another one, so make me a deal

im not sure if its " all about the money" ..but for many people who claim they could care less about finding valuable items and just enjoy digging holes for exercise, to only find trash 100% of the time, I will stand by my opinion that this hobby would be alot less popular if no one ever found anything valuable or if they knew with 100% certainity ahead of time that all that digging, and driving { wasting gas} and buying batteries would never result in a find of some type of monetary value. ..

Metal detectors are marketed and sold largely thru the use of the marketing tactics that people may be able to find objects of monetary value. I seriously doubt the majority of people get into metal detecting with the main purpose of only wanting to get exercise without them caring at all about the possibilites of finding something valuable. If exercise was all they wanted, they wouldnt need to spend $$$ on a metal detector . They could get exercise for free by walking, running, jumping rope, playing frisbee..etc..etc..etc....

Furthermore, anyone that continues to say they only do this for exercise and dont care about the valuables they could possibly find, then one has to ask, why would these people be buying top of the line metal detcetors that can cost over $500 or more ? These higher end models are really only purchased because they are advertised to have the ability to possibly find MORE VALUABLE OBJECTS with greater ease/accuraccy. For everyone on here that says they have the highr end models but only do metal detecting for exercise, then why buy such higher end expensive model detectors ? One could buy a $49 Bounty Hunter that still would detect metal and this would result in getting the same amount of exercise as purchasing a $900 name brand detector.

No offense to anyone on this forum, but im just not buying into alot of what is being said by certain posters.

I will continue to wait for the offers to pour in from those people who claim they dont care about finding valuables, gold,silver,etc with their detectors. All of those people who claim this is the case, PLEASE SEND ME THOSE VALUABLES YOU FIND AND THIS WILL BE THE REAL PROOF that you dont care about those items. I admit I want them..so send them to me...no shame here. I wonder how much gold/silver / jewlery and coinage I will recieve from those on this forum that claim they dont care about those items ?

ILL TAKE A GUESS....

Z E R O

common sense

 

[CSOhio]

I myself will be happy with my ace 250 that im ordering. I hope to maybe pay for it someday a year or so maybe longer who knows but i like the fact that i can use it and eventually pay for it and do this hobbie for free. I dont consider my gas, time as a pay off. I mean when i drive to go fishing i spend money on gas, beer, food what not and dont even think twice about it. I have a real job so i can honestly say this is mostly for the excitement of maybe finding something of value, but at the sametime if i can lose a few pounds, get out in the sun and get others to do this with me in my area then its well worth it.

I just turned 32, and i ran demolition derbies for 10 years. I can tell you that each year i put a ton of money in a demolition derby car, 2,000 for a old 76 chevy impala or a roundback wagon, then i leaf it and redo my motors and such and weld the crap out of them. I destroy that car to were i have to take it to the scrap yard, i only make about 40-100 bucks to make the feature and a small trophy its very very expensive hobbie but i love it to death. I dont think about all the nickle and diming the hobbie does me. It all adds up. I love the sport but the reason im retiring is the cost, and people want so much for a junk car nowadays cause they know that we derby drivers will pay it. Its just not worth spending all that money anymore. I still love to go watch them.

My main two hobbies i want to be from now one are fishing, and metal detecting. Out in the freshair and and sharing my friendship with my friends. Exercise is great and to know you might make a couple bucks doing so or find something worth thousands is just a kicker.

 

[Montana Jim]

Thoughts on how long it takes to pay for a new detector.


I swiped the card... took about 20 seconds.

 

[rumme]

Thoughts on how long it takes to pay for a new detector.


I swiped the card... took about 20 seconds.

LOL.....now thats a g1

 

[Kilika]

rumme - I'm a total newbie to this hobby, but I was intrigued by your adamant references to the 'advertisements' and 'marketing tactics' that sell MD's.
Do I hope to find something really valuable with my little Ace 250? Heck yeah! Until (if ever) that happens, I have already been enjoying the time I've spent outdoors, in nature, getting exercise, with friends etc.. etc... and expect to continue with this hobby for years to come. It's alot better for me than sitting on my butt (oops! can I say 'butt' here?) in the casino, and it gives the same kind of thrill of anticipation as pulling that slot machine handle, for alot less money! What if I never find anything really valuable? Big deal. I've never won a jackpot on the slots, either, but it's still fun to try.
Is it just about the fresh air etc..? Not for me. It's about what I might find. Maybe not valuable monetarily, but interesting as far as who owned it? How long has it been down there? What was their life like?
I would send you my finds if you promised that the push-pin, rusty nail, piece of copper wire, and paper clip would mean as much to you as they do to me! (what I found on my first hunt) (I couldn't take home the old rusty water pipe, 'cuz I think it was still attached to the building... lol)
I just went on my second hunt and found my first penny! Not a wheat. Not a large cent. Just a plain ol' penny. But, boy was it Fun! Now I just have about 299.99 to go to 'pay for' my machine. But the way I see it, it's almost paid for itself already because the time I'm spending researching, hunting, reading, learning, and sharing this hobby - is all time that I'm not spending in the casino, losing money!!
And I just read on the forum about a gal (I forgot who) found a 3/4 carat diamond ring on her vacation in Florida. How cool is that!! It could happen to any of us, at any time. Another person found an old compact with a large cent in it. Excellent! I don't even know how 'valuable' a large cent would be, but think of holding in your hand something that someone had in 1892! (Or whatever the date was?)
From your posts about the advertising for MD's, I had the impression (and I know I might be mistaken) but you sound discouraged that you haven't hit that Big Find yet. Of course they advertise that we might all get rich MD'ing, but being disappointed that it hasn't happened yet is like being disappointed that buying the brand new BMW didn't help you 'get the girl'. (Or maybe it did?!! )
To answer the original question(what was the question?)...
I've had my machine about three weeks now, and I haven't been in the casino once since I got it, so I figure another three weeks and I will have saved enough money that I didn't blow on the slots to pay for my little Ace!

Best of Luck to everyone, and thanks for sharing all your experiences on this forum -
Kilika

 

[BuckleBoy]

Killa--WELL SAID! Good to hear from the newbies on this topic.

Detectin' is the only thing that keeps me sane at times, and that is priceless.

So I guess we could sum things up by saying that as long as you're financially comfortable with how much you paid for your machine and don't expect to get all of it back or "get rich quick, everything else is really quite irrelevant.

-Buckleboy