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

[Tensas]

I have always been a hunter. I was raised hunting wild game on our farm. I haven't farmed in years and can't afforded to belong to a hunting club any more so I traded one kind of hunting for another. I love to hunt, if find a trophy that's great I'm still going to hunt. I never harvest a trophy deer I still hunt when invited, I never caught a trophy bass I still bass fish when I have the chance. I payed about as much for my MT as I did for my guns or fishing equipment. Sure I hope to fined that treasure we are all looking for but if I don't I'm still looking and enjoying every every hunt and I can put a price tag on none of it.

 

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[BuckleBoy]

I have always been a hunter. I was raised hunting wild game on our farm. I haven't farmed in years and can't afforded to belong to a hunting club any more so I traded one kind of hunting for another. I love to hunt, if find a trophy that's great I'm still going to hunt. I never harvest a trophy deer I still hunt when invited, I never caught a trophy bass I still bass fish when I have the chance. I payed about as much for my MT as I did for my guns or fishing equipment. Sure I hope to fined that treasure we are all looking for but if I don't I'm still looking and enjoying every every hunt and I can put a price tag on none of it.

Well said. And Welcome to the Forum.


-Buckleboy

 

[Digger]

Personally, I'd be happy metal detecting even if it never paid for itself. Fortunately thats not the case. I bought my DFX last year and while I only cashed in $87.00 in clad for the year, I'm cashing in 2.2ozs of gold to buy another detector. And thats far from what I found last year. I should get about $1,100 for the 2.2ozs of gold, and I paid $825 for my DFX.

 

[TheYAK]

I never planned on pay back, just enjoying myself, and I am Its the adventure...

 

[coin finder]

you must have some time on your Hands ! if all you do is have time. 8) 8) 8)

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

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.....

lets be honest here.....

Not hardly. If I dropped the $1,800 or so I've put in detecting in the last five years into the bank I'd be much farther ahead.

No lie, I do it for fun. Because I don't know what the next thing I dig may be.

Honest, I'd trade a $30 clad day at the park for one large cent in dismal shape as long as the date was legible, and I'd have zero motivation to part with that cent.

There's a LOT of things I could do with my time that would bring in more money than detecting. I do it for fun - honest.

I also release most of the fish I catch.

 

[sparkymaster]

Ask yourself this,

How much is happiness worth?

We tend to do things throughout our lives that make us happy without ever expecting reimbursement.

If ice cream makes you happy and you spend money for it do you expect it to pay for it's self?
If beer makes you happy and you spend money for it do you expect it to pay for it's self?

I know I personally bought my detector (s) for the happiness it brings me to persue the hope of finding those items lost by others (treasure hunting) regardless of the value. Not to mention the good times and bonding I have with my friends, family and children. I have this hobby in my blood, it was never taught to me and I can see it in 2 of my 3 kids. Maybe the 3rd one will enjoy it later in life but for now I don't push it and he doesn't want anything to do with it.

I didn't buy my detector then sit down and draw up a 5 year business plan expecting reimbursement.

Don't get me wrong. I want to find the big one just as bad as the next guy but if it never happens, well, that's OK too.

HH

sparkymaster

 

[Monty]

I paid for my first detector the second time out. I found a big gold chain! Being a newby I thought, "Dang, I'll get rich doing this"! Several hundred dollars and a couple a new detectors didn't take long to prove me wrong! Last week I went out on the only warm day in a month and when I got home my wife asked if I had found any coins. I told her, "Of course , I found 23 cents and only burned five dollars worth of gas"! That's about how it has been going for me lately. My finds have dwindled to nearly nothing this year and I couldn't figure out why. I was cleaning up my equipment and found a loose coil wire. Darn thing was falsing and not picking up targets as it should and I didn't even realize it! So now I am waiting for my new coil to arrive so I can find 50 cents and only burn two dollars worth of gas! M nty

 

[UnEarthed72]

As for myself ..i don't care too much about finding enough to pay for a detector,its just the pure enjoyment/excitement of the hunt,and that's the payoff for me(if it does it does) maybe most here will agree with me,i believe if you were to find enough clad,jewelry and so on to have paid for your previous detector and fully enjoy this hobby they will mostly want to use it to fund their next detector as an upgrade and keep the older one as a back up...there for making it a cycle of a not so payoff of sorts.

HH
Shawn

 

[cheese]

Charlie P. said it...I'd also take a cruddy large cent worth nothing over a 30 dollar day at the park. I wouldn't give a dollar for some of the stuff I've found, but I wouldn't sell it either. The thrill of the hunt is what I paid for when I bought my machine. I haven't counted my clad...I keep it injars andhave never cashed it in. I have some good finds that are worth more than my machine, but I don't plan to sell them. I figure my machine has paid for itself many times over just in satisfaction and fun. I think of how much I would have spent doing something else I enjoy if it weren't for detecting. The rental idea is a good way to determine the value I think.

When I'm detecting, I forget about work. I forget the house repairs that need to be done. I forget about the bills. I forget about the guy that nearly wrecked me on the road earlier in the day, and the nasty lady at the counter at the tag office, and the water in the gas tank on my lawnmower, and all the nagging bits and pieces of life that suck. To me, that's priceless.

 

[gamiller]

A lot of good answers and many could be quoted, for me its cheaper than therapy.

 

[Digger]

When I'm detecting, I forget about work. I forget the house repairs that need to be done. I forget about the bills. I forget about the guy that nearly wrecked me on the road earlier in the day, and the nasty lady at the counter at the tag office, and the water in the gas tank on my lawnmower, and all the nagging bits and pieces of life that suck. To me, that's priceless.

Well said!

 

[seekdestry]

I'm really new at MDing, but I'm not getting into it to make $$$ (although that would be a nice bonus! ). I am attracted to the thrill of the search, to the idea of finding something interesting (of monetary value or not) that other people have walked right past and never seen. I'm not sure I will be able to bring myself to sell any treasures I find. Of course regular coins can just be marked up to bonus income. I just can't wait to see what I dig up!

Raven

 

[taropatch]

Rumme is honest and he appreciates honesty. The goal in MDing is "to find something".

If there were not the slimmest chance that I could catch a fish, I wouldn't go fishing.
Fishing like MDing "happens to include" fresh air, closeness to nature, time with others.
The process of fishing is the fun part even if I don't catch anything. As others have said it is cheap therapy. No way would I do it though if there was ZERO chance that I'd catch a fish.

If my fishing spot sucks, I would try another. If park #1 sucks, my detector and I would try fishing at park #2 (even though fresh air, sunshine, comraderie continues to be good in park #1).

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Fishing is a good analogy. Detecting is dirt fishing. You never know what you'll catch.

But you can tip the scales ( ) in your favor by choosing the right places to fish. I don't spend a lot of time searching for Civil War relics - as there was no such activity hereabouts . . . but folks was still going about their business & dropping coins! Most fields around here now were fields in 1860, too. Finding the old homesites, picnic groves and social areas is the key.

If you're looking for pure return the beaches are probably a good bet. Hereabouts the "beaches" are along the rivers where fish fishermen sit and toss beer cans, caps and pulltabs. Not much gold is dropped. But the Beers map shows a ferry not to far away across the river with a structure on each side (Keepers house? Tavern?) Man and nature has changed that section of the river since 1869 but I WILL eventually find an old coin if I keep hunting.

If I can keep the clad coming enough to buy 4 new AA's every 40 hours I'm good. I doubt my detector will ever pay for itself, even with the clad, and I have never sold any old coin or the jewelry I have found so that's a dead-end finacially.

But I've got a better chance that it will than spanding the equivalent time in front of a TV.

 

[Fishstank]

My goal is to find enough clad to buy a sniper coil for my ace. So far I think I have like $10!! But it's an obtainable goal.

Fish

 

[bakergeol]

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

Rumme

You have to remember who you are talking to on this thread. You are talking to the SURVIVORS. Everyone who enters this hobby hopes to find valuable or historic items but what happens next? The vast majority of folks who buy detectors quickly leave the hobby after finding 12 cents for a couple of outings. They do not have the patience or the perseverance for this hobby. Who you are talking to are those have survived and they simply have given you their reasons other than monetary why they are still here.

Let's face it you HAVE to have other reasons than monetary gain to survive this hobby and most of the responders have given you theirs. There are only a handfull of people who coin hunt/relic hunt for a living and these are in Europe. Brian of the UK comes to mind.

In a way I cringe when I see posts like this " How long does it take to pay for a new detector" or"Why buy an expensive top of the line model when a Radio Shack model will do?"To me it is like asking " How many fish do you have to catch to pay for your new bass fishing boat?" or "why not use a cheap fishing rod"?

The people who ask the above questions I feel still haven't reached the addiction or "die hard" phase of our hobby. There are park detectorists who simply ignore and refuse to dig recent clad coinage. Finding a worn seated dime which will not pay for your gas is more a thrill than finding $100 bucks of clad for a lot of people. What about those people who return gold rings to their owners? They could have made good money by keeping the ring? We had one visitor here who routinely detects old ghost towns and gives the landowners ALL the relics he finds. He made news when he found a $5 gold piece which he gave in a display case to the landowner. For these people monetary gain is not the only priority.

The cost of toys in my hobby are irrelevant to me as I become addicted decades ago. Serious detectorists may have 6 top of the line detectors in their closets which they use regularly. Look at the number of detectors owned by a lot of TN members here. I agree with the individuals in the above paragraph. That is probably why I am still detecting after 43 years.

George

 

[Pulltab Parson]

Hey all,

There is a lot of great comments here about this hobby. To be quite honest, I had every intention of finding millions of dollars in gold in my first trip out, that was my intention when I bought my first detector, but my whole perspective changed that very first day. The very first thing I dug was an Aladdin Arcade token, I have literally held dozens of those in my hand at one point in my life, but those didn't compare to digging one out of the ground! What's it worth, absolutely nothing, but to me, that was my first find and I still have it today! There are those who get into this hobby with the motivation and intension of getting rich, I'm ok with that but it seemed that what motivated me at first wasn't what kept driving me to hunt. It was finding something that at one point in someone else's life they lost. I think of the stories it could tell if it could talk; where it had been and what it had seen. that token was just a arcade token but perhaps it was the last token that some young kid had which he decided to keep to remind him of that time when he was on vacation at the shore, who knows. That is what motivates me, to find that which is lost. I'm certain that every person who hunts with a detector would be very happy in finding that lost cache but I think for most that is not what brings them out on cold days and snowy days to a tot lot where the possibility of finding a diamond ring is probably slim to none. Its the thrill of the hunt and the stories that go along with it. Its also the time that you can so]pend with friends and family.

Thats where I hold the hobby

HH

PTP