Times Are Changing!

[bigscoop]

This might be impacting some of you as well?
https://manaloneblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/times-are-changing/

 

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[redcobra8u]

Not here in Los Angeles. Seems there are rich tourists from all over the world leaving stuff behind. There is definitely more people hunting too.

 

[bigscoop]

Not here in Los Angeles. Seems there are rich tourists from all over the world leaving stuff behind. There is definitely more people hunting too.

Lucky you, that you're close to those tourist locations where the economy hasn't had such great effect. Probably why more hunters about as well.

 

[Rawhide]

Agreed, but competition is also a factor.

 

[namxat]

The middle class gets poorer? Yes, to a certain degree.

But moreover the middle class gets trashier and has no more sense of quality. Those base metal rings may have COST something in between the price of a silver and gold ring if marketed under a fashionable brand in a posh store. The WORTH of it is near nil as the hunter who finds it knows. "Silver" is for a young woman now a color, not a metal. What the jewlery makes desireable is not styling, craftsmanship or intrinsic value but that it is "Thomas Szabo" or any other s....t.

Goes for a great many of goods furniture, clothing ect. Tried a year before to buy good quality dress shoes. I wanted bally or any other high quality shoes and was prepared to pay say 500 USD equivalent for it. For that I wanted shoes with goodyear welt, best leather, a strictly conservative design (black derby; I work in a dark suit job) and the feeling that they should endure 4 - 5 years of use and abuse.
Went downtown to a high class shoe shop. Found a salesgirl w/o ring in the nose that might appreciate such wishes. Explained my wishes, gave my size and sat down to wait what she brings...............................................(long wait)................... came back with a ridicoulus assortment of trash including one brown fake croc and one in between marroon and red (Special comment "You can wear these! My brother weres such ans he sells cars!!!).

Optically best were indeed black derby yet stamped "Joop!" on the back & "Made in Turkey" inside. Inside partly not real leather, cheaply glued together and not very comfortable -> would not have lasted two seasons: Cost c400 USD equi. You dont buy quality shoes you buy brand shoes! And Joop! makes a s-...tload of money by selling 60 USD Equi shoes for say 200 wholesale. Took my leave, had to drive one hour to dedicated bally shop.

Another one ( rustic individual with rustic job, a neighbour) tells me how smart he is. He had little money for new tires but" talked the salesman into selling him" 19 inch rims for his old car. The trick: he pays them down for three years. "They are XYZ 19 inch" (forgot the name, dont care). From the two possible answers "Grats you are an Idiot and you have proved it once again" and "Lets hope that your 9 year car hold up those three years you pay down the tires" I choose the more polite one.

Too long, didnt read?: The middle class gets relativelty poorer and buys trash, but it seems to me that this is to a good part self inflicted by unwise consumerism and reliance on brand instead of quality.

Sorry for the rant, had to get you

Namxat

 

[bigscoop]

Agreed, but competition is also a factor.

Yes, as the article states, competition is a factor as it only adds to the distress. And remember, we're not talking tourist beaches here, we're talking "community beaches" for the most part. Not too many years ago this region was ripe with good paying factory jobs but as everyone knows these are all but gone now in these parts, what little jobs that took their place paying only half as much, it that. Our High School here, once one of the largest in the state, now only half its size and continuing to drop in class. And this is common in a lot of the midwest. In just the five years or so that I was living at New Smyrna Beach this same decline in both gold & silver and the economy was obvious, the "publicly accessible beach" clearly suffering these same effects if perhaps on a smaller scale, but suffering all the same. This has nothing to do with "numbers of beach goers" and more to do with the financial status of those crowds. Lucky those beaches are like huge banks holding years of deposits and there is still enough traffic to continue bringing in more, though nothing like what use to be brought in.

 

[bigscoop]

And one other point that is being lost in all of this, "the price of gold" in recent years. This alone has taken many people out of that consumer market, and this taking place during a period when the economy is in decline. So yes, hunting pressure does play a part in things but not nearly as much as many think. Simply stated, unless you're hunting areas/regions that can still afford those high dollar consumer goods then you're going to see a decline in the consumer demand for those goods/frills.

 

[strick]

Back in the day you had 2 choices...gold or silver. Now there are so many more choices...I think that has a lot to do with the lack of gold finds

strick

 

[OBN]

About all I hunt are the beach's from back in the day.........
Brass was very much the other metal, along with rolled gold, hand laid gold, vermeil, and 1/12 EGP were the less popular ones. I think it was more of a tradition to do the real deal when it came to wedding rings, It's Very Very rare for me to find one of them anything besides Gold, other then a few Platinum's from the 40's n 50's. About the only time I find the other metals, their regular rings. Whats really crazy I do find from time to time a SS ring from the 40's, 50's or 60's. Gold is Gold but Nothing gets me more excited then digging old gold from the past..

 

[bigscoop]

About all I hunt are the beach's from back in the day.........
Brass was very much the other metal, along with rolled gold, hand laid gold, vermeil, and 1/12 EGP were the less popular ones. I think it was more of a tradition to do the real deal when it came to wedding rings, It's Very Very rare for me to find one of them anything besides Gold, other then a few Platinum's from the 40's n 50's. About the only time I find the other metals, their regular rings. Whats really crazy I do find from time to time a SS ring from the 40's, 50's or 60's. Gold is Gold but Nothing gets me more excited then digging old gold from the past..
View attachment 1465813

I'm getting dialed in up here, myself. Takes some getting use to, quite a bit more trash an obstacles get around at times, but for the most part its virgin ground that I can keep going back to time and time again. No lack of targets...that's for sure.

 

[plymouthian12]

Great hunt

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[SweetCorn]

Economics is certainly one factor, but it's one of many IMHO. Others have touched on some, more competition from other hunters, more options when it comes to jewelry choices. I saw an article just the other day that Zimmer (they make implantable medical parts) in Warsaw, IN (the heart o N. Indiana lake country) can't find enough workers. 50k/yr in that part of the country is good pay, no degree required.

The article states a lot of people don't want to do factory work or don't want to live in a rural county. Our workforce has certainly changed, they've become really picky.
Anyone looking for a solid job with long term stability, check this article out.

https://thebillfold.com/when-companies-offer-good-jobs-but-cant-find-takers-e160f2c17961

 

[DnD]

Yes, as the article states, competition is a factor ......I was living at New Smyrna Beach this same decline ..... though nothing like what use to be brought in.

Competition is a huge factor in Florida. (BTW, I'm within driving distance of New Smyrna Beach) Seems every FL beach (communal & tourist) has dedicated hunters that visit every few days, then you have the folks that swing out every Sat/Sun, and of course you have the influx of tourists that do nothing but read posts about all the treasure in Florida.

So on tourists beaches, finding a recent drop means weaving in and out of blankets and beating the other 20 guys/gals to the location. If you're in the water, that may diminish some of your competition if you are on a rough Atlantic coast beach, but certainly not in calm, gulf beach areas.

Old treasure? Perhaps, so long as you can be on site exactly when conditions change and are ahead of the other 20 local hunters that live nearby and are chomping at the bit to hunt during these times.

 

[DnD]

This might be impacting some of you as well?
https://manaloneblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/times-are-changing/

Agreed.

 

[P.ALLEN]

So you're an expert on class and quality? Come walk a mile in these shoes bud, oh and bring a cane, you'll need it.

 

[bigscoop]

Competition is a huge factor in Florida. (BTW, I'm within driving distance of New Smyrna Beach) Seems every FL beach (communal & tourist) has dedicated hunters that visit every few days, then you have the folks that swing out every Sat/Sun, and of course you have the influx of tourists that do nothing but read posts about all the treasure in Florida.

So on tourists beaches, finding a recent drop means weaving in and out of blankets and beating the other 20 guys/gals to the location. If you're in the water, that may diminish some of your competition if you are on a rough Atlantic coast beach, but certainly not in calm, gulf beach areas.

Old treasure? Perhaps, so long as you can be on site exactly when conditions change and are ahead of the other 20 local hunters that live nearby and are chomping at the bit to hunt during these times.

Sure, "tourist beaches" are the main attraction now, one of the very reasons why you're seeing more and more hunters/competition there, because it's exactly what the article points out, "it's where gold and silver is still being worn and lost and replenished." As for "the old gold"...this is relative to where you hunt, in your neck of the coastal woods you're waiting on erosion so you can access those deeper layers. However, up here, we have no erosion factor, not really, so most of what is "old gold" is now under the encroaching muck, weds, silt, etc., and I have yet to see another in these areas due to all of the trash and debris. It's "very difficult" and "very slow" hunting.

As for the Zimmer article, I have good friends that work there so don't believe everything you read.

 

[bigscoop]

Something else worth noting as being "relative to where you hunt".......HUGE difference between coastal beaches and inland Indiana beaches, on the cost the sand is always moving and shifting, there is current to carry the liter stuff away, etc. On these Indiana beaches it's typically all sand, gravel, and clay, or some combination of, there are no currents to carry stuff away and the bottom is never shifting and changing, so whatever drops there stays there and there is no salt to quickly eat away at it either so irons, ect., deteriorate very slowly and simply create halos and otherwise hotspots, etc. This is what I have tried to explain to a lot of large coil users, try to attack many of these areas with a large coil and you'd be lucky to get a good solid repeatable hit on a surface target, let alone a deep masked one.

 

[lookindown]

60 TO 70% of my gold ring finds have been mens bands over the 6 years Ive been detecting...Im still finding the bands but they aren't gold anymore.

 

[bigscoop]

Yesterday I drove to a fairly good sized Indiana beach at a state park, the beach was completely vacant, the campground all but empty, this just four or five days prior to the 4th of July, one of the busiest weekends of the year, a time when people are typically racing to secure a camping spot in advance. So just out of curiosity I started asking questions.

"These days it's pretty much like this until about Thursday afternoon, then they'll start coming in but it's nothing like it use to be."

Camping use to be cheap but not anymore, in years past these campgrounds were packed from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year, now it's pretty much just a weekend thing and except for the holidays there's always some open spots. I can remember what it was like when the economy was good because I was raised here, lived right down the street for 30 years, use to spend a great deal of time on this lake and in this campground. So the economy is worse then many realize, a recent report stating that 80% of the wealth is now possessed by just 20% of the population and in many areas of the country it's pretty obvious.