Buying And Selling
Published by Larry on Tagged Buying & Selling Equipment, Instuctional, Selling Detector Finds
The holiday season and the beginning of a new year are wonderful times to buy and sell all things related to treasure finding. In the last two months I have purchased six detectors and sold eight. I have also sold several hundred coin/jewelry finds (mostly silver and gold) because precious metals are selling at high price levels and Indian Cents and Buffalo Nickels are bringing good returns too.
Ebay has had more metal detector and coin offerings than I have seen in the last 7 years of buying and selling there. Two of the biggest sellers are start-up units from Fisher and Garrett, the F2 & Ace 250. These units start at about $200.00 and offer a lot of value for the price. White’s dealers also are offering the Classic ID 5 at great closeout prices. I recommend these units and the Tesoro Silver Sabre U Max as great start-up or back-up instruments. They are all high performance, quality metal detectors for hobbyists of all ages and new and used ones are found on ebay at good prices. Buying one now will save some money and this is the only hobby that pays you to participate. I have actually found coins and jewelry on the first day of using a detector that more than paid for the cost of the instrument. A White’s underwater unit that I paid $150.00 for produced a Star of Lindy 14K diamond ring valued at $1250. A Fisher unit that I paid $255.00 for, found a 1904 New Orleans mint half dollar in XF, a 1924 Standing Liberty Quarter in about uncirculated condition and several other goodies that first day that I have sold for more than $600. In these tight economic times, metal detecting can produce some serious cash or pay for needed services when finds are sold, traded or bartered. Check out this blog for tips on how to sell and trade finds.
Ebay also provides an easy way to sell your detector(s) if you are interested in upgrading to the lastest technology. While I own some top-line, high-tech machines, I still love the powerful 80′s & 90′s machines made by Fisher, Garrett and White’s and occasionally these machines are offered for sale too. Fisher 1200 units, Garrett Deepseeker Master Hunters and the White’s 5900/6000 machines have produced over 100,000 coins for me. I will still buy these machines for resale because they will produce great returns for any serious hobbyist. The Fisher 1260 is my all-time favorite land-use machine. Owners of these machines do not sell them very often because they are extraordinary for deep buried silver dimes and the 4 inch coil for this unit is the best mini-coil I have ever used. I have tried to purchase a 1260 on ebay and they are few and far between. The 1265, 66, and 70 may go a little deeper but the smooth sound of the 1260 on deeply buried silver is surreal to my ears.
I encourage all hobbyists to keep an eye on silver and gold prices before selling finds. Back a couple of decades ago on January 21st, I caught silver at never equalled price of $47.00 an ounce and gold was $950 for a few hours. I sold $82.00 of silver coin finds and 100 gold and silver rings for enough money to purchase a nearly new car. Today, January 19th reminds me of that day. It is indeed a good time to buy equipment and sell valuable finds. I have 11 items on sale on ebay today that I found with metal detectors and I am checking out those metal detector listings for the right equipment too. Here’s to “diggin it”!
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
I guess it all depends on how used to any machine you are. I can pretty much tell what’s under the coil of my 1266 before I dig, though even when I’m 99% sure it’s a pulltab, I’ll dig it just in case.
I’ve set up my discrimination pretty well that it nulls out completely on gold, but still chirps on pulltabs and bottle caps. But it’s again one of the reasons I’m hoping to get a detector with VID this year, and that’s to concentrate on finding the gold left in the parks and old picnic groves.
I hunted a park last fall that had been poundeed to death for the last 20 years or so and pulled some old Barbers, Mercs, and even some gold jewelry out of an area infested with pulltabs. This year I’m going back with my 3 and 5″ coil (if I don’t have my Etrac) to try to pluck some more good targets out of the same spot because I’m sure there’s a lot more there.
That’s one good thing in my opinion about the target ID machines. It seems people won’t bend over to dig the pennies, nickels and pulltabs, which is fine by me, because they end up leaving the Buffaloes, Indians, wheaties and gold for the rest of us.
Mike
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Mike,
I love the 1265 & 1266 Fisher units. They are uplines to the best machine ever made in my book, the 1260. Like yourself, I could take my 1260 and 90% of the time could predict the item. I got so proficient with the 1260 that I could tell the depth by reading the signal well. I like the Garrett 1350 and 1500 units for imaging. Hobbyist who do not pick up pennies and nickels, are paying for my gas, lunch and batteries. I have not only dug up over 152,000 coins, I have picked up thousands of discarded pennies, nickels and dimes that have been tossed on purpose my others.