Is it me or has anyone noticed that the interests in vintage metal detectors dropped off significantly?

[straker]

I don't know about you guys,but I still like to swing the older analog units. I have 3 that were made in 1986. 2 Teknetics Mark series and a 'Bud Lite'. They still git r done!

 

[lytle78]

The folks who remember them have - sadly - “dropped off” significantly.

 

[straker]

Unfortunately...that appears to be the answer to my question. :sad:

 

[John(H)]

I still like collecting vintage metal detectors and maybe there being less collectors out there is good in the sense that I have less competition! lol

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The Tek Mark 1 was an awesome machine. But when it comes to the subject of "vintage metal detectors", I tend to think of that as stuff from the 1940s, 50s, 60s, etc.... Not something still usable/competitive for today. A few machines in the 20 to 30 yr. old range can still-hold their own. And in some cases (the 77b) can do things that today's machines can't do. So for those machines that might be 20 yrs. old (cz6, for example) and still used today, I don't consider "vintage". But that's just me.

As for collecting vintage machines from the 1950s, 60s, etc....: There was never much demand or interest in the first place. If the subject ever came up on a thread, there'd be few persons to input. And when forums specific to the topic were put up, few persons chime in. So it occurs to me that there's simply not much interest .

And for those that ever did take a liking to the nostalgia, and wanted to buy up curiosity pieces: There was never a lack of them to choose from. They show up at flea markets, garage sales, etc.... all the time. So those that ever cared to collect, tend to have long-since gotten all they wanted, for cheap. So there's just no demand.

 

[John(H)]

Still a lot of demand for vintage detectors or maybe we should call them Collectable Detectors...electronics goes obsolete very quickly...any way I like to collect the early TID and the VLF/TR models and the earlier BFO and TR models... just look on ebay...some are getting repectable prices.

 

[straker]

The Tek Mark 1 was an awesome machine. But when it comes to the subject of "vintage metal detectors", I tend to think of that as stuff from the 1940s, 50s, 60s, etc.... Not something still usable/competitive for today. A few machines in the 20 to 30 yr. old range can still-hold their own. And in some cases (the 77b) can do things that today's machines can't do. So for those machines that might be 20 yrs. old (cz6, for example) and still used today, I don't consider "vintage". But that's just me.

As for collecting vintage machines from the 1950s, 60s, etc....: There was never much demand or interest in the first place. If the subject ever came up on a thread, there'd be few persons to input. And when forums specific to the topic were put up, few persons chime in. So it occurs to me that there's simply not much interest .

And for those that ever did take a liking to the nostalgia, and wanted to buy up curiosity pieces: There was never a lack of them to choose from. They show up at flea markets, garage sales, etc.... all the time. So those that ever cared to collect, tend to have long-since gotten all they wanted, for cheap. So there's just no demand.

When I speak of 'Vintage' I mean anything over 30 years old. I doubt it very much that people still use any of the pre-1970 metal detectors as a primary unit.

 

[Arthur-Canada]

Although these days I can easily afford the "best" metal detector out there on the market, finding just more of the same stuff I have found for the past 20 years does not excite me one bit. 90% of all the really good keepers I have found in 20 years have come from 8" deep or less...easily found by most detectors since the early 80's.

Most of the guys I detect with have all the newest and coolest detectors they can afford and yet almost never do they dig anything good any deeper than 8".

When I'm in the mood to hunt with something that gives be lots of target information I use my Mark 1, which goes deeper than anything I have and ID's it! If I'm feeling like my ears need a rest I just go with my Wilson R&C ll. If it beeps both ways, it is always not iron 99% of the time.

The fun in detecting for me nowadays is trying to hear the subtle almost imperceptible differences in the beep from my Wilson that can tell me what the target is before I dig it. Also, digging a keeper just on the edge of a 30 year old detector's capabilities gives me much more of a thrill then buying a fancy new detector that pretty much does everything but dig the hole for you. What's the challenge in that?!?!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Although these days I can easily afford the "best" metal detector out there on the market, finding just more of the same stuff I have found for the past 20 years does not excite me one bit. 90% of all the really good keepers I have found in 20 years have come from 8" deep or less...easily found by most detectors since the early 80's.

Most of the guys I detect with have all the newest and coolest detectors they can afford and yet almost never do they dig anything good any deeper than 8".

When I'm in the mood to hunt with something that gives be lots of target information I use my Mark 1, which goes deeper than anything I have and ID's it! If I'm feeling like my ears need a rest I just go with my Wilson R&C ll. If it beeps both ways, it is always not iron 99% of the time.

The fun in detecting for me nowadays is trying to hear the subtle almost imperceptible differences in the beep from my Wilson that can tell me what the target is before I dig it. Also, digging a keeper just on the edge of a 30 year old detector's capabilities gives me much more of a thrill then buying a fancy new detector that pretty much does everything but dig the hole for you. What's the challenge in that?!?!

Good post. As for the comment about most of the good stuff you want, being in the top 8" : I distinctly recall in the days (mid 1970s) when we hunted with all-metal TR's (77b's, 66TR's,), that our depth was perhaps 5" in the school yards, we had visions of how "a few more inches would get us into un-limited barbers and IH's". Yet as the 1980s dawned, and we easily went to 7 to 8", I noticed that .... there was not magically the older coins. Oh sure, we did better. But I eventually realized that the shere demographics of the American economy after WWII (the most prosperous time in american affluence), was different than the pre-war era. Kids simply didn't carry that much coins during the depression and earlier times.

And we also discovred that if a person wanted the older coins, that the much bigger factor was WHERE you hunted. Not how much depth you could get. So now, looking back at all the reales, gold coins, seateds, etc.... that I've found, I realize that they weren't necessarily deep. They were 99% a function of "location location location".

That's not to say I don't welcome depth + bells & whistles though.

Also: As for the "past 20 yrs. not exciting you" : Yes: many of the machines introduced as much as 20 yrs. ago, are still every bit as competitive as machines introduced today. The reason is: We hit the point-of-diminishing returns, on the laws of physics. There's only so-much signal you can pump into the ground. And only so much signal response/interpretation that you can pull back out of the ground. So there came a point where No amount of "smaller and faster" (that's the electronics evolution) would change the laws of physics.

 

[John(H)]

There were a lot of metal detecting clubs back in the late 70's and all thru the 80's. many of them hunted in pulltab discriminate and only hunted for the silver coins. I think that is the reason that many of the larger silver coins are missing on most searches especially public sites. I have gone to sites and although the larger silver coins were missing was able to pull out a lot of the silver dimes. many of the silver dimes were missed due to their small size plus if they are on edge are harder to find. I hunt mainly with older machines 30 to 40 years and older. I do have a more recent detector but it gets erratic in some of the trashy sites that I work. the older detectors seem to handle erratic conditions better than the new digital detectors.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

There were a lot of metal detecting clubs back in the late 70's and all thru the 80's. many of them hunted in pulltab discriminate and only hunted for the silver coins. I think that is the reason that many of the larger silver coins are missing on most searches especially public sites. I have gone to sites and although the larger silver coins were missing was able to pull out a lot of the silver dimes. many of the silver dimes were missed due to their small size plus if they are on edge are harder to find. I hunt mainly with older machines 30 to 40 years and older. I do have a more recent detector but it gets erratic in some of the trashy sites that I work. the older detectors seem to handle erratic conditions better than the new digital detectors.

Hey there Joe, Yes: the very late 1970s to early 1980s, was what a few md'rs jokingling called "the silver rush". Where, yes, md'rs rushed to disc. out tabs, and farm the the parks and schools for silver. Reasons were :

a) values went from 3 or 4x face in the mid 1970s, to 10 or 15x face by 1980 or so. And while $1.00 to $1.50 for a silver dime seems like a joke now, remember that in 1980s, minimum wage was like ...... what ... $2.75 p/h ? I remember thinking, in High school, that I could do BETTER md'ing, than to work at a Fast food joint, doh!

b) I realize that discrimination (capable of knocking out foil and tabs) had come out by the mid 1970s. But it didn't gain wide-spread usage till the later 1970s. When I started in 1976-ish, for example, there were still some guys using 77bs, 66TRs, BFOs, etc... with no disc. And... go figure, when discrimination finally caught on in the later 1970s, it was a GODSEND to be able to pass foil. So you can see the temptation to use it. And I can't speak for the people inland, away from any and all swim beaches, but , where I'm at, we figured that if gold rings was our all-fired goal, we would simply go to the beach. So why torture yourself in park/school turf ?

c) The was simply more to choose from in the schools and parks of that era. Because , go figure, there was an immediate 2 to 3" of depth added, from the mid 1970s to 1980-ish. So for awhile there, it seemed you never lacked for signals to choose from. And silver had only been out of circulation for 15-ish years. Thus the clad ratios were not that punishing. Zinc pennies did not exist yet.

So for all these reasons, you're right : Those md'rs of that era, who did turf, tended to "crank the disc." and shoot for only coins.

As for the larger coins being found earlier on, resulting in a higher percentage of dimes being found today : I would think that might be true for the all-metal TR and BFO days. But by the time of VLF/TR, and motion-disc., that didn't seem to be the case anymore. But for the earlier all-metal TRs, Yes: I recall having found multiple silver washington quarters, in the school yards, before EVER finding a mercury dime, for instance. Because the quarters are larger targets, of course. So you were less likely to miss them, versus dimes.

And I recall talking to a guy who was md'ing the school turf in my town, recollecting the 1960s (BFO's probably). And he distinctly recalled getting multiple half dollars from the schools. Which was almost unheard of by the time I started md'ing in the later 1970s

 

[vlad]

are the ones who post here, and have dropped out of detecting, or passed on?
There were some interesting, and somewhat unique designs from the earliest years, but the bottom line is that when they break its often difficult if not impossible to repair them.
And even mid-range units of today can far out preform most of them from a users viewpoint, so why would people coming into detecting want to use them? While they may be collectible, there are many things collectible that can gain value as an investment, coins to name one...so why put money into them?

 

[straker]

The second best thing to finding goodies with the 'classic' units at present time is to buy a 'classic' unit for cheap! As long as it works. I picked up a Bud Lite and 'Viper' treasure baron for less than a hundred a pop each. A little bit of cleaning or replacing battery leads is all and I got 2 'classics' just itching to use.

 

[J-ROB]

I think that there was only a small subculture focused on "vintage machines" for the 25 years I've been interested in this domain. Before that, my Eagle2 SL and 5900s were more or less current hot snot product!

And many of the same crowd I always dealt with is still with us...in this thread for example!! I was amazed that when I came back, the top thread on this subforum was the Tek coil thread and I was in it!!

To be honest, I have not been detecting or on a MD forum for a couple years, since moving to downtown Washington DC, which is the worst place for detecting I've ever lived. All parks are National Park Service. Homeland Security would be on me in minutes if I whipped out a DMCIIb in public!

Anyway, I dug my remaining detector stash out of storage and trying to figure something out to find places to detect.

Still own the following:
Tek Mark1 modified
Tek Mark III (missing lower rod somehow)
GMT1650
DMCIIb
Modified Cobra II

They are machines that I settled on after trying dozens, newer and older. I've done deals with many of you kindred spirits in the past, back when I was "Joe in Austin" on the boards.

Can't find my Eagle Ii 90.5 or rods and coils for a 6000si Pro SL. Thought I still had an XL Pro also. Hmm. Mystery.

More mysterious is the Eagle Spectrum I didn't even know I had, but there it is. Where the heck did I get that?

I think I have another crate of detectors and parts somewhere in my storage.

I'd like to go out and buy a bunch of the latest crop to compare and evaluate, if I had a convenient place to hunt and test. Love to try a couple Euro machines, for example.

But I won't lie...I'd buy more Discovery and Tek machines today if the right deal came along!!

Long story short, I'm convinced that the vintage detector crowd are mostly dedicated lifers and as long as y'all are around there will be a vintage detector world. Definitely not a growth industry though!

My first detector was a Bounty Hunter I BFO. I'm almost 60. If I was of an age where I started out on a QXT or Prism, I seriously doubt that the ol' Mark I would have any of the romantic appeal that it does for me!

 

[Sweeping-4-junk]

The future of getting deeper probably will be advanced PI with disc. The modern state of the art vlf detectors can punch down to around 15 inches or so on a coin , but the soil has to be reasonably clean to get these depths.
There is plenty of coins underground in the 12 - 20+ inch deep range..