Big Boys Hobbies

V3I vs Etrac... Which would you buy?

NightDiver said:
Hi,

Thank you for your post. After collecting coins for over 30 years, I know for a fact that unless you find coins from shipwrecks or coins that are extremely rare in circulation, whatever it is you find in the dirt is worthless unless you have the coins graded.

You do not have to believe me, just call one of the auction houses that deal in selling vintage coins, they will tell you the same thing. If you want top dollar, you need to have the coin or coins graded by a professional.

ND
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Your killing me. You shouldn't hijack someone's thread for one. As to dug coins being worth something or nothing I have seen dug coins on this forum that were sent in and graded and PASSED. Again, they didn't come back labeled ED. Your hypotheses is shot to death.

Start a new thread with these questions and you will get better answers.
 
Azmodeus said:
There's been several 1916-D mercury dimes dug up and sold ungraded for $1,000 or more. One of the guys in my club dug a 1901-S barber quarter at a local fairgrounds, sold it a week later for $4,200. Not to mention silver coins are..well...SILVER! Even common date silvers will never be "worthless" because it's a precious metal. If you find 100 silver dimes, quarters, halves, rings, etc a year it adds up!
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Hi,

I will say this, if anyone finding rare coins are selling them for the kind of money you posted above, they should take the cash and run with a fake address because no coins dug from dirt will command that kind of cash from a "real" coin collector unless the coins are graded. Everyone finding coins needs to take note of this, if you clean any of the coins you find and do not tell the buyer, that is fraud and you will be found guilty in a court for not telling the buyer you cleaned the coin before selling it to them.

For anyone interested, take a look at this "free" site. It may help many on this forum that have found rare coins. Also note, these prices you are about to see will only be seen if you grade your coins by either PCGS, NGC or Anacs.

Coin Melt Values: http://www.ngccoin.com/priceguide/Coin-Melt-Values.aspx

Coin Price Guide: http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/NGCCoinPriceGuide.aspx

Best of luck to everyone...I am still trying to pick a great all around detector...Has anyone thought about the posts above?

e-trac, v3i or the excel II..?

Thanks again

Happy Hunting...
 
Definitely the etrac! The v3i was a complete headache for me for almost two years that I had it. I wouldn't trade my etrac for a truckload of v3i's and thats just the honest truth.

The etrac out of the box is 10X the detecter the v3i is. They both work...one is much more enjoyable....
 
robertj298 said:
Are you sure you've been collecting coins for 30 years? I have sold quite a few find that have not been professionally graded and all of them sold for much more than bullion value.
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Yep, same here. I've sold LOTS of ungraded dug coins on ebay for waaaay more than scrap value.

This all brings me to my million dollar question for everyone. Why would anyone spend a lot of money buying a land detector if all you dig is scrap silver and copper? First off, no person gets $1,600 an ounce for Gold unless you find 22K and that is not going to happen unless you live in India. Secondly, Silver is trading at around $28 an ounce. Do you realize how many coins you need to find to recover your money selling silver scrap coins, hundreds if not thousands. So...someone please enlighten me because I am pushing more towards buying a water detector every day that passes. The problem is, I have not seen any new water detectors come out that are worth the price. Maybe I am missing something, you are the experts in this area, now is your time to shine.
Click to expand...

That's a blanket statement which isn't true. The dug coins that I found in the first year of ownership of my detector paid for it several times over... and I'm not the only one. Several guys here find well over 300 silver coins every year.

unless you find 22K and that is not going to happen unless you live in India.
Click to expand...
I've found a 22k coin and I don't live in India.


Anyway.. As for the old Etrac vs V3i debate: I've never owned an Etrac but folks seem to be doing pretty well with them, so I have no doubt that its a really good machine. I have a V3i which I've taken the time to learn and understand. It has made some outstanding finds for me and is a great detector as far as I'm concerned. Very happy with it.
 
NightDiver said:
Hi,

I will say this, if anyone finding rare coins are selling them for the kind of money you posted above, they should take the cash and run with a fake address because no coins dug from dirt will command that kind of cash from a "real" coin collector unless the coins are graded. Everyone finding coins needs to take note of this, if you clean any of the coins you find and do not tell the buyer, that is fraud and you will be found guilty in a court for not telling the buyer you cleaned the coin before selling it to them.

For anyone interested, take a look at this "free" site. It may help many on this forum that have found rare coins. Also note, these prices you are about to see will only be seen if you grade your coins by either PCGS, NGC or Anacs.

Coin Melt Values: http://www.ngccoin.com/priceguide/Coin-Melt-Values.aspx

Coin Price Guide: http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/NGCCoinPriceGuide.aspx

Best of luck to everyone...I am still trying to pick a great all around detector...Has anyone thought about the posts above?

e-trac, v3i or the excel II..?

Thanks again

Happy Hunting...
Click to expand...
I have to laugh at your posts. Maybe you could tell us why a coin that is dug from the ground not worth anything? Now I'm sure you won't find any coin that is uncirculated but a silver coin that comes from the ground is no different than any other ciculated coin that you find anywhere else. While your at it maybe you can tell us all what a"real" coin collector is. Are there a lot of impostor coin collectors? I am sure you must be a "real" coin collector lol
 
Pat rick

Have the v3i and getting use to operating settings was a learning.Last year found a Barber 1/4 down 14 to 16" 1903,impressive! Temp moisture full moon effect all machines.So far this year have 15 silvers,one gold ring,clad nearing 100.00 many tokes cars.Love to Dig What is in the dirt ? Oldest Barber Dime 1900 this year,last year 1890 Canidian dime:cool:
 
Pat rick said:
Have the v3i and getting use to operating settings was a learning.Last year found a Barber 1/4 down 14 to 16" 1903,impressive! Temp moisture full moon effect all machines.So far this year have 15 silvers,one gold ring,clad nearing 100.00 many tokes cars.Love to Dig What is in the dirt ? Oldest Barber Dime 1900 this year,last year 1890 Canidian dime:cool:
Click to expand...

Welcome aboard!
 
I can't speak for the V3i but sure it is a good detector. For me the Etrac is amazing and I have pulled a lot of tough silvers with it. As for ease of use, I found a Walker my first day using it. :D Check out my albums and see what the Etrac has found for me in hunted parks here in So Cal.
 
Rattlehead said:
Yep, same here. I've sold LOTS of ungraded dug coins on ebay for waaaay more than scrap value.



That's a blanket statement which isn't true. The dug coins that I found in the first year of ownership of my detector paid for it several times over... and I'm not the only one. Several guys here find well over 300 silver coins every year.


I've found a 22k coin and I don't live in India.


Anyway.. As for the old Etrac vs V3i debate: I've never owned an Etrac but folks seem to be doing pretty well with them, so I have no doubt that its a really good machine. I have a V3i which I've taken the time to learn and understand. It has made some outstanding finds for me and is a great detector as far as I'm concerned. Very happy with it.
Click to expand...
He sounds more like a rare coin investor than collector in that he seems to only to deal with slabbed coins. As to dug silver, try not to field clean it by rubbing. Sure, most of it is common date circulated coins, but with all the melting going on nowadays plus the big melt of 1980 a common date in excellent condition could wind up being a rarity in the future.
J
 
I don't have the V3i but I do have it's little brother, the VX3 and I love it! I'm surprised how powerful it is even without the gain pumped up. One of my favorite features is the Noise meter so you can tell how much noise you're getting from the ground you're detecting around. It's easy, you go to the Sensitivity menu and click Zoom/View and you can see how much noise you're getting back from that piece of ground. The manual suggests to keep it under 10% Noise, I try to keep it under that. Think of the noise as the high beams at night in foggy weather, usually you can see farther with the low beams on instead of high beams, and the Noise meter helps you get deeper.
 
The one (and only) difference I'm seeing comments on, between the etrac and the V3i, is silver detection.

Is there any way to configure the V3i to have as good a detection capability? It's pretty configurable. Or is it completely a function of frequency, for which the minelab has higher frequencies that can't be duplicated on the Whites?

Curius
 
MikeSD said:
The one (and only) difference I'm seeing comments on, between the etrac and the V3i, is silver detection.

Is there any way to configure the V3i to have as good a detection capability? It's pretty configurable. Or is it completely a function of frequency, for which the minelab has higher frequencies that can't be duplicated on the Whites?

Curius
Click to expand...

kike all the minelab guys say how wonderfull the e-!!!! and ctx is on silver coins. Well that's great. I hear it over and over and over and sometimes wanna fall asleep. I had a etrac. In fact 2 of them. I had a ctx.
I don't only look for silver. Im more of a civil war relic hunter so id take the whites hands down. Also if anything went wrong with the whites the customer service is hands down best in the business. Period!!!!!
 
NightDiver said:
Hi,

I will say this, if anyone finding rare coins are selling them for the kind of money you posted above, they should take the cash and run with a fake address because no coins dug from dirt will command that kind of cash from a "real" coin collector unless the coins are graded. Everyone finding coins needs to take note of this, if you clean any of the coins you find and do not tell the buyer, that is fraud and you will be found guilty in a court for not telling the buyer you cleaned the coin before selling it to them.

For anyone interested, take a look at this "free" site. It may help many on this forum that have found rare coins. Also note, these prices you are about to see will only be seen if you grade your coins by either PCGS, NGC or Anacs.

Coin Melt Values: http://www.ngccoin.com/priceguide/Coin-Melt-Values.aspx

Coin Price Guide: http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/NGCCoinPriceGuide.aspx

Best of luck to everyone...I am still trying to pick a great all around detector...Has anyone thought about the posts above?

e-trac, v3i or the excel II..?

Thanks again

Happy Hunting...
Click to expand...

wow. really? any silver coin you dig is worth more that is scrap unless its completely unidentifiable. have you not looked at any of the finds on here? do a little research before you try and sell your bull !!!! because thats the only thing coming out of the ground thats worthless!
 
NightDiver said:
Hi,

I have been searching for the last two months to find the best Metal Detector for the money and it has not been easy.

Let me explain why. First off, I collect coins for a living. With this said, I have not found any pictures, maybe I missed some?, of any coins found with "Land" detectors in the United States worth anything but scrap.

Unless you send what you find in to be graded by either NGC, PCGS or Anacs, the coins are worthless and you cannot clean them because trust me, you will lose a lot of money because the grading companies can tell and will send the coins back to you without a grade in a holder stamped, "cleaned" and the coin is scrap.

So, unless I am missing something on all these metal detecting forums, the only coins worth anything that I see being found by any metal detector are the historic coins which in almost every case do not need to be cleaned because of the age of the gold or silver coin / historic value. It's like finding a shipwreck with millions of dollars worth of "antique" coins from history.

Ok, I respect all the people that have founds items within all the detecting forums but you need to understand where I am coming from. The way I see it, the only fast way in today's world to make your money back after buying a land detector is to purchase a water detector and pray you find gold because the coins I have seen being dug in the U.S soil., i.e., pennies, qtr.'s, dimes, nickels, etc., are all worn and worthless to a collector.

This all brings me to my million dollar question for everyone. Why would anyone spend a lot of money buying a land detector if all you dig is scrap silver and copper? First off, no person gets $1,600 an ounce for Gold unless you find 22K and that is not going to happen unless you live in India. Secondly, Silver is trading at around $28 an ounce. Do you realize how many coins you need to find to recover your money selling silver scrap coins, hundreds if not thousands. So...someone please enlighten me because I am pushing more towards buying a water detector every day that passes. The problem is, I have not seen any new water detectors come out that are worth the price. Maybe I am missing something, you are the experts in this area, now is your time to shine.

Now, anyone with intelligent answers are welcome to post. What I am looking for is again, the best detector for the money and like I said above, after researching detectors and the types of them for many months, the only fast way to try and recover your cost is to buy a water detector for the beaches and diving.

Thank you for all the help...Happy Easter!
Click to expand...

if you're in this hobby to get rich you picked the wrong hobby. yes there is a chance to make money but connecting with history is what keeps the die hard MD'er going, not profit
 
LittleJohn said:
Definitely the etrac! The v3i was a complete headache for me for almost two years that I had it. I wouldn't trade my etrac for a truckload of v3i's and thats just the honest truth.

The etrac out of the box is 10X the detecter the v3i is. They both work...one is much more enjoyable....
Click to expand...


Much easier to learn for most as well!
 
I wonder how many have owned both. I see a lot of bashing based ONLY on personal preference. A lot of which just looks like stuff they have read or one side of the question. It's IMPOSSIBLE to know which is the better, if you haven't owned and used BOTH. You can quote specs but that doesn't tell the whole story.

How about a knowledgeable person, giving an honest view of which might be better, as a general purpose detector. And leave all the whining, bashing, and personal preference stuff out of the thread?

Just sayin' the other stuff isn't very helpful.
 
I've owned both and as most know I have already said many times if I had only one detector to chose from, out of the V3i or E-Trac, it would be the V3i. Both machines are fantastic with each excelling in a different areas of hunting. For the deep silver the E-Trac is the killer but lacks a bit on the gold hunting. The V3i is a great all-around machine and gets better/deeper with time. The E-trac is a quick out of the box machine that can get deep even with a first timer, where as V3i takes a bit more learning to get the best performance. You've also got to remember the E-Trac comes stock with an 11" coil and the V3i with a 10" coil. That alone will give a slight edge, about 1", to the E-Trac on depth.

White's has always sided on the conservative side when it comes to their factory settings. Plenty of room to grow. The E-Trac is a kick-butt out of the box machine.

Again, If I had one choice it would be the V3i for my hunting needs. I'm a coin shooter that hunts mainly schools and parks with the occasional relic hunting.
 
Detect vs Discriminate

I read a lot of people who say the e-trac finds silver better. But is that on the detecting side or the discriminating side?

By that I mean, if someone digs everything with a detection, will they both find the silver the same. Or does the Whites just not trigger on silver as well as the e-trac. Or to put it another way, is this silver edge for e-trac, based on discriminating or detection such that it identifies silver as silver, better than the V3i?
 
I had the same dilemma, around Christmas I was looking to get a new high end detector to compliment my F75, the basic choices were the V3i or the E-trac. I decided to go with the V3i for several reason, firstly I love the versatility, I know some people like turn on and go detectors (which the V3i can be), but I love tweaking programs to get the best performance at each site. I also love the V3i's large, easy to read, HD color display. It's VERY nice to look at compared to the Minelab Explorers I've owned (the E-trac display doesn't look much better than the Explorers from what I've seen). It's 3 Freq. so it will work well at the beach, as well as other locations which multi-freq detectors excel at, but not only is it 3 freq., it can be run at any one of those freq. depending on your hunting needs, for example, I like running 2.5 single freq. when hunting coins. The V3i also let's you assign tones so each individual ID, so you can set the detector up to sound anyway you'd like. Let's not forget White's customer service wins hands down. In the end, for me, it was personal preference. I've owned 4 Minelabs, including 2 Explorers, but here in PA they just did not impress me. Some guys do very well with Minelabs, but in my past experience, hunting cellar holes, my XLT found me more than my Sov and Explorers, another reason I went with the V3i. But like I said, what's good for me, might not be good for you. Watch some videos, check out the features, and swing both of them before you buy (if possible). Depth is negligible from what I've seen, and really shouldn't be a factor in your decision because it can go either way depending on the soil and settings. I almost forgot, I prefer the Whites pistol grip rod assembly as well.
 
Detector said:
I've owned both and as most know I have already said many times if I had only one detector to chose from, out of the V3i or E-Trac, it would be the V3i. Both machines are fantastic with each excelling in a different areas of hunting. For the deep silver the E-Trac is the killer but lacks a bit on the gold hunting. The V3i is a great all-around machine and gets better/deeper with time. The E-trac is a quick out of the box machine that can get deep even with a first timer, where as V3i takes a bit more learning to get the best performance. You've also got to remember the E-Trac comes stock with an 11" coil and the V3i with a 10" coil. That alone will give a slight edge, about 1", to the E-Trac on depth.

White's has always sided on the conservative side when it comes to their factory settings. Plenty of room to grow. The E-Trac is a kick-butt out of the box machine.

Again, If I had one choice it would be the V3i for my hunting needs. I'm a coin shooter that hunts mainly schools and parks with the occasional relic hunting.
Click to expand...

That's one thing people tend to overlook in comparison videos, and I'm glad you brought it up. The V3i has a 10in coil while the E-trac and CTX have 11in coils. The old "rule of thumb" which I often hear is an inch of depth for every additional inch of coil. Now I'm not going to argue whether this is true or not, but from most depth comparison videos I've seen, especially where the e-trac and ctx hit slightly harder on deep targets, I feel the V3i would perform just as well if it had a slightly larger 11in coil.
 
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