FL-Hunter
Forum Supporter
i am getting ready to buy, and have been researching models, prices, dealers, and the like ( I don't spend $1000+ without doing my homework).
As far as dealers go, Kellyco seems to spend a lot of money on search engine placement, so they get widely used, and from what I read it seems they have a pretty good reputation. I have read mostly positives, a lot of "they're ok, nothing special", and a few " they tried to pull a fast ones...."
When i am ready to pull the trigger I'll do everything I can to buy local. I'd rather know who i'm buying from, since that's who i'll be dealing with when and if there is a problem, it seems that a lot of detector companies dictate the minimum advertised price, which is why everyone offers the same product at the same price. This is also why a lot of companies offer the free extras instead of discounting the prices. I laugh everytime i see the little plastic shovel they give away, they say it has a retail price of like $30. It looks EXACTLY like the one i bought at home depot for $1.99
The reason you see all the dealers offer the same price is because manufactures have something called MAP pricing. That means, that is the lowest price you can advertise that item for. It helps keep one dealer from undercutting another, and helps keep the value of your used gear higher. At the flip side, it decreases competition and in my book, that's price fixing which is illegal, however there is a gray area where they get away with it. They can sell to you for whatever they want to, but they cannot advertise it any lower than what the Manufacture dictates. I can see positives to both side of the coin on this one and negatives on one side of the coin, and that's the consumer side however the positive side of the negative side of the coin is that it ensures dealers will be around longer to take care of the customer, so maybe Map pricing is best for everyone in the end. Who knows. At least you now understand why the prices are the way they are. Companies throw in other items with the detectors to make themselves stand out from other dealers so you will buy from them. Either way you look at it, most of Kellyco's extras are junk. I'm not knocking Kellyco here, they are a SUPER GREAT company! I buy from them often!
They are who I would recommend, but if you don't want their extra junk, let them know that, and they will take it off and reduce the price slightly for you, usually they will take of $14.95 which is the real value of that $200 in junk extras.
Again, please don't anyone take this the wrong way, I'm All For Kelleyco and they offer a great deal on those junk extras if you are a first time buyer you can have all you need to get started for much less than high quality digging tools would cost you, but in the end, you will be buying replacements. Their shovels and digging tools break very easily but they do get you started for less!