Skippy SH13
Forum Supporter
Agreed!We are not so much going out to find gold rings, as we are out to find GOLD....
Clad keeps a guy alive, profitable and very sharp to the everchanging travel patterns of Humans. Hunting rings in and of themselves is a time/profit wasting effort, seeings how most are junk now a days, but the location you find them in does tell a story, that should be noticed and processed...
I agree that clad keeps us profitable. As I noted, I don't pass up coins. BUT... I make approximately 3x to 4x in ring sales every year, compared to the clad I find. Last year, I pulled over $1000 in clad, and over $3000 in ring sales (mostly gold, but I do sell quite a few silver and tungsten ones at $5-$10 a pop). If I focused solely on clad, I'll bet I could have made another $200-$300 in coins... but..> I would have traded that $300 for $3000 in gold. And before someone jumps in with, "Yeah, but that was ONE year!"... I've done that three years running. 3x-4x every year. This year I'm right at 2.8x, but suspect some more gold is just around the corner.
I've heard that gold is illusive, but frankly, EVERY place I've taken my metal detector to on a business trip, has resulted in some gold, when i can put more than 10-20 hours in. I have a hard time believing that if people are out looking for it, that they're not going to find it, unless they simply aren't willing to put in the work digging those signals. And YES... it's location location location...
But as a case-in-point, I have seen posts by you, where you've hit football fields that obviously were loaded with quarters, and you'll pull out $20-$40 in quarters in a day's session. Personally, if I was hitting a field like that, the last thing I'd be skipping is the ring signals, because I'd be CONVINCED there were gold rings waiting to be found under that clad. Yeah, you pulled out $40 in coins... But what'd you miss? that's the part that kills me. How many class rings, women's gold rings, or coach's gold rings did you miss out on? Maybe none... Maybe 4. never know until you've dug it. But the odds are nearly 100% that you miss them if you're only digging quarters.
I see that a lot, where people cherry pick quarters all day long... all the while passing up opportunities to pull out the really valuable items. They convince themselves their strategy is producing great levels of returns! and here's the rub... IT IS. It absolutely is a great return. $20 an hour detecting is freaking awesome! But $200-$400 in the same time, along with $15 in quarters is way beyond awesome. I regularly trade that few dollars an hour (if that, since I'm really only digging about 20 extra trash targets or so, at a loss of just a few minutes total time) for the chance to hit it big... and it pays off at least monthly.
Bottom line still stands... If you're out hunting rings, you'll find them. Sure 79% of them are junkers. But 8% gold and 13% Silver are more than enough to add up to a whole lot more fun that stacking quarters.
Second bottom line... Frankly, none of us are in this to actually get rich and retire... and if YOU (the reader) are reading through this saying, "But I LIKE to dig just coins." That's AWESOME. It's about the fun, the enjoyment, and the experience of getting out. That's the #1 point of why we all do this. If you don't like to dig the trash to hit the gold, and love how you're doing it... I strongly recommend you do what you love! That's what its all about.
I love rings. I love gold. Change goes into a Cool-Whip container and dumped into Coinstar about every 5 weeks. I don't even count it, until then. And I make enough that I have upgraded my system 3 times with 3 coils, and have all the accessories I want... plus gobs of extras just for fun. CLAD PAYS.
Cheers!