Big Boys Hobbies

Minelab E-Trac Fake / Knockoff?

My experience is that serieal numbers is a false trail to take. No company should give away serial numbers for a variety of reasons. What does that tell you anyway? Numbers are easier to copy than hardware. Call the mfg. for a listing of authorized dealers if you are not sure. Most mfg.s don't honor the warranty if you cannot show you bought from an authorized dealer.

A red flag is if you find a new machine advertized for a lower price- beware! Dealers may toss in extrs or quote privately, but I don't see anyone legit giving out cut-rate prices in print or online.

I saw the listing for those guys online. They look like the real thing at 30/40% list in 3 to 6 quantities. Too good to be true? Oh yeah!:roll:
 
I actually got a really good deal from a legit dealer. I saved a few hundred dollars over the lowest advertised price I seen online. In the past I would just order online and pay what the advertised price was but I have found it that it's worth giving the dealers a call and seeing what they can do for you. Most are pretty good guys and willing to work with you. In the end you might pay a few more bucks vs. these fake sites but you get a real high end detector that will do deeper and be covered by the warranty. :)
 
My Minelab 705 Gold Pack has the #'s for the control box and the coil on the outside end of the box, just like my White's MXT. The 705 was made in Australia, we all know where White's are made!!!!!!!

Dusty
 
Just like the chinese mother boards back in the late '99-04's. They ripped off the capacitor chemical makeup of a certain manufacture. Too bad it wuz the fubar makeup of which ten of thousand of faulty boards were produced for Dell and others. Dont know if cpu companies learned from that one. It took about 3-4 years, which means the warranty was out...by the way.

Lesson learn?? DONT BUY CHEAP CRaP, save and get the real thing.
 
I would love to do a side by side comparison and field test with a real and fake E-trac just to see how they compare. They did do a good job with appearance but I wonder how the electronics are.
 
xlogit3k said:
This is a response for the first time I asked for serial numbers.

Hello,

Mr. Peter do you expect us to unbox a sealed item and give you the serial number? what is the guarantee that you will purchase them afterwards? Please if you want to do business with us, place your order and if you are not ok with our terms, I wish you good luck.

Regards

Eddy
Click to expand...

MINELAB doesnt seal their boxes
 
CoiltoSoil said:
I would love to do a side by side comparison and field test with a real and fake E-trac just to see how they compare. They did do a good job with appearance but I wonder how the electronics are.
Click to expand...



I have seen them and taken them apart . They are terrible at soldering.:shock:
No 100% they do not work save your money don't be fooled by the pictures they take pictures of someone's real Etrac and post it on Alibaba . Ask them to post a picture with your screenname and the date on a piece of paper. Overseas purchasing is risky.
 
xlogit3k said:
Here is the response I got to the last thing I sent him about checking the serial numbers.


Hello,

You must also understand that no one will buy unboxed product, if you are willing to buy only 1 unit to see the quality then we are ready to sell only 1 to you for the verification purpose. Nothing will make me open a box for you to see the serial number.. I have been in business long enough to know what unboxing a product means.. With all due respect we are selling original minlab detectors only..
Click to expand...


There are probably telling the truth here they are selling original MINLAB detectors....not Minelab!
 
Stay away from the fakes

dmulk said:
Hi all,

I stumbled over this link in another thread:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/112449919/Minelab_E_TRAC_Metal_Detector.html

I assume people purchase these to try and resell to make a profit, but I'm just curious....is there anyone out there that has knowingly purchased one of these knock offs for actual use? :?:

If you have, did it work?

I use a *genuine* DFX and am quite happy (with Whites as a company, also)...just curious.

Cheers,

<D>
Click to expand...

Buyer Beware.

My brother purchased a so called Minelab GPX 4500 from Alibaba (China).
Price was ridiculous $AUS 1100.00.

They delivered no problem. Came in a nice case.
Took it out. First impressions were good. An exact copy to the untrained eye.
Took out the control box and noticed it was very light.
Everything else looked ok.

Charged the battery. Took the detector to a nice quiet location and fired it up. Problems started immediately. Detects metal but only responds to a coin from about 2 inches from the coil. Big problems trying to ground balance. Would not balance in auto or manual.

Took the machine to a Minelab dealer. An original Minelab box weighed nearly 3x heavier than the copy!!

Contacted China. They replied back saying very sorry and our technicians will look at it and get back to us.

They never did. If you are thinking of purchasing one of these fakes, be prepared to kiss you hard earned money away. Ye have been warned!!:mad:
 
Alibaba was rated as the worlds #1 source for pirated copy products for a reason. It's the Walmart mentality on steroids.
 
Most of the companies on Ali are knockoffs etc...There were stories aplenty about people buying 4g memory sticks for under 2 bucks each. They looked exactly like the Kingston stick. The only problem was that it was empty inside..

do some research on who makes parts or the full minelab machines.....most companies use only a few companies for manufacturing.... also, most companies have certain companies that are allowed to distribute for them. Not necessarily MDs.

http://www.apple.com/hk/en/reseller/distributor/list.php

there's a list of apple's official distributors. Most companies will list this info on their site, or you can call the company and talk to a sales rep.

as far as stuff from ali and other overseas resources..it's best to fly there, tour the plant and then make a deal..
 
The general rule I go by is that ANY thing designed and made in China will be junk. It could be a shovel, shoes, electronics, etc. They take our money, they take our jobs, and they send us their junk and they laugh at us all they way to the bank. "Silwy Amerwicans"
 
If "fractured" english is used to describe the detectors you know for sure it is directly out of China. For example:

Specialized in metal detector

LCD screen will directly display the nature of detected metal (non-ferrous metal or black metal)...

Hand hold metal detector

HOT design. handheld metal detector. Easy to find the metal. a paper staple, a needle, a coin, a piece of 5cm dumb copper wire...

show the capacity of electricity...

Detecting Depth (Max): 3-5 Meters (Hmmmm...9 to 15 feet??)

Shooting frequency: 6.99Khz

It can detect deepth is 1.5---5M

Sound frequency: 400 Hz.

**********************************

When you see these kinds of descriptions on a web site you can rest assured it is probably a site from China.
 
ramer said:
The general rule I go by is that ANY thing designed and made in China will be junk. It could be a shovel, shoes, electronics, etc. They take our money, they take our jobs, and they send us their junk and they laugh at us all they way to the bank. "Silwy Amerwicans"
Click to expand...

Agreed...One of our biggest national debt problems in the US. We are the thinkers, innovators and designers and they reap the profit benifits of all of our hard work. They do not import anything from the USA instead they reverse engineer everything we design so they can sell it in their country. We should slowly cut the amount of imports we bring into our country and get America working again... Hey if prices of products rise a buck or two because it's being made in the USA again , I'm all for it!!!
 
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