He means that he thinks 99% of the time you will lose ped when using a rookie finder. This isn't true though as there are decent MU things you can find with rookie gear. It's all in how you play it. Besides rookie gear is super cheap, even if you do lose as long as you learn something the small amount lost is worth it.
No that's not how it works. Claims are the basic "unit" in the ground. The size of the claim is determined by the amount of TT value in your drop. For a rookie, an ore claim will be on average worth ~ .3 ped (because only about 1/3 of drops produce hits and each drop costs you 0.1 ped in probes). For the "regular" finder, each claim will be on average ~ 3 ped because it costs 10x as much in probes. If you use a level 13 amp (I don't recommend this!) which adds 20 ped of TT value to the cost of each drop, your average claim size will be about 60 ped (20 ped x 3). Claims have no size (or depth) while sitting "in the ground". When you make a drop, the finder searches outward until it finds a claim, then looks at the average search depth for your finder and decides what mineral you should get. The size is based on the probe cost for the finder (plus any amps you may be using). Once a claim has been found, it is gone. You can drop again on the same spot but any claims you find will be new claims, outside of the original claim's radius. I don't recommend re-dropping on the same spot unless the claim pops up right underneath your drop point.
