# Things whose price has barely changed in decades **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921 "2025-12-21T20:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/81 "2025-12-23T00:45:43Z")
Yeah, all the stuff I can think of off the top of my head seems to have been mentioned: Costco hot dog, Arizona Iced Tea, Dollar Tree (though $1.25 now), computers. ETA: now that I think of it, computer games back in the 80s were around $50, and they seem to be similar today, though there’s a large spread of prices. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/82 "2025-12-23T01:05:24Z")
Postage stamps. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/83 "2025-12-23T01:08:56Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Postage stamps How so? The absolute price of U.S. stamps has gone up steadily over the years, particularly over the last couple of decades. Just in the last eight years alone, the cost of a first-class U.S. stamp has gone from 49 cents to 78 cents. But, that said, since the USPS introduced Forever Stamps in 2007, a single first-class Forever stamp is always sufficient postage for a one-ounce letter, regardless of what you paid for it when you bought it. So, a Forever stamp that you bought in 2007, for 41 cents, has the same “value,” for paying for postage, as a Forever stamp that would be bought today, at 78 cents. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/84 "2025-12-23T01:16:37Z")
Schrader tire valves. Invented in the 1890s cost about the same now as then. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/85 "2025-12-23T01:29:52Z")
$4.00 a gallon where I live; $5 at the fancy places. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/86 "2025-12-23T01:30:04Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > This is especially true about food. Somebody might still have a 20 year old e.g. screwdriver to compare to a modern one. But nobody really remembers precisely what their local chain’s pizza was like 20 years ago, nor do they have a still-edible example in their freezer to compare to. In the counter-example category, I remember Domino’s being kind of bland and just not very good back then. In the recent past they’ve had a sort of corporate Come-to-Jesus moment and improved their pizzas dramatically. Enough that I tried them to see, and had the clear thought that Dominos was never that good in high school or college. I think most big chain restaurants feel that consistency is where it’s at; people sort of accrete a Platonic ideal of what a say… McDonald’s hamburger is like, and they’ll notice deviations from that, for the better or worse. So if they are going to decrease the quality deliberately, it’s something they’ll have to do over a pretty long period and in an intelligent way, so that regular and semi-regular customers won’t notice, and the only people who will are those people who may have eaten a lot in the past and have since had a long time without it. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I get the feeling of a lot of economic factions each acting like passengers on a rapidly sinking ship. They’re climbing over each other to get up and away from the water even as the amount of ship still above the surface is ever-shrinking. Once the tip of the ship is at the water level, it’s going to be real unpleasant for everyone all at once. The traditional remedy is higher wages. I think the problem is that there’s a demand by investors for higher profits at any cost, and it drives wage stagnation, enshittification, shrinkflation, and so forth. Without such a relentless demand, I feel like companies would be less willing to cut those corners. I also think that a lot of executive compensation plans drive corporate leadership to engage in morallly and ethically questionable stuff that increases profits because increasing those profits directly enriches those same execs as a result. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/87 "2025-12-23T03:46:12Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Schrader tire valves. Invented in the 1890s cost I worked at a bicycle shop a hundred years later in the 1990s and standard black rubber inner tubes were $6-10 then. I haven’t bought any in a long time but they do seem to start about the same price today. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/88 "2025-12-23T05:15:02Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I have no idea how old you are, but I’m old enough to remember gasoline costing less than 30 cents a gallon. Prices didn’t increase until the oil embargo of the 70s. > > Now, I will grant you that the price of gasoline, although it has gone through wild fluctuations, hasn’t greatly changed in the last 20 years. I’m 75, and can remember a gallon of regular for my VW costing 21¢ / gallon at the Texaco station adjacent to my college in 1971. And the last 20 years would be “decades” but my recollections are that gas has gone up and down without really changing all that much since the 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/89 "2025-12-23T06:00:27Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > gas has gone up and down without really changing all that much > [@Railer13](#): > > the price of gasoline, although it has gone through wild fluctuations, hasn’t greatly changed in the last 20 years. This seems contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/90 "2025-12-23T12:44:10Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > the price of gasoline, although it has gone through wild fluctuations, hasn’t greatly changed in the last 20 years. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > This seems contradictory This [chart](https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/leafhandler.ashx?f=m&n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg) shows what I was trying to say. In September of 2005, the average price of gasoline was $2.95. In November of 2025, it was $3.17. Not a great change. But in those 20 years, the lowest price was in December of 2008 at $1.74. The highest price was in June of 2022 at $5.01. So today’s price isn’t much different from the price of 20 years ago, but there have been lower prices and higher prices over the course of those 20 years. In July of 2008 the price was $4.10. Six months later in December of 2008, the price was $1.74. That, in my mind, is a wild fluctuation. > [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > but my recollections are that gas has gone up and down without really changing all that much since the 80’s. The price of gasoline in April of 1993 was $1.07 per gallon. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/91 "2025-12-23T16:51:38Z")
This graph shows that the price of gasoline was flat from 1978 to 2022 once adjusted for inflation: > **[Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/economicCollapse/comments/1h6cy98/when_adjusted_for_inflation_us_average_annual_gas/)** ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/92 "2025-12-23T19:37:29Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > adjusted for inflation Which, again, is not the point of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/93 "2025-12-23T19:46:04Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So if they are going to decrease the quality deliberately, it’s something they’ll have to do over a pretty long period and in an intelligent way, so that regular and semi-regular customers won’t notice, and the only people who will are those people who may have eaten a lot in the past and have since had a long time without it. Or pull a New Coke, where they change it and then change it back after public outcry, but not actually all the way back. ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/94 "2025-12-23T20:52:02Z")
Back in 1980 a pack of Rotosound Swing Bass strings cost $20-25, and today they cost the same. More bass players, is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/95 "2025-12-23T22:46:26Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Air-fares. > > My first overseas trip in 1995 was from Melbourne Australia to London and it cost app $1500 AUD return. > > I can do the same now. I want to endorse this answer, because it matches my own experience and it’s so surprising. I’ve been travelling between Japan and Ireland for about 30 years. During almost all of that time, a return economy-class fare DUB-KIX if you could be flexible about your dates has been approx €700-€800, and KLM business class was a fairly constant €2500. I say almost all because there was a bump in the last 3 years or so where it was hard to find a fare for less than €1200-€1500, and while the cheapest fares have come back down below €1000 in 2025 it’s not quite as low as it used to be. But it was an amazingly long run. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/96 "2025-12-24T03:34:40Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Which, again, is not the point of this thread. If the price is flat when adjusted for inflation, then the price has changed in two decades. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/97 "2025-12-24T03:57:10Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > If the price is flat when adjusted for inflation, then the price has changed in two decades Nobody is arguing that point, for or against. The OP asked what things are the SAME PRICE that they were decades ago. You know, like if a widget cost $3.00 in 1985 and costs $3.00 in 2025. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/98 "2025-12-24T05:53:49Z")
A Radio Shack Micronta brand digital multimeter (i.e., a VOM) costs about $50 to $60 in 1980. Cheaper analog units with dial indicators sold for about $20 to $25, though some were higher. I’d tell my techs I’d reimburse them up to $50 for a new VOM each year, so I remember it well. A (probably) Chinese manufactured equivalent digital VOM today would be about $30 to $40, and it would include some additional features (e.g., transistor and capacitor testing). Hard to find any analog meters to price for comparison. I tell my techs they can buy their own VOMs now. Might lend them a $20 of they’re short that week. Now, expensive American made brands, like Fluke, have about quadrupled in this same time period. A basic Model 77 was about $100 in 1980 and it is now about $320. But we still need some Flukes to fulfill certain contracts, so we keep a few around and get them calibrated on a regular basis. For 95% of the work, a $20 meter works just fine. Given the choice, I’d take a Triplett Model 310 any day of the week over all the other available options. There about $190, or $280 if they have NIST certification, and along with $25 worth of probes and leather case, you can do anything you need to with one. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/99 "2025-12-24T11:46:04Z")
You raise the point that a lot of the things that have stayed the same nominal price have done so by switching to a more digital electronic tech. Or, and more universally, by being manufactured overseas. The USA exported ~40 years (1980-2020) of inflation to China and other parts of Asia in the form of massive economic and real wage growth there with massive real wage stagnation and job hollowing out here. Europe & UK did a milder form of the same thing. That’s another example of a one-time trick. We’re not going to be able to export our future inflation the same way. And that’s setting aside the current tariff insanity that’s creating economically unnecessary inflation from nothing but one moron’s pique. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/100 "2025-12-24T12:52:12Z")
I’ll offer golf balls. Back in the 70s, my mindset was always “a buck a ball.” Nowadays, pro line balls are around $4 new, but you can buy any number of balls for around a buck a dozen. And I wager that their quality/performance - while not the equal of a modern pro ball, is pretty good and vastly exceeds the balls of 40 years ago. So I’m likely comparing the cost of a lower quality ball today (Top-Flite, Pinnacle), with a pricier ball back then (Titleist.) I can attest with certainty that the golf balls I play today cost EXACTLY the same as the ones I played 40-50 years ago. Because I only play balls that I find! So then and now they cost exactly ZERO! 😃 > [@Chronos](#): > > “Jump through a hoop and get a discount” is how margin maximization almost always works. It’s just different hoops nowadays. > > Plus, of course, all of the valuable data they get for free from their hoops. My wife’s way of thinking of this is, folk always feel like they are getting a discount by playing along with these seller’s loyalty programs and apps. _(Her recurring bane is the grocery store. Tho it does significantly lower the bill.)_ But she says that the folk who use the app are paying the real price for the products. The folk who don’t are paying a premium for the privilege of not disclosing their personal info. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921.md?page=6)