# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/101 "2025-12-24T14:40:23Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > A (probably) Chinese manufactured equivalent digital VOM today would be about $30 to $40, and it would include some additional features I’m not sure. They really crummy ones that are comparable to the old brown Micronta is $5-10 MSRP at Harbor Freight and they very, very frequently give them away. I would also suspect the current ones are better in virtually every way from battery life to probe pliability to display size. Edit: to your point, tho, I do recall $27 for the entry level one I got for my first community college class in the mid90s. ---
**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, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/102 "2025-12-24T14:53:06Z")
True, there’s a wide range. But if I go back through my VOMs (and I have plenty, including some pretty ancient ones), I can see very cheap ($10) units from both time periods. I was speaking more of units from both periods roughly equivalent in durability, build quality, and features. IOW, I could get comparable units in both periods for, say, $40. Fluke meters are a weird case. One reason they are still competitive and sought after is that, in addition to good accuracy and build quality, they are frequently referenced in existing adjustment and calibration procedures. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/103 "2025-12-24T15:03:54Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > brand digital multimeter (i.e., a VOM) I’ve never heard of “VOM” before. Is that just another term for a multimeter, or were they actually functionally different from a multimeter somehow? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/104 "2025-12-24T15:05:03Z")
Volt-Ohm-milliamp ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/105 "2025-12-24T15:06:50Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > All of these trends, and the corresponding tricks of corporations doing shrinkflation, shitflation, outsourcing, offshoring and all the rest have one thing in common. > > They’re essentially one time tricks. Well said. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/106 "2025-12-24T15:08:23Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Volt-Ohm-milliamp Right, but I was curious about the change in terminology, i.e. did “multimeter” differentiate themselves by having additional measurements on top of those, or was it just a linguistic quirk that changed over time but still describe fundamentally the same machine? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/107 "2025-12-24T15:15:07Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Fluke meters are a weird case. Weird for certain. I’ve had opportunities to use a bunch of them at jobsites and hobby situations and I can’t understand the cost of Flukes, at least the lower end ones where there’s a lot of competition. My current meter an Extech that is barely $100 new, the equivalent Fluke is like triple and still doesn’t have all the features. Some jobs and projects have arcflash and calibration requirements but not too many. Flukes always seem unnecessarily heavy. ---
**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, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/108 "2025-12-24T16:01:16Z")
I haven’t done any research, but, based on being in the business since 1971, I think of VOM as being an older term as far as actual usage by techs. Our meters had only three functions. And, frankly, we usually just called them “meters.” Using four syllables for “multimeter” seemed unnecessary. But nowadays it seems more accurate to refer to them as “multimeters” simply because they have so many more features. TL;DR: You have a Triplett 310, you have a VOM. You have a newer Extech of equivalent price, it’s a multimeter. ---
**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 24, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/109 "2025-12-24T16:24:10Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > 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. Is there a typo there? Because “a buck a dozen” isn’t even remotely close to the same price as “a buck a ball”. > [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Fluke meters are a weird case. One reason they are still competitive and sought after is that, in addition to good accuracy and build quality, they are frequently referenced in existing adjustment and calibration procedures. This sounds like some of the tricks that Texas Instruments pulled. They’re popular not because they’re actually particularly good, but because all of the textbooks and all of the standardized tests use them. At least some of which, I’m pretty sure, is due to bribes, kickbacks, and other under-the-table dealing. Speaking of which, a TI graphing calculator cost in the mid-80s back in 1993 when they were first released, and they still cost in the mid-80s (the old joke is that the model number is the price). And unlike most electronics, it’s the same product now as it was then (see what I said above about them not being particularly good). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/110 "2025-12-24T16:32:40Z")
Yes, it really was. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/111 "2025-12-24T16:33:24Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > I haven’t done any research, but, based on being in the business since 1971, I think of VOM as being an older term as far as actual usage by techs. Our meters had only three functions. And, frankly, we usually just called them “meters" I’m a generation younger but same to all. DMM, DVM, VOM, multimeter, voltmeter. I used meter upthread and also know of d’Arsonval off the top of my head. I bought about half a dozen NIB Weston dial gauges for a song at a ham radio fest earlier this year and hooked some up to assorted stuff to make them dance. One is a DC ammeter with a few Amps capacity that I have to an audio amplifier so the needle bumps with the beat. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/112 "2025-12-24T16:35:59Z")
Power tools? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/113 "2025-12-24T16:38:19Z")
I’m a ME but I used one occasionally at work and some of my colleagues used them nearly daily. We called them multimeters. I’ve also heard voltmeters. ---
**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, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/114 "2025-12-24T16:55:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is there a typo there? Yes. I was looking up the prices for new balls - which are generally sold by the dozen. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/115 "2025-12-24T23:08:29Z")
Guitars. In fact, things have improved since the 60s, when the price of a crappy Kay or Harmony guitar would get you a nice entry-level Yamaha nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/116 "2025-12-26T04:00:23Z")
aren’t grocery stores starting to do this with their apps? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2025, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/117 "2025-12-26T04:18:15Z")
Yes, but so is everyone else. I see different airfares than my daughter sees. My wife sees different prices on Amazon. She has Prime and I don’t, she often sees a different (higher) price for an item that I ask her to order for me. So much for free shipping. Basically right now the “price” of anything is not so easy to determine. So many “private” discounts. What is the average price paid. I don’t know, you don’t know, does the BLS know? How? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921.md?page=5)