# What moderately priced items today used to be more expensive, but not outrageously so
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 12, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713 "2008-06-12T17:48:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/1 "2008-06-12T17:48:44Z")
AIB the other threads. I’m not thinking about the astronomical price increases in Manhattan real estate, or the plunging prices for tech items.
A while back, I paged through a 1970s-era catalog from one of the many catalog stores that existed at the time (Service Merchandise, Best, Century House, etc.), and noticed that the prices for many items really weren’t that much different than current prices. Adjusted for inflation, they’d be _more_ expensive; not astronomically more like [this](http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=129131), but rather …
- Small electrical appliances, such as toasters, blenders, vacuum cleaners and so on all seemed to have higher not-adjusted-for-inflation dollar prices in the 1970s than today, even the cheapo off-brand products that were made in Taiwan.
- Furniture. I saw a Spiegel catalog from the 1930s that showed living room furniture such as couches, chairs, end tables and the like. The 1930s not-adjusted-for-inflation dollar price was just a bit less than the prices for mid-end American made furniture today.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/2 "2008-06-12T23:05:02Z")
Probably a beter MPSIMS thread. Moved.
**samclem** GQ moderator
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/3 "2008-06-12T23:12:53Z")
Stereo equipment? Particularly speakers? Seems that stereo equipment has always been around the same price point. Mid-range, “good enough” equipment costs a few hundred dollars. But it seems to me that the price nowadays is a bit lower although you don’t get the nice extras – brushed aluminum and wood cabinets.
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### Author:  [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/4 "2008-06-13T00:46:36Z")
Back in the 80s, my grandmother bought one of the first models of “big screen” TV. It was something like 42", which was considered gargantuan at the time. She paid something close to seven GRAND for it. I don’t even wanna think about what the inflation on that would be!
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### Author:  [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/5 "2008-06-13T01:16:46Z")
[QUOTE=freekalette]
She paid something close to seven GRAND for it.
[/QUOTE]
High end plasma TVs are in the [$10,000](http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-PDP-614MX-61-Plasma-Display/dp/B0009PYVLU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video&qid=1213319684&sr=1-7)range.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/6 "2008-06-13T02:01:13Z")
I’d say calculators.
They were never terribly expensive back in the '80s when I was in middle and high school, but a decent one would cost you about 10-15 bucks.
[This calculator](http://www.amazon.com/Casio-FX-260-Solar-Scientific-Calculator/dp/B00004TVDT/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_2_img/102-3661224-4032943?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_r=0XCQZN2D6A3XWFW4SES4&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_i=B00004TVDO) is pretty close to my high school one, and it’s about $12 bucks.
When the $15 in 1989 is adjusted for inflation, it comes out to about $25 bucks today.
More expensive, but not ridiculously so, I’d say.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-moderately-priced-items-today-used-to-be-more-expensive-but-not-outrageously-so/452713/7 "2008-06-13T02:07:22Z")
I remember the first calculator I saw, in the summer of '73; the engineer who was its proud owner had paid only $250 for it, and it added, subtracted, multiplied, [Uiand\* divided! Woo!
Anyway, so I’d include calculators in the list of things that have dropped in price precipitously, like other electronics.