Calculate Vintage Prices

[Dismuke]

Ever wonder what the prices in vintage advertisements and catalogs work out to in today's money after currency inflation has been factored in? Here is a very useful tool which will show you just that.

http://www.aier.org/cgi-aier/colcalculator.cgi

Simply enter in a dollar, select any year going back to 1913 and it will calculate how approximately how many dollars in 2005 currency it would take to have a similar purchasing power. For example, that 5 cents someone would have spent on a six ounce soda pop back in 1933 is about the same as 74 cents in today's currency. Not such a great bargain. The cost of soda pop has actually gone down quite a bit.

My 1933 Sears Roebuck Catalog offers Brunswick Records - a premium record label with top stars - for 75 cents each. That is the equivalent of $11.04 in today's currency - that for a 78 rpm record with about 3 minutes worth of playing time on each side. However you could buy Conqueror Records - Sears Roebuck's in-house bargain label manufactured by the same company that issued Brunswick Records for 19 cents each when purchased in quantities of 10 - or about $2.80 in today's currency. The purchase enough Brunswick Records in 1933 to have the equivelent amount of music as is on today's CDs, one would have had to spend $9 or about $132 in today's currency. The price for the same amount of music on Conqueror Records would have cost $2.28 or $33.55 in today's currency Keep that in mind next time you hear some teenager complain about how CDs are too expensive.

If you lived out in a rural area - as many Sears Roebuck customers did - and rural electrification had not reached your area yet, you would have had to listen to the radio on a battery powered "farm radio." The batteries did not look like those found in portable radios of today. The looked more like car batteries.

Sears offered a "One Year Size" Slivertone radio battery which was designed to give one year's worth of service when used on an average of 2 to 3 hours daily. The battery measured 13 1/4 " x 8" x 10 1/2" and had a shipping weight of 60 lbs. The cost - $7.77 or about $114 in today's currency.

If that was more than your Depression era budget would let you spend at one time, you could have purchased their less expensive "Six Month Size Meteor" battery which smaller (10 3/8 " x 8 1/4" x 6 3/4 " with a shipping weight of 30 lbs) and was designed to give 6 months worth of service when used on an average of 2 to 3 hours daily. It only cost $4.25 - or about $62.54 in today's currency.

Listening to the radio was not cheap if you lived way out in the country. Needless to say, rural families during the Depression did not keep the radio turned on all day for background noise. In fact, many people listened to their radios using headphones because they were less of a drain on the batteries than were the speakers.

Depression era prices look like a bargain to us today - but when you run them through the Cost of Living Calculator, more often than not, you will find that the price of most things today is much lower. And when they are not lower - for example automobiles - there is often a vast difference in the features one gets for one's money, such as safety improvements, air conditioning, etc.

 

[gandydancer]

Somethings but not everything

Let's see, in 1953 the guy down the block from us bought a new caddilac convertable. It cost $3300. That comes out to under $24000 today. Now do you think you can by a new caddy convertable with all the options for $24 grand?

In 1961 gas cost 21 cents a gallon at the name brand gas stations with free oil check, windshield wipe, and tire pressure check. That is equal to $1.34 today. Hum..? Everyone says gas is cheaper than back then. Must not be using that converter.

You are comparing a new technology back then with a mature one now. What did CD's cost when they first came out? That radio back then was about in the same state of marketing that a 50 inch plazma TV is today. Want to compare those prices? BTW soda pop was still 5 cents when I was a kid in the early 50's, so that price held for at least 20 years. When was the last time the price of soda pop went up again? Last week, probably.

 

[Dismuke]

In 1961 gas cost 21 cents a gallon at the name brand gas stations with free oil check, windshield wipe, and tire pressure check. That is equal to $1.34 today. Hum..? Everyone says gas is cheaper than back then. Must not be using that converter.

With gasoline prices, one has to pretty much consider the wholesale price of gasoline in order to get an apples to apples comparison. A very significant percentage of the retail price of gasoline in recent years consists of various taxes. Also "back then" covers a pretty wide period of time. For example, I have read of Depression era gasoline selling for 18 cents per gallon. Using 1933 numbers, that would work out to about $2.65 in today's currency - but that number would be before today's taxes are added to it.

You are comparing a new technology back then with a mature one now. What did CD's cost when they first came out? That radio back then was about in the same state of marketing that a 50 inch plazma TV is today. Want to compare those prices?

Sure, the mature verses new technology is an important thing to keep in mind.

A few years ago, I purchased a 1929 Victor Radio Electrola RE-45 radio/phonograph combination at an auction. It is in full working condition except for the electric cartridge on the phonograph tone arm which needs to be rebuilt. I have a 1929 advertisement for that same Victor RE-45 with a list price of $275. That $275 in 1929 is equal to $3,076 in today's currency.

Baring short term fluctuations and artificial interventions in the market process such as regulations, wars etc. the normal trend is for prices of manufactured goods to go down over time in real terms (i.e. not counting currency inflation which can very easily distort the picture). This is largely true for even commodity prices. That is because newer and more cost effective technologies for doing the same work come along which helps improve efficiency and drives down prices. Also, in the case of manufactured goods, operating costs go down once the return on the original capital investment in terms of research, facilities, equipment and technology has been made.

The one HUGE exception to this general decline in prices is when it comes to labor. That is why we no longer have full service gas stations, elevator operators and why very few people these days can afford to hire full time domestic help. Unless you are willing to hire illegal immigrants, the cost of hiring someone to fill those positions is way too high to make it viable. During the 19th century when labor was cheap, it was not uncommon for even middle class families to have domestic help.

BTW soda pop was still 5 cents when I was a kid in the early 50's, so that price held for at least 20 years. When was the last time the price of soda pop went up again? Last week, probably.

Indeed. Which only goes to demonstrate what I said about prices tending to go down over the long haul. There was quite a bit of currency inflation during the period between the Depression and the early 1950s - and yet the nominal price of soda pop remained the same. In actual costs, it became less expensive. The 5 cent soda pop price in 1933 that was equal to 74 cents today had fallen dramatically to the 5 cent soda pop price in 1951 which is worth about 37 cents today.

One also must keep the context of product sizes as well. Today's soda pop sizes are significantly larger than they were in the early 1900s. Back during the days of double digit inflation during the 1970s, instead of raising nominal prices (which had the effect of making customers reconsider their purchases) manufacturers often resorted to repackaging their products in smaller sizes which sold for the same sum that the old size sold for. But such tactics are nothing more than a less immediately obvious form of a price increase. Another thing that manufactures do as an alternative to being forced to raise prices in the midst of currency inflation is cut back on quality - another indirect form of a price increase. That, by the way, is one of the reasons why so much of the stuff made in the 1970s was utterly worthless, badly made and did not last.

On the other hand, when times are more prosperous, people will often be willing to pay more for what they perceive as convenience or quality - for example, frozen dinners and the Starbucks phenomenon where people (myself included on occasion) are willing to fork over $4 plus for a cup of coffee mixed with milk. The price of food and I suspect coffee as well has fallen dramatically over the past 100 years if you are willing to buy comparable ingredients and make things mostly from scratch as people often did back then. But there are a lot of people out there who are willing to pay higher prices in order to save time or to receive enhanced enjoyment.

 

[scotrace]

Well,

"During the 19th century when labor was cheap, it was not uncommon for even middle class families to have domestic help."
The northern and southern USA were very different situations, but generally speaking, just about every family of middle-income had some kind of "help." The misconception is that they were paid. Young girls were sent to live with families without daughters in order to learn the domestic arts under the instruction of the lady of the house. They were given a small room with a bed (if available) or simply shared a mat on the floor, and food. This situation continued in many parts of the United States (and Europe, I believe) until around the time of WWII, when, along with so many previously accepted social roles, the place women occupied in society began to change, domestic chores became less burdensome, family sizes shrank, etc.
Paid servants were then, as now, reserved for the wealthy.

I'd be interested to know which top stars are to be found on Brunswick records? I'm a long-time collector and have always passed Brunswick machines and records over.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Don't forget changes in real wages, which ironically were steadily increasing up until just after mid-century when they began to decline.

 

[android]

Money was worth something then. Dimes and Quarters were made of REAL silver! Today, they're not. Paper dollars were worth real silver and gold. Not any more.

Ah, now you have reached the root of the problem. When money was tied to precious metal, it had a static value with relation to other currency backed with precious metal.

Sure, the value of gold and silver flucuate, but at least they have value. Paper and the governments word are both worth nothing.