Was doing some research to answer another question on here and I started looking through a 1963 edition of the Shooter's Bible by Stoeger. I started salivating when I saw the old prices!
Colt Python - $125.00 Colt Government 45 - $82.50 Colt Gold Cup National Match - $125.00
I was thinking how I would like to get in a time machine and go back! But then I did some online research. Found-out what people earned and what other things would cost.
Average Cost of new house $12,650.00 Average Income per year $5,807.00 Gas per Gallon 29 cents Average Cost of a new car $3,233.00 Loaf of bread 22 cents
The moral of this story is you ou can pretty much multiply everything by a factor of 10, and the prices would be realistic in today's world. Colt Python? $1,250. Colt 45 Auto? $850. Average annual wages? $58,000. Average price of a home? $126,500.
It also tells me that gasoline should be $2.90 a gallon and not $3.40 like it is right now.
dca2003311@yahoo.com2012-07-19T04:33:21Z
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* However the vast Majority of all Pennsylvania workers employed in Pennsylvania only earn $40,000 Dollars a year.* Gun and Ammo Manufacturers as well as the Sellers of Guns, Ammo, and Accessories are still guilty of price fixing, inflated prices, and greed.* As far as everything else goes the same thing applies.*
Gasoline prices are actually close to $2.90 a gallon where I'm currently located at in South Carolina. This state has an impressively low tax on gas, perhaps one closer to what all states had back in the 60s. What you didn't factor in was the increase of taxes over time.
Also, paychecks were a lot smaller back in the day so prices for items were lower as well. Gun prices significantly increased over the years because of how much harder it is to purchase a gun today versus yesterday.
I'm 20 so everything I am telling you about purchasing stuff in the 1960s is based on research and talking to older people over time. As America grows, it loses tolerance for civilian ownership of firearms and our 2nd Amendment rights come with more stipulations. The rise in prices of the gun market reflects this.
My grandfather told me that when he was younger growing up in the rural countryside of North Carolina, there was no such thing as filling out paperwork for a gun. He said he can walk in the store and buy a Marlin rifle no different than food or furniture.
Change. It's real man. It sucks. Things don't always change fairly. Oftentimes prices go up faster than wages. The only thing we can control as victims of change is our ability to adapt.
You make an interesting point about things going up in price by a factor of 10. But not everything has done that. I know how we like to complain about buying stuff from Asia, but frankly, I prefer that things like clothing are more affordable today.
These hunting items have gone down in price in an inflation adjusted basis.
Optics, including hunting scopes and binoculars. Clothing like jackets, hats, boots. Leather goods, such as slings and holsters.
I found a recept where my father paid $25 for a pair of Bushnell binoculars back in 1963. Today I can buy a BETTER pair of Bushnell binoculars for...$25.
As for automobiles? Most cars were ready for the junk yard after 60,000 miles. Odometers only had 5 places on them. Today? If are are not getting 200,000 miles from a car, you are being ripped-off.
Increases in consumption drive price increases. Population expansion drives increases consumption. The world population in 1963 was 3.205 billion in 2012 it is 7 billion plus. Can you imagine what prices are going to look like when the population expansion tops 9 billion. When are we going to start setting limits to population expansion? By the way I picked my first Lee Enfield up for $10.00, when I was 16 years old, the year was 1963.
The past couple weeks it got down to under $2.70 for us,it is back up to $2.99 though.
I wish I could go back in time to 1965 and buy one of the first Mustangs to roll out of the factory,keep it in mint condition and never drive it out of the garage. I'd be rich!