Some Pricing Nostalga
- Thread starter jerrard
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Schwing
Member
Last year I finished off a 500 round brick of Federal .22. I can't remember exactly when I bought it but I would guess around 1985. The price tag was for $4.97...
MAN how I wish I could have cashed in my 401K 20 years ago and bought ammo instead
MAN how I wish I could have cashed in my 401K 20 years ago and bought ammo instead
P5 Guy
Member
Winchester X went up a couple of bucks. My last brick was $32.95. I can't remember when exactly I bought them.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/64...nition-t22-target-22-long-rifle-40-grain-lead
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/64...nition-t22-target-22-long-rifle-40-grain-lead
Speedo66
Member
I haven't found too many bargains anymore like my excellent $79 Swedish Mauser, my new $89 Chinese SKS, or good Norinco non-corrosive Chinese SKS ammo at $2/20 rounds ($100/1000).
marv
Member
I was grubbing around in my shed last week looking for my hand trap. Didn't find it. But I came across three 25 rd boxes of 12ga Win AA target loads. Price tag was $3.36. Must have had them for a while.
Blue Duck
Member
Just this weekend I shot up a box of .38 specials with a sticker on the box for $8.00. The same thing now, goes for $20. - 25. a box.
I'm looking at five bricks of Winchester Wildcat 22 from the late '90's-'00's that cost me, on average, $9.50 each. About that stocking up 223, 303, 8mm, 7.62x39, 7.62x54r and others that I don't reload for. That's why today's prices are so unbelievable to me, I've been living off my stash since then and not keeping up with the prices that closely. And the few times I've thought about replenishing my larder, I would see the jacked up prices and decide to wait it out. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'll not see any retreat on ammo prices in my life.
I'll just have to shoot slower.
I'll just have to shoot slower.
jagdpanzer347
Member
Let's see...Mosin M44 I got to hand pick at a gun show for sixty-five bucks. South African battle packs of 7.62 for about twenty eight bucks. I could go on and on, but what's the point?
CopperFouling
Member
I have two Federal bulk packs of .22s that I bought on sale for $13.99...in 2011. 
MagnumDweeb
Member
This is the price we pay for new shooters joining our ranks. Learn to reload, get creative and learn to love black powder and making it. There's an odd sense of accomplishment when you have built a Swedish Style (albeit much smaller) nitre box and refined your own potassium nitrate from it (chicken blood works best). When you have found nearby sulfur springs and hiked for them. When you have used bamboo to make your own coal (dry it the heck out and do not burn if green, it's poisonous if you burn it while its green from what I've been told). When you have turned a surplus ammo can into a charcoal maker and successfully made your own charcoal. When you have made dextrin and used a sieve to make your FFF grain sizes.
It's only going to get more expensive guys. This is the price of victory, and victory takes many steps.
It's only going to get more expensive guys. This is the price of victory, and victory takes many steps.
*Kemosabe*
Member
I inherited my brother's blued, ~ 6" barreled Colt Python revolver along with the bill of sale dated 1965 showing the new purchase price of $125.
It's in beautiful shape because he hardly used it (less than a box of ammo through it) and he never carried it. I was offered $1600 for it and turned it down. I have never shot it, but I've been keeping it for sentimental reasons. I appreciate the gun, but I am not a Python fan... an ambivalence dilemma.
It's in beautiful shape because he hardly used it (less than a box of ammo through it) and he never carried it. I was offered $1600 for it and turned it down. I have never shot it, but I've been keeping it for sentimental reasons. I appreciate the gun, but I am not a Python fan... an ambivalence dilemma.
CoRoMo
Member
I recently came across an old fella looking to trade his 1980 Ruger Blackhawk, 4.5" in 45 Colt that he purchased in Gillette, Wyoming in 1981. He only ever put less than half a box of ammo through it and he still has the other half of that box that he bought that same day at the same gun store. He even had the original receipt showing that he bought this gun for $175.
I have a brick of Federal 711 from 1989. It's called Gold Medal now. Original price was $18.99. Most bricks back then were over $10. You got a smokin deal on that.Last year I finished off a 500 round brick of Federal .22. I can't remember exactly when I bought it but I would guess around 1985. The price tag was for $4.97...
MAN how I wish I could have cashed in my 401K 20 years ago and bought ammo instead
I remember getting mini mags as a kid in 79 for about $3. They are $7 now. So the price did not rise as much as inflation.
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Yeah but most people brought home less than $100 a week back then. It's all relative. In the last 15 years guns have been priced cheaper in relation to salaries than they have ever been.I inherited my brother's blued, ~ 6" barreled Colt Python revolver along with the bill of sale dated 1965 showing the new purchase price of $125.
It's in beautiful shape because he hardly used it (less than a box of ammo through it) and he never carried it. I was offered $1600 for it and turned it down. I have never shot it, but I've been keeping it for sentimental reasons. I appreciate the gun, but I am not a Python fan... an ambivalence dilemma.
*Kemosabe*
Member
The point of this thread was the cost of things now compared to a while ago and salaries were not a criterion for inclusion in the thread.
My salary at that time was $200 per week, so the purchase of a new Python would have been well under a week's salary. Even if I was only making $100 per week, I would be able to make the purchase for considerably less less than 2 weeks salary.
Today, a purchase of a comparable quality gun like a Kimber would cost a person making the average salary in my State about 3 weeks' work. I think your point is not well taken.
db_tanker
Member
last battle pack of Hirt 7.62 I bought was 39.95....why oh why didn't I save a bit and buy several cases then....ah well.
jcwit
member
1965, I was in the U.S. Army, making more than that after all the extra allowances.
Ah yes the days of .22 cents for a gal. of gas. I also remember gas for $ .16.
Inflation!
Doesn't anyone recognize that word?
In Post#13, kemosabe cites a 1965 Python price of $125. Sounds great, right?
An inflation calculator (Bureau of Labor Statistics) says that $125/1965 price would have the same buying power as $937 today... OVER NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
It's a more accurate way of looking at those old prices if you figure how many HOURS OF WORK it took to generate that much money at the time. The historic prices are fun to look at, but serious thought reveals that they were NOT that cheap, after all.
Doesn't anyone recognize that word?
In Post#13, kemosabe cites a 1965 Python price of $125. Sounds great, right?
An inflation calculator (Bureau of Labor Statistics) says that $125/1965 price would have the same buying power as $937 today... OVER NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
It's a more accurate way of looking at those old prices if you figure how many HOURS OF WORK it took to generate that much money at the time. The historic prices are fun to look at, but serious thought reveals that they were NOT that cheap, after all.
*Kemosabe*
Member
I was offered ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS for my Python. Well ahead of the inflation curve… approximately 70.7% MORE than your $937 figure.
The 32nd Edition of Fjestad’s Blue Book (two years old) shows my gun at $1575 @ 98%. My gun is better than 98%, so what I was offered is certainly within it's reasonable value. Your inflation claim may be applicable to other things, but it does not apply to my gun.
Again, the point of this thread was the cost of things now compared to a while ago and salaries were not a criterion for inclusion in the thread.
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I can well believe that Python price.
At the Big Reno Show just last week-end, I saw several Pythons in excellent-plus condition, all tagged with asking prices well over $1500.
This reflects not only inflation, but the pressures of a collector market ADDED to inflation. Win-win for Python owners (and those who had the sense or good fortune to anticipate what prices were going to do for ANY rare or desirable guns).
I particularly regret missing-out on the 20mm Lahti and Solothurn anti-tank rifles.... $100 bought the rifle, cased with MANY accessories, plus 100 rounds of 20mm armor-piercing tracers.... for $100. These now sell for over $10,000 +++++. However, at $2.00 per hour in '61, they were well out-of-reach. Not your average "deer rifle", but what wonderful precision devices they were.(Sigh)
Saying that salaries are not a factor in "your" thread is ignoring a critical factor in the equation.
At the Big Reno Show just last week-end, I saw several Pythons in excellent-plus condition, all tagged with asking prices well over $1500.
This reflects not only inflation, but the pressures of a collector market ADDED to inflation. Win-win for Python owners (and those who had the sense or good fortune to anticipate what prices were going to do for ANY rare or desirable guns).
I particularly regret missing-out on the 20mm Lahti and Solothurn anti-tank rifles.... $100 bought the rifle, cased with MANY accessories, plus 100 rounds of 20mm armor-piercing tracers.... for $100. These now sell for over $10,000 +++++. However, at $2.00 per hour in '61, they were well out-of-reach. Not your average "deer rifle", but what wonderful precision devices they were.(Sigh)
Saying that salaries are not a factor in "your" thread is ignoring a critical factor in the equation.
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*Kemosabe*
Member
First, this is not my thread; it's jerrard's thread.
Second, I NEVER said that salaries were not a factor. Tell me where you are getting that from?
I didn't address it in my response to you in my previous post because the OP didn't ask us to do that and as I said to mboylan in post #17 and again to you in post #21, "salaries were not a criterion for inclusion in the thread". Are you not comprehending that?
Third, if you didn't selectively read my posts you might have discovered that I did address salaries in post #17. To wit:
"My salary at that time was $200 per week, so the purchase of a new Python would have been well under a week's salary. Even if I was only making $100 per week, I would be able to make the purchase for considerably less less than 2 weeks salary.
Today, a purchase of a comparable quality gun like a Kimber would cost a person making the average salary in my State about 3 weeks' work."
With regard to my specific gun, your comments are just erroneous.
MI2600
Member
I bought my first Winchester 73 in 1964. The seller said it was probably more than I wanted to pay...$55.
I intended thread to be somewhat whimsical thus the word "nostalgia'. I think changes in manufacturing techniques, materials and processes and just a vastly changing world would make it extremely difficult to equate today's pricing. A good example is occurring to me now. I have been casting bullets since mid 70's from a large supply of isotope containers I obtained for free. They cast perfect as is. The last ones are in the pot now. To the best of my knowledge there are no more as isotopes are now transferred in large shielded reusable containers. I think even wheel weights have changed composition and probably require alloying. Since I haven't had to scrounge for lead in a long time I have some research to do or I will have to buy lead.
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