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Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 21:54:53 EDT
From: Spschn~ol.com
Subject: Re: What vintage harps/gear would cost today

My brother told me about an interesting Federal Reserve Bank site with a
calculator for figuring their estimated cost of twentieth-century products in
today's dollars or vice versa, using Consumer Price Index adjustments:

http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/

Plugging in suggested retails of old stuff is fun. From the 1950 dealer
price list I have, the site says

1896 Marine Ban~$2.25 retail = $16.74 retail today
280 Chromonic~$17.00 retail = $126.48 " "

That's running darn close to online/mail order prices, isn't it? The
difference is that the build quality today is probably not as good as it was
in 1950, and of course online is not retail. But it was still a surprise
that anyone would be selling them at such a comparable price.

Also interesting were my 1959 National Stage Star (twin 6L6) and 1968 Harmony
H410A (single EL84) amps at around $1400 and $500 in today's dollars,
respectively, pretty close to what I think boutique amp builders would charge
to build them with comparable components/construction quality (i.e., not the
usual obsessive boutique thang) these days.

Of course, maybe this CPI calculator is a government plot designed to make us
think we are living in wonderful economic times and getting as much for our
dollar as anyone did since 1913 ;-).

Stephen Schneider
Houston, Texas