Curious question on pricing

[Garey Barrell]

John -

Model           1969               2005

SB-101         $370              $1,964
HP-23A            50                   266
SB-301           260                1,381
SB-401           285                1,513

Drake

TR-4             $599              $3,186
AC-4               100                   531
R-4B               430                2,283
T-4XB             449                2,385

Looks pretty impressive, but is a little misleading.   Electronic 
equipment, in particular seems to only go down in price, regardless of 
inflation!   A "pocket" transistor radio in 1969 cost $40-50.  Today 
they're given away as promotional items, and cost $3-5 in quantity.    
TV sets cost $200-300 for a 19" black & white set, today you can buy a 
35" color set for $500 or less.  I won't even think about computer 
prices, except to say that an IBM 3.5 MHz PC with 640k of RAM and a 10 
MB hard  drive cost almost $5,000.

An equivalent transceiver to the SB-101, like say a tiny TS-50S, sells 
for about $700 or less, not $2000.

73, Garey - K4OAH
Atlanta

Drake C-Line Service Manual
<http://hr99.home.mindspring.com/R-4C_Servicez/>



John Darwin Powers wrote:

> Does anyone out there have an original catalog with prices?  Back 
> "then", what was the price of a SB-301, SB401, SB-610, SB-620?  What 
> does that equate to in todays dollars?
>

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