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Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:07 am
by TonyB
On the Nodel T of Facebook site someone has shown a page from a twenties Sears Catalog. Wow those prices were a real shock compared to today. Just for comparison a reverse drum in the twenties Sears catalog is $1.95. The same item in the current Lang’s web site lists 3301 with a new drum and refurbished gear at $269. That’s a 151 times increase.
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The lowly spindle bolt in the Sears catalog is $0.11 and $172 in Lang’s, admittedly with four new bushings.
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The differential drive gear in Sears is $1.98 and I’m hoping Dave at Chaffins has one on hold for me and I expect to pay $350.
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If the same inflation factor is applied to a complete car that I see on parts, a ModelT at $350 would today would be priced at $52,000.
I guess either Ford had a much higher profit margin than auto makers today or today’s cars are a great deal.
I suspect it’s a little of both.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:08 am
by TonyB
Sorry the pictures are out of order and one duplicated, I tried to fixit and failed☹️

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:30 am
by Duey_C
Looked good to me Tony!
Nice finds! Wow! Those prices! Shoot, now I have to study those Sears pages again. :)

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:10 am
by Henry K. Lee
Tony,

Always living in the past and good ole days! LOL!

Hank

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:40 am
by DLodge
Using an inflation calculator on my phone, $1.95 in 1925 (middle of "the twenties") would be $28.25 in 2019 dollars. "Inflation!!!" indeed. :D

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:40 am
by R.V.Anderson
I doubt those parts were genuine Ford. Ford, which cranked out reverse drums by the bazillion, had to get a whopping $3.00 for theirs. Likely these parts were part of the many "spurious" ones that Ford waged unrelenting campaigns against. Comparisons of individual "spurious" against genuine Ford parts frequently appeared in the Service Bulletins.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:43 am
by DLodge
R.V.Anderson wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:40 am
I doubt those parts were genuine Ford. Ford, which cranked out reverse drums by the bazillion, had to get a whopping $3.00 for theirs....
Okay, $43.48 in 2019 dollars. Still inflation.... :D

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:56 am
by Norman Kling
Those were the days when people would pick up pennies on the street! Now I don't even keep coins in my pocket. My first car was a '29A which cost $95 and it ran fine. I bought other A's which ran for $50 and a Franklin for $25.
Norm

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:57 am
by Steve Jelf
That's huge inflation, but you get more for your money now. Dave Nolting's new drums are better than Henry's.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:03 am
by Steve Jelf
Those were the days when people would pick up pennies on the street! Now I don't even keep coins in my pocket.

I still pick up pennies, and I prefer coins over paper dollars.
sacagawea-dollar.jpg

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:16 am
by Mark Gregush
Maybe more important then inflation, taking into consideration of the income level of the people that owned Model T's back then, how many hours did the person have to work to pay for the part? Chances are, the person buying the newly made parts today is going to be in a higher income bracket and maybe work less hours to buy same part.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:47 am
by TRDxB2
Inflation vs Supply & Demand. Who can make #3301's, reverse drums, for a $28.25 selling price? Cheaper by the hundred thousands.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:49 pm
by DLodge
Steve Jelf wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:03 am
...I still pick up pennies, and I prefer coins over paper dollars.
I'm not sure about all the countries in the world, but of the ones I am familiar with, the U.S. is the only country with a paper bill for such a small value. Smallest in Canada is five dollars, in the eurozone 5 euros, in the UK five pounds, etc. Anything smaller is a coin.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:03 pm
by RustyFords
Steve Jelf wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:03 am
Those were the days when people would pick up pennies on the street! Now I don't even keep coins in my pocket.

I still pick up pennies, and I prefer coins over paper dollars.

sacagawea-dollar.jpg
My wife (and kids) are direct decendents of the lady on the coin. Sacagawea is my wife's Great (x7) Grandmother.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:14 pm
by otrcman
Another thing to consider when comparing 1920's Model T parts prices vs present day is economy of scale. Back in the 1920's, there were a couple of million reverse drums produced per year just to equip the new cars. So a drum could be manufactured for barely more than cost of the metal.

Drums (and other T parts) are produced in very small quantity today, so naturally the manufacturing cost per unit is much higher.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 4:26 pm
by CraneJon
A new T cost less than $400 and a nice driver Ford today is $45000 plus. average wage was $2.50 per day unless you were lucky and had one of those high paying Ford jobs at $5 per day. Don't know what the daily pay rate is today, but it is certainly higher.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 6:20 pm
by George Mills
I would think that George Pepperdine might object to the spurious part comment 😃

I’ve heard that he kept a scratch pad with his high sellers and when his quantities exceeded the latest issue serial number Ford he’d drop his price again for those items. Maybe a wives tale...maybe true...I don’t know. Find a part without script or the F? Chances are better than average it’s one of his.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:32 pm
by otrcman
I apologize if this comment is thread drift, but George Mills said in part:

"......... when his quantities exceeded the latest issue serial number Ford......"

George, this raises an intriguing point. If Western Auto sold as many drums as Ford sold cars, that means that drum changing was a very common occurrence. I.E., on average, most Fords had a drum change during their service years.

I've always had the impression that drum failure was a pretty recent phenomenon due to high accumulated miles, age, wrong band lining and abusive use by inexperienced drivers. If aftermarket suppliers sold that many replacement parts, then the drum problems we have today are simply a continuation of what was happening "back then".

That's interesting.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:30 pm
by DHort
I can't look those prices up. I already used all the pages in my Sears catalog. Does anyone have an extra?

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 12:02 am
by Steve Jelf
I would think that George Pepperdine might object to the spurious part comment.

I went to Pepperdine when it was a small College at 79th & Vermont, before it moved out to Malibu and became a big fancy university. Students were required to attend chapel one day a week, and sometimes he would be there too. The school colors were blue and orange, just like WA.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 1:00 am
by Hippie
Inflation really took of when Nixon took the USA off of the gold standard. I won’t get into the crooks that run the federal reserve

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 8:05 am
by Autie
Being this is a forum about Model T's I will refrain from what FDR did in 1933 with the gold standard. Or comment on the OT page. There are many other websites on the internet to discuss politics and start arguments.

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:36 pm
by Mark Gregush
That what I do when all my Model T tires need air! :lol:

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:43 pm
by Graybeard77
My father worked in the oil fields in 1923 for dollar a day. He bought his first Model T at the Ford dealer in Emporia, Kansas for 250.00. The dealer told him he would put a starter on for another 100.00. Dad told him that was all the money he had, so he cranked it. It is not how much you make, it is what you can buy. Have a good day. Clyde

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 2:06 pm
by Steve Jelf
Screen shot 2019-11-23 at 12.46.17 PM.png
The highest inflation rates have been in 1918 (20.44%), 1946 (18.13%), 1974 (12.34%), and 1979 (13.29%). Since 1991 it has been mostly about 4% or less. Interestingly, the worst deflation was in 1920, not 1930-1932. I guess it was three years of steadily worsening deflation that made the Great Depression great.

https://www.macrotrends.net/2497/histor ... te-by-year

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 5:54 pm
by John Codman
What you need to remember is that (in the OP) they were making parts for millions of cars and sold them in huge quantity. There are economies of scale. Today these parts are made in tiny quantities by what are essentially cottage industries that cannot operate on the profit margin of a large corporation. Ask yourself "Could I make this part for that price?"

Re: Inflation !!!

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 8:02 pm
by TRDxB2
Darn inflation - if it wasn't for it I'd still be making $1.96/hr