Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]So car prices kept pace with inflation. My mother bought a Ford in 69, as I said, for $2400 or so, with 200 off for trade in.... would have been about 1800 in 1955. From then til now a car has cost about half or a bit more of the median annual household salary. (And what you would pay today for an M7 and 50 Summicron at B&H is $6000, expressed in 1955 dollars that's about $740. So the prices are not so outlandish relative to what they've been historically -- this hearkens back to our heated thread that followed poor Tina innocently inquiring about the Zeiss 35mm lens.....) (To walk out of B&H with an M9 (if they had 'em which I think they don't yet) and 50 Summicron would cost $9000 which in 1955 is about $1100 which would have been a quarter of a single man's annual salary and still would be now...) I'm pursuing this information as part of a general ongoing study into why it seems to me (perhaps completely incorrectly) that it was possible at one time to live cheaply and well and even buy a Leica and add a lens once a year or two, while it seems not to be, at all, now. In 1955 you could rent a very good apartment in New York for $100 a month or less. Median income for a male unmarried, or a married couple, or family, nationally (would have been higher in a city like NY) ranged from $4,000 to $4,500. With any effort at all you could make $400 a month and rent and food and utilities would cost less than half that and the GI Bill would send you to college at night, for free. It was a recipe for a burgeoning middle class, for massive social mobility, for a breakdown of the class system, for fair distribution of wealth, and, most interestingly, for an explosion of interesting and revolutionary things happening in music, art, literature, photography, etc. That's why I was asking about these prices: to add to my database. And for those who are curious (if you're not stop reading here) the most scandalous change has not been with Leicas and other so called "luxury" goods -- it has been in the making into a luxury good something like an education or a decent place to live. What a nice house cost in 1955, would be less than $100,000 today; what a year in an Ivy League school cost (sorry, those are the only prices I know; except that City College was free, and now it's $4800 or so -- I have two sons there) in 1955 would be less than $10,000 today. What it cost in 1978 would be less than $15000 today; but what it cost by 1986 when I went back to grad school would put it over $25,000 today. A bargain compared to $50K but still, we can see where The Problem Began. Hint: picture a farmer in a John Deere cap walking up to a fence on a soft blue day. Announcer: *It's a New Morning in America*. (What they forgot to tell you: he's a sheep farmer and you are about to get fleeced...) Thanks for all the good info Jim et al. On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 10:56 PM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net>wrote: > Vince, > > I pulled the car price from memory, and I find it is low. The average car > price in 1955 was $1900. So, in reality, the M 3 cost about one-fourth of > the price of a car. Sorry for the faulty memory. > > > Jim Nichols > Tullahoma, TN USA > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vince Passaro" < > passaro.vince at gmail.com> > To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> > Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 6:44 PM > > Subject: Re: [Leica] Question 2 this evening: historical prices > > > Fascinating, thanks. The table is quite legible. >> >> So, the half-car price analogy is valuable. But dig this one. I just found >> an article from a 1955 Dartmouth campus newspaper announcing that tuition >> (plus fees) would rise in 1956 at Dartmouth as it had at Princeton and >> Yale >> from $800 to $980. >> >> So back then an M3 was half the price of a new car. An M3 with summicron >> lens was about half a year's tuition inthe Ivy League. And now a Leica M9 >> and Summicron lens would be between 10000 and 12,000; a new car decently >> appointed family car about $24,000 on average; and Ivy League tuition is >> now >> $50,000. >> >> Ivy League tuition doubled in equivalent dollars over the next 20 years; >> so >> that in 1975 when I started at Columbia it was $3400 but if it had stayed >> only at inflation it should have been about half that. Adjusted for >> inflation 1955's M3/summicron would by 75 have been about $950. I wonder >> what an M5 with Summicron was by then? >> >> My mother bought a new Ford Fairlane around 1970 for $2400 so I'm betting >> it >> was $3000 at least. >> >> More on this as I work out what it is I'm thinking about.... >> >> Thanks to all for comments. >> >> >> >> On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net >> >wrote: >> >> Vince, >>> >>> I have the November 1955 Leica Product Directory. >>> >>> Catalog Code >>> Number Word Item Retail Price >>> ****** ****** ******************************** ******** >>> 10,150 IGEMO Leica M 3 without lens $288.00 >>> 10,155 IMARO Leica M 3 with 50mm Elmar f/3.5 lens 348.00 >>> 10,161 ISUMO Leica M 3 with 50mm Summicron f/2 lens >>> 447.00 >>> 10,165 ISAIO Leica M 3 with 50mm Summarit f/1.5 lens 468.00 >>> >>> Ask about any other items from this catalog that you might like for your >>> collection, and I will be happy to look them up for you. >>> >>> Jim Nichols >>> Tullahoma, TN USA >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vince Passaro" < >>> passaro.vince at gmail.com> >>> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> >>> Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 12:31 PM >>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Question 2 this evening: historical prices >>> >>> >>> >>> Doug many thanks this has been helpful. I assume you're working off your >>> >>>> own >>>> memory/records of your purchases? What does IIRC mean? And NOS? >>>> >>>> >>>> On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 9:33 AM, Doug Herr < >>>> wildlightphoto at earthlink.net >>>> >wrote: >>>> >>>> Vince Passaro wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> >I'm looking for actual at-the-time they were marketed dollar prices >>>>> >for >>>>> >certain historical cameras, for a couple of academic reasons. Does >>>>> >anyone >>>>> >have a source/sources? For instance I would love to know M3 prices >>>>> >through >>>>> >the 1950s; Nikon F prices 1959 to, say, 1980; Leica prices in the >>>>> >1970s. >>>>> > >>>>> >Any suggestions will be much appreciated. >>>>> >>>>> IIRC a Nikon F in 1972 or so was US$310. NOS Leicaflex SL in 1979 was >>>>> US$510. >>>>> >>>>> Doug Herr >>>>> Birdman of Sacramento >>>>> http://www.wildlightphoto.com >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Leica Users Group. >>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Leica Users Group. >>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >