The Cost of Small Bits and Pieces

[Ulu]

It always drives me nuts when I go and buy something at the store that I have bought years, and decades, and even half a century ago.

 

I’ve been working on an audio system for my work shed, made of assorted parts I’ve been collecting for years. I only live a block from the True Value hardware, so that’s where I go for stuff.

 

I bought this Klein stubby screwdriver and it was $20! I mean it’s good stuff but really . . . $20 for a screwdriver? It makes a man feel rich to start buying $20 screwdrivers!

 

Anyhow, At the same time I needed a terminal block to route all the speaker wires because i’m building a quadraphonic system (plus ghost channels) & there are seven boxes and 14 drivers.

I picked this block up at the local true value hardware for the princely sum of $10! I remember buying these at RadioShack when I was a kid for $0.39.

 

It’s not that there has been so much inflation, but the fact that there is not as much demand for simple electro mechanical parts anymore. This has driven up the price and down the availability, and I guess I’m not telling you guys anything you don’t know.

 

Lots of you are in your 60s and beyond so you know exactly where I’m coming from.

 

Imagine my surprise, when that same day I am watching a video on the restoration of an old loudspeaker from 1960, and it has the exact same terminal block on its crossover board.

This was not exactly a rare part, over the decades. And I have to rant one more time about how now it commands a $10 bill.

 

Here is mine, installed on the wall behind my 1973 model Sanyo receiver.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Ulu

[Plymouthy Adams]

wait a minute.....I count 8 terminals on one and 6 n the other.......LOL.....just picking on ya....cost of stuff is off the wall.....I still buy these items at the 'years ago prices' but the source is often flea market, yard sale and estate sales.....get a number of useful boxes and bags of hardware at cost effective prices from these sources.  Oh sure, no guarantee you can get a terminal board at just any yard sale, but if you mess with x items in the course of your tinkering...you buy ahead...

[Ulu]

I see you are right. I could have used the other terminals as well!

Sometimes you take what you can get.

[Tooljunkie]

25 years ago selling auto parts, everybody would question the prices. Now,im part-timing in the same parts store. The older customers still question prices but the younguns dont bat an eye. 
just recently the nitrile gloves increased or should i say doubled in price. $55 for a box of good quality gloves. No concerns, they pay and go.  

 

[keithb7]

I can’t figure it out either. Seems there are a lot of people  with a lot of money to burn these days. Are more people wealthier these days? Compared to 40 years ago?
 

Or do more people today just live for today, no care about saving money? Spend what you make, so its does not matter what prices are? No concern about their future? Retirement?  Who cares?

 

I have a conscience about how many paper shop towels I use on a job. Lol. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

I think a good portion of younger folks don’t expect to ever be able to retire. My daughter and her husband just bought a house in Waukesha, Wi. And had to bid $20,000 over the asking price to get it. They had been outbid on eight other houses before that. $255,000. For a 3 bedroom, 1 bath ranch on a corner lot with a two car garage. And they make a good living.  By the time you add all the other expenses of life in those with less are just buying or charging stuff and not worrying about it.  With all the talk about climate change and the political situation maybe they don’t see much future. 

[keithb7]

22 hours ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

I think a good portion of younger folks don’t expect to ever be able to retire. My daughter and her husband just bought a house in Waukesha, Wi. And had to bid $20,000 over the asking price to get it. They had been outbid on eight other houses before that. $255,000. For a 3 bedroom, 1 bath ranch on a corner lot with a two car garage. And they make a good living.  By the time you add all the other expenses of life in those with less are just buying or charging stuff and not worrying about it.  With all the talk about climate change and the political situation maybe they don’t see much future. 

 

Maybe that is part of some folk's train of thought. Climate change. Fossil fuels getting used up at record rates. Maybe they do have a different long term outlook.

Housing prices are indeed going nuts in a lot of areas of North America. Up here in Canada too. It's hard to believe how much prices have escalated in 15 years. In my town we saw a 20% price increase in the average house sell price here, just in the past 12 months. Other areas here, even considerably more.

Edited March 14, 2021 by keithb7

[Ulu]

I think a lot of things will be different for my grandkids. Their goals and expectations will be different. That may be the biggest difference, indeed.

 

...and, there will be new things to want.

[wagoneer]

Speaking of costs of bits and pieces, my Motors manual on standard labor and costs makes most parts in the cents to dollars range.

 

Today, pretty much nothing in this antique car market goes for less than $50, and usually $100, and heat gauges go for  $300. Deals are definitely there to be found, but my sense is that despite the standard basket of goods haven't increased much (low inflation), everything else is making up for it.