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Those prices were harder for me to come up with then than today's prices are.
Yup, J. C. Pennys used to sell Belgium FN bolt rifles under their "Musketeer" brand and Sears had a large selection of Winchesters.
Better values today IMO. Factor in 50+ years of inflation.
Back then, $100 was a LOT of money to spend on anything.
Early seventies, I was making 2.50 an hour. Minimum wage was 1.60. End of at the seventies I was making $7 per hour and that was a union job. I bought a lot of guns back at those prices even at those wages. I did learn to not waste even fifty eight cents on those crappy game bags they sold. People who bought those, never really shot a deer. jd
And Walmart flyers usually had Marlin and Winchester 30-30's in them for $68.88. Still a lot of money when you were making a nickel a bale.
Robert
for me it was the "coast to coast" chain store, it was our hardware/gun store for the area
That 1970 dollar is worth $7.93 in December 2022.
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In 1962 I had just got out of the Navy and wanted a rifle to hunt deer. My Uncle had a Funiture store and I was buying some things that me and my wife needed to et up house keeping. I happened to mention that I needed a deer rifle to put some meat on the table but did not have the cash to buy one. All our family were hunters and he understood perfectly. He helped my wife pick out the things she needed and then came around to where I was standing watching. He said "I can order you a new rifle and you can pay when you get some money later on, right now you need a rifle". I only replied that that sounded good and let it go at that. 2 weeks later he called and told me to come to the store and pick up my new rifle. I went and he had one of the brand new just introduced Remington 700's in 30-06 with a serial number of xxx. He said "I put it on the books, pay me a when you can, but there is no hurry". I looked at the price--$90.00, shipping and tax included.
But think about that, in 1962 $90.00 was about the same as $900.00 or a little better today. The good old days were not necessarily all that great at times, james
In the mid 60's, dad let me pick out a 98 Mauser 8mm from a Sears catalog,... I bought a box of Sierra 8mm 175 gr bullets and a pound of IMR 3031 powder and a box of primers from grass cutting money I earned doing people's yards.
All loaded on a RCBS Junior press, (Dad later bought a Rockchucker, and I still have his old Junior press).
Having a box of 100 bullets to reload and shoot, I felt like I had more ammo than U.S. Army!
Being a 61' model, I remember you walk into Sears, Monkey Wards, Jacque Penney (Dad called them that) and you could touch them in the isle. Eye level to me, between that and also being able to smell them along with the continuous flow of week old yellow Shotgun News Dad brought home from work I was done for. The one that stuck the most I think was Original German Mauser for $29.99, I can still smell those yellow Shotgun News. Sunday paper always had the sales on or loose, one Sunday dad reading at breakfast table. stands up, bottoms coffee cup and looks at me and says "get dressed, we gotta go". Penney's or printer screwed up and had Marlin 336's for $69.99 starting that day. We always went in by automotive area and the sporting goods area was right there also. Well, the line was out the door and a few down the wall. Two hours for a rain check, Dad said he didn't need a Marlin that bad.
I just bought a Sears T3 and coast to coast 22 from the neighbors that needed some restoring for $25 each. 1970’s pricing! I wish I could get some of those over under combos for $57! My 7600 chambered in 30-06 came from Kmart in 84’ for a price of $298 if I remember.
Online inflation calculators are fun to play with. . .
A few years back, a friend gave me a gun magazine from 1959 with an ad for surplus guns. They were selling 1911-A1's for $40, which equates to about $422 today. I figure I'd bite for that, but the same ad had 2-man inflatable life rafts for $42, so who knows how to figure it.:mrgreen:
The same magazine ad had Garands for a hundred bucks - equal to a little over a thousand dollars today. The M1 seems to have held its value pretty well.
Meanwhile today's kids can't figure out what XX and XY chromosomes mean and this same group of idiots is sympathetic towards Hammas.
And employers don't want to deal with that. Who'd a thunk it?
Strangely, Glock pistols have always averaged $500.00 around here even back to the late 80's. Definitely a better deal today than back then!
I was only making about $100 a week in the middle 60s. This was when you could mail order rifles. I Could not pass up a model 64 Savage-Anschutz new $89 complete with a set of Redfield Olympic sights. I still have and it and shoots like a dream.
I was working at a feed supply at 12 making 5 bucks a day in the summer months. At 15 I did home remodeling....much better money plus I learned a trade. After I got out of school in 71 I was hired at USS Irvin Works but I continued doing home remodeling as side work on weekends. The pay was ok in the Steel mill but I didn't care for shift work so I quit the mill in late 73 and went full time construction. The pay was better and I worked as many hours as I wanted. I never turned down a chance to make some cash.
got this .308 Remington 788 in 12/74 from Woolworths - total complete with UE4X scope - total with tax $67.99 - still have it with original receipt + packaging - still shoots less than 1" at 100 yards with my cast reloads - got me a 396lb. boar back than - only one i have ever seen with the blond stock -
Not a gun but still interesting. In 1938 my Father bought a 1936 Harley Knuck, he called it 61. It was used but almost no miles, price was $375. He traded a 28 flathead and was allowed $25.
Dad had decent job in a cotton mill and made a little over $700 a year, the bike was half a years pay any way you figure. He helped pay for the bike by buying a case of shine every week and peddling it out at the local road house on the weekend.
All I remember about the 70s was bad clothes, bad food, (KILL the guy who invented fondue!), and most of the music was bad, too.
My birth decade. I do remember K-Mart, TG&Y, Gibson's, etc.
My Dad has a shotgun from JCPenny's in that era.
The 70s were a great decade for me. I moved my family from NH to NW FL on Labor Day weekend 71. NH was stuck in a disintegrating economy due to imports replacing local manufactured goods, had high state taxes, plus a recession. NW FL was booming. The move was one of my best decisions. However, we, my family is from north FL and I was only in NH to go to college, got a job and stayed a while.
An old man once explained inflation to me, very succinctly; I would rather be broke with money in my pocket, than to be broke without a cent in my pocket.
I was 9 when JFK was killed. Five years later the 1968 Gun Control Act was put in place & it almost put my favorite wish book "P & S Sales" out of business. No more mail order military surplus rifles sold in the mail.
Back in the 50's and 60's until the infamous 68 gun control nonsense was put into place, there was an outfit in Chicago called Walt Cline's and you could buy guns, including pistols thru the mail and the mailman would deliver it right to your door and no records search or other hassle. james
Postman deliver mail to your door/post box? Whats that?
Fashion, cars, architecture of the '80's was bad. The music and post-apocalyptic movies were great! I inherited my wife's grandfathers Ted Williams .270. It's a Mauser 98 receiver made by FN, smooth bolt and is sweet to shoot. I also got his Savage 99 in .243.
70's were not all that great. Just a different time. Military during Jimmy Carter days sucked. It was the beginning of the end of company careers as huge layoffs took place. "Loyal" employees were given the boot and competition for mid-level jobs shot up. "Too old" or "overqualified" became common reasons to hot hire folks. There was even a push to start a union for the enlisted military.
There will always be inflation. In the future a gun might be worth $1M instead of $1000. Remember, a Colt SAA .45 back in the day was $17.50.
1975 a Pontiac TransAm with all the options was $4500. A Ferrari Dino was $11,000. Colt Python $375. And my take home pay was just over $600/month. Oil embargo and gas prices shot up to $0.50 and even $0.75 a gal (from 0.21/gal). And a room at a Holiday Inn was an outrageous $15 a night (Motel 6 really did mean $6 a night).
And for me, music hasn't changed. I still prefer classical. :)
Around 71 I dropped out of school and started working in a garage as a car mechanic. Every Friday evening I took some money to Green Dragon and went to Jack’s hardware tool stand and bought hand tools. Blew the rest on my muscle car. Car is long gone but still have almost every tool yet. Then I grew up and graduated from cars to guns and never looked back. I do miss all the small gun shops that abounded in the area. Got into reloading and then the money flew!
Rather than the prices back then, I look at how much easier it was then to buy guns or ammo. Especially here in NYS, where we now have to have a colonoscopy to even buy ammo.
For me the 70’s was a good time. I didn’t follow the crowd with the silly clothes, no bell bottoms, shirts with big collars , name brand shoes or any of that stuff. I had a few girl friends but didn’t spend a lot of time or money chasing girls. My high school teacher who had a FFL and would order guns for me for free and being I was single, living at home with my dad and having a skilled trade job it allowed me to buy a lot of guns , hunting and fishing equipment , truck, car, boat with no debt ever. To this day I have never taken out a loan or barrowed money.
By 1978 I had a FFL and was able to buy most any guns I wanted , back then you could call your home a place of business and you still had to log in all sales but in the 8 years that I had it I was never audited.
Looking back there was a lot of changes going on in the 70’s but my memories are mostly all good ones.
Jedman
I noticed no one has mentioned shag carpeting or 'shaggin' wagons'. (Shudder)
I bought a New Nova in 1970 from the local Chevy dealer for a grand total of $2465.00. Great little car but had cooling problems that turned out to be sand left in the engine block. GM workmanship in the late 60's thru the 80's was not very good. The front wheel, hub and all, fell off my uncles new Citation while he was doing 45 mph on a road about a 1/4 mile from the dealership. He called the factory and told them he was going to leave the car right where the wheel fell off and put a great big side on it reading "Lemon from your local Chevy dealer". Within an hour after his call, they had picked up his car and called him with "sorry" about your problem and they did repair it and from then on, anytime he took his car into the shop for work, he went to the head of the line for repairs.
Remember my dad buying a brand new 1972 Pontiac LeMans Sport for $3500. I took it to college in 1977 and had it to triple digits on the NYS Thruway more than once.
GM, Ford, Chrysler and AMC all had plenty of failures in the 80s in particular. Remember those early diesel conversations GM sold? Huge ***. Ford had the fireball Pintos. Chrysler Imperials. AMC Pacers. And dishonorable mentions go to the Yugo. I could go on at length but no point.
Lost of junk on the roads back then.