Gold & Silver Forum - Handgun Ammo Prices In Perspective ~ Ayoob

Handgun Ammo Prices In Perspective
Before We Tear Our Hair Out Over Rising Ammo Prices, We Need To Crunch Some Numbers.

http://www.gunsmagazine.com/DHG0608.html

It�s 2008, and the voices of handgunners rise throughout the land bemoaning the dramatic price increases in handgun ammunition. We�ve all heard the explanations: military demand with a shooting war on two fronts, precipitously rising costs of brass/copper/lead, and all of that.

Before we complain too much, it�s worth stepping into the time machine of past artifacts to compare today�s prices with yesteryear�s, in comparison with other cost of living increases and the pace of average income during the same period. Let�s go back, oh, half a century.

Rules Of Thumb

As a rule of thumb, many consumer goods cost roughly 10X what they did five decades ago. According to Remember When from Seek Publishing in Millersville, Tennessee, the average 1958 automobile cost $2,155 new. Those were full-size family sedans. Try to buy today�s equivalent, a 2008 Ford Crown Vic, for less than 10X that. The publisher lists $1 as the price of a movie ticket. My last one (tonight) cost me $9.50. Remember When says it cost 4� to mail a letter in 1958; it�s 41� at this writing.

Let�s look at some timelessly classic handguns. Colt Government .45s cost $78.25 in 1958, and the roughly equivalent baseline Colt 1991A1 starts at $786 today. The same maker�s Single Action Army was $125 new then, and starts at $1,380 from 2008�s Colt Custom Shop. Smith & Wesson�s bread and butter Model 10 .38 Special revolver listed for $62 in 1958, and lists for $632 in 2008. Smith�s all-steel Bodyguard J-frame snub was $66 then, and is $622 now in its stainless Model 649 configuration. The all-steel Ruger Standard Model was still $37.50 in 1958, and its Mark III equivalent begins at $322 today. All things considered, that�s pretty much in the �10X the price of 50 years ago� ballpark.

Of course, that �10X� thing didn�t apply to everything. Gasoline? 24� per gallon in 1958. It�s an average of $3 as I write this � a 12-fold increase � and because the prices are as volatile as the product, it may be higher by the time you read it.

A pack of cigarettes in �58 was maybe two bits, and in Chicago, where I am when I write this, the same brand would go at least 6 bucks in 2008 money, 24 times the cost. In my circle, I could only find one person who could quote a 1958 home price. His parents bought a house for $13,000 in February �58. He inherited it, and sold it a few years ago, for $300,000, a 23-fold increase.