What the tin says:
I'm trying to have those tables for a game I'm doing, so you can choose the time period for the setting.
I know where to find them for the 1920's but I can't for the life of me find them for the other decades, even an inflation formula would work.
Quote from: GeekyBugle;1132425What the tin says:
I'm trying to have those tables for a game I'm doing, so you can choose the time period for the setting.
I know where to find them for the 1920's but I can't for the life of me find them for the other decades, even an inflation formula would work.
For the US? https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/one-hundred-years-of-price-change-the-consumer-price-index-and-the-american-inflation-experience.htm
Quote from: Taggie;1132427For the US? https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/one-hundred-years-of-price-change-the-consumer-price-index-and-the-american-inflation-experience.htm
Thanks! Having the decade total and the annual total sure helps!
Early editions of Call of Cthulhu and various articles thereafter had lists taken from similar sources for the 20s-30s.
Example, the average wage for a worker in 1920 was listed as 1300$ yearly. A used car is listed as costing 250$, new car at 1000$, and so on. The quality of the lists has varied from edition to edition.
ICE's And a Ten Foot Pole is a collection of price lists for various ages. It's a great book.
If you are a really motivated, some libraries have old Sears catalogs on microfilm/microfiche.
Of course, Sears couldn't possibly put them online
Quote from: David Johansen;1132479ICE's And a Ten Foot Pole is a collection of price lists for various ages. It's a great book.
Thanks! Hunting it down!
Quote from: Omega;1132477Early editions of Call of Cthulhu and various articles thereafter had lists taken from similar sources for the 20s-30s.
Example, the average wage for a worker in 1920 was listed as 1300$ yearly. A used car is listed as costing 250$, new car at 1000$, and so on. The quality of the lists has varied from edition to edition.
Thanks, not giving money to Chaosium tho.
Quote from: JeremyR;1132481If you are a really motivated, some libraries have old Sears catalogs on microfilm/microfiche.
Of course, Sears couldn't possibly put them online
Yeah... I'm not THAT motivated.
Quote from: GeekyBugle;1132485Yeah... I'm not THAT motivated.
Try this. A 1923 Sears Catalog. First couple hundred pages are ladies and a few kids apparel then some mens apparel, then more apparel.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101066805043&view=1up&seq=10 (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101066805043&view=1up&seq=10)
hah. My Grandparents had one of these or something very similar. Didnt know what it was for back then. And a Franklin Sewing Machine desk. God they got decades of use out of that! Check out the book selection on pace 645. Shotguns and rifles starting on page 920.
(https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/image?id=njp.32101066805043;seq=274;size=150;rotation=0)
Going through just that one catalog I was struck by the sheer amount of DIY tools and materials in there. Make and repair you own shoes, belts, etc.
When I was trying to put together an equipment list for a 1690s pirate game, one good source for values of things during that time period was estate sale records.
Googling around today I also found this list of historic prices from 1900 to 2014:
https://mclib.info/reference/local-history-genealogy/historic-prices/
There are also a couple reference books I found that seem interesting:
- The Value of a Dollar: Colonial Era to the Civil War: 1600-1865 (https://www.amazon.com/Value-Dollar-Colonial-Civil-1600-1865/dp/1592370942)
- The Value of a Dollar 1860-2014 (https://www.amazon.com/Value-Dollar-1860-2014-Prices-Incomes/dp/1619252546)
Quote from: Lurkndog;1132690When I was trying to put together an equipment list for a 1690s pirate game, one good source for values of things during that time period was estate sale records.
Googling around today I also found this list of historic prices from 1900 to 2014:
https://mclib.info/reference/local-history-genealogy/historic-prices/
There are also a couple reference books I found that seem interesting:
- The Value of a Dollar: Colonial Era to the Civil War: 1600-1865 (https://www.amazon.com/Value-Dollar-Colonial-Civil-1600-1865/dp/1592370942)
- The Value of a Dollar 1860-2014 (https://www.amazon.com/Value-Dollar-1860-2014-Prices-Incomes/dp/1619252546)
Thank you very much!
I picked up both of those Value of a Dollar books for myself, and leafing through the section on the 1600s has me seriously thinking about revisiting my D6 pirates game.
I know that CoC 5e had price lists for items in the early 1990s (what was then the 'present day' setting).
Quote from: RPGPundit;1135762I know that CoC 5e had price lists for items in the early 1990s (what was then the 'present day' setting).
Not giving them money and not gonna become a pirate either. But thanks.
There are reprints of the 1902 and 1928 Sears catalogues floating about. These will give you a pretty fair idea of the prices of stuff in that era.
For moderns, find an issue of Gun Digest or Shooter's Bible from sometime in the 1980s. That will give you all the gun porn you could possibly want, along with era-appropriate prices.
For equipment, find an army surplus or outdoor supplies catalogue.
For electronics or computer equipment, find old issues of Byte or some similar publication and look at the prices in the ads. Try also finding a Zenith or Heathkit catalogue from sometime in the 1970s. Electronics in the '50s or '60s were buttock-clenchingly expensive, especially exotic test equipment. For example, an original Moog was about $8-10k depending on the configuration.
Try also finding an old Edmund Scientific catalogue from sometime in the 1970s. This will have prices for all sorts of lab and test equipment.
For stuff around the 1940s, it should be possible to find a fair amount of documentation on the cost of war materiel from WWII - one should be able to infer most of what you want from that.
Quote from: Nobby-W;1136102There are reprints of the 1902 and 1928 Sears catalogues floating about. These will give you a pretty fair idea of the prices of stuff in that era.
For moderns, find an issue of Gun Digest or Shooter's Bible from sometime in the 1980s. That will give you all the gun porn you could possibly want, along with era-appropriate prices.
For equipment, find an army surplus or outdoor supplies catalogue.
For electronics or computer equipment, find old issues of Byte or some similar publication and look at the prices in the ads. Try also finding a Zenith or Heathkit catalogue from sometime in the 1970s. Electronics in the '50s or '60s were buttock-clenchingly expensive, especially exotic test equipment. For example, an original Moog was about $8-10k depending on the configuration.
Try also finding an old Edmund Scientific catalogue from sometime in the 1970s. This will have prices for all sorts of lab and test equipment.
For stuff around the 1940s, it should be possible to find a fair amount of documentation on the cost of war materiel from WWII - one should be able to infer most of what you want from that.
Thanks for the tips.
For '80s-'90s here's an archive of Argos catalogues - mostly cheap-and-nasty housewares but there's a variety of stuff there.
https://archive.org/details/@musicfan100