What Items Have Come Down in Price Over the Years?
Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2024 10:38 pmIt seems like virtually everyone (including me) complains about inflation, but one thing overlooked is that certain things have come DOWN in price over the years.
I thought it would be interesting to have a thread to discuss items that have actually gone DOWN in price over the years.
Here are a few examples to get things started…
STOCK COMMISSIONS: I’ve been with Schwab since the late 1990’s. On May 1, 1975 commissions were deregulated, which meant that brokers could raise their rates. Schwab did the opposite, lowering theirs. They stood out like a sore thumb by doing so, but quickly made a name for themselves as a discount broker. The highest commission I remember was likely $49.95 each way (you pay when you buy and when you sell). I then saw $29.95, $19.95, $14.95, $9.95, $8.95, $4.95 and ZERO SINCE 2019. I remember a single year when I spent over $50,000 in commissions, so I had to make $50k in profits just to break even! Talk about pressure!
LONG DISTANCE PHONE CALLS: I called someone just in the past week and detected a thick accent. I asked where I had called and found that it was Durban, South Africa. My goodness, that would have been a VERY EXPENSIVE phone call not too many years ago.
COMPUTER HARD DRIVES: I remember selling a USED computer hard drive for $20,000 to a bank. The drive was originally $100k and weighed about 35-40#. A much larger capacity hard drive now could be had for perhaps a few hundred dollars.
What other examples can everyone think of?
I thought it would be interesting to have a thread to discuss items that have actually gone DOWN in price over the years.
Here are a few examples to get things started…
STOCK COMMISSIONS: I’ve been with Schwab since the late 1990’s. On May 1, 1975 commissions were deregulated, which meant that brokers could raise their rates. Schwab did the opposite, lowering theirs. They stood out like a sore thumb by doing so, but quickly made a name for themselves as a discount broker. The highest commission I remember was likely $49.95 each way (you pay when you buy and when you sell). I then saw $29.95, $19.95, $14.95, $9.95, $8.95, $4.95 and ZERO SINCE 2019. I remember a single year when I spent over $50,000 in commissions, so I had to make $50k in profits just to break even! Talk about pressure!
LONG DISTANCE PHONE CALLS: I called someone just in the past week and detected a thick accent. I asked where I had called and found that it was Durban, South Africa. My goodness, that would have been a VERY EXPENSIVE phone call not too many years ago.
COMPUTER HARD DRIVES: I remember selling a USED computer hard drive for $20,000 to a bank. The drive was originally $100k and weighed about 35-40#. A much larger capacity hard drive now could be had for perhaps a few hundred dollars.
What other examples can everyone think of?