Can you think of anything that's risen in price since you were a kid

[Oeditpus Rex]

more dramatically than gasoline and homes?



Oh, and cigarettes.



Any others? :shrug:

[DS1]

1. Jolly Ranchers

Were 3 cents each, now a Quarter

[unpossibles]

2. comic books

milk, maybe

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. I have no idea what comic books cost now

When I was like 5, 6, they were a dime. Might've gotten up to 50 cents by my late teens, but I do remember 35 cents.

I also remember MAD for 25 cents (cheap), and now it's... what, $3.95 maybe? :shrug:

[democracyindanger]

24. Yep, I remember getting them for 35 cents

just when I started getting into them. Within a year they shot up to a buck. Pretty much killed my nascent comic book geekitude.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. I can assure you they did NOT shoot from .35 to 1.00 in one year.

I started buying US-imported comics here in Brazil circa 1987, and the cover price stood at .75 for two years or so, then went to 1.00 where it stayed for a further couple of years, at least. I'm talking mainstream Marvel & DC. (There were always snappier editions, specials and annuals which costed more.)

I even remember who was the last holdout at .75 -- Superman.

[democracyindanger]

44. Only saying what I remember as a 10 year old

around 1979. I distinctly remember buying comic books @.35, then within a few months it was .55, and it continued escalating.

[China_cat]

63. I stopped buying them when they went to a quarter.

Comic books were only a dime when I was a kid.

[tigereye]

3. why, penny candy!

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. There was this one store

when I was about 7 or 8 — Super Bubble, two for a penny.

[tigereye]

10. I miss those little corner stores that were a staple of pre-70s small town

and even big -town life. The drugstores and convenience stores just aren't the same...


2 for a penny, eh? I can close my eyes and picture the candy counter in a few of those places - and they would also donate prizes for back-yard carnivals...

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. There're still a few of 'em

There's one not far from me, but times have changed — now, those stores are ridiculously expensive.

When I was like 12, we'd ride our bikes a couple blocks to Daily Market and get 16-ounce bottles of RC Cola for 18 cents and candy bars for a nickel. And the owners knew our names. I've forgotten theirs, but I can still see their faces.

[tigereye]

15. did you go to the neighbor's houses to collect pop bottles for money?

we used to do that every summer...

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Not as such

We just pooled the bottles we found in our own houses. :)

When I got to be 16, we still did that — for gas money. If you cashed in 30 bottles and put that with the buck you already had, that'd get you a quarter-tank, and you could cruise South Main all night.

[bluesbassman]

73. Used to scrounge bottles from the garage,

Push my Taco 22 (minibike with a B&S lawnmower engine) to the Safeway, cash 'em in for a quarter and push the bike across the street to the Esso station fill up the tank and ride all day. Heaven in 1968.

[Oeditpus Rex]

75. I had a mini bike like that

Don't remember the model (the emblem on the forks was a red disc), but I'm pretty sure it had a Tecumseh engine — 3 1/2 horse, I think. Topped out at about 20 mph. I'd push it to the field next to the reclamation ditch on Sanborn Road. Once I rode it far enough from there that I could see the overpass where Sherwood Drive goes over U.S. 101. Found a circle track back there, too, behind some of the worst houses off East Market.

I learned about wet sanding with that thing. A friend and I took it down to bare metal and re-painted it metallic blue and steel-wooled the mag-type wheels. I also paid $10 to have the seat re-done at Alisal Upholstery. :)

[bluesbassman]

76. Wish I still had mine.

Traded it for a white '72 stratocaster. Damn, wish I sill had that too. :rofl:

[Oeditpus Rex]

77. I'd call that a good trade

I wouldn't mind having a Strat at all. Anyway, it's damned hard to keep a mini bike in tune. :)

[Art_from_Ark]

97. A neighbor boy told me about his mother's pop bottle stash--

200+ bottles, worth 2 cents each! He said his mother said we could have them, just to get them out of his garage. So he, I, and another boy loaded what we could into a Radio Flyer wagon, and got some bags for the rest, and carried them a half mile or so to the corner grocery where we received $4.26 for the lot. I and the other boy each got $1.00, while my neighbor got the remaining $2.26 because, after all, they were "his" bottles. So at the store we loaded up on candy bars, and each got a bottle of pop (the deposit was paid with 6 cents of the refund money). However, as it turned out, his mother had not given her permission, and she tanned his hide for stealing her pop bottle stash. And she forbade him from seeing either of us other two boys again, because we were "accomplices".

[harmonicon]

54. we did that too

There was a path through the woods where we could ride out bikes to a local shop and skip main roads that our parents wouldn't let us ride on. In the summer our parents would give us each 50 cents or a dollar, and we had to decide on what sort of bounty to get. You could get some things for 35 cents, and then you had 15 cents for something else, or you could get a bottle of soda (before everything was a 1/2 liter at least) for 50 cents. Good times.

edited rapidly to add that we would get this money from washing the car or mowing the lawn or something - no hand-outs.

[grasswire]

72. The corner store of my childhood is three houses away...

...from where I now live. It's a dwelling now. If it ever comes on the market I'm buying it and turning it back into a candy store. It had those great old wooden plank floors, and was just like everyone's favorite memory. Licorice babies, root beer barrels, those crazy little marshmallow ice cream cones, wax lips, chicken bones, peppermint, etc. I can still remember the smell. Those were the days...

[tigereye]

90. those wax pop bottles with the candy juice inside!

:rofl:


or those things that looked like flying saucers with little candies inside....

[grasswire]

91. oh yeah!

I love those wax bottles.

And circus peanuts. Many people don't like those. But I do.

Unfortunately, I can't eat any of this stuff any more. But I can remember, fondly.

[Art_from_Ark]

98. I loved those wax bottles with the syrup inside

And for Halloween, they used to sell wax skulls filled with that stuff.

[China_cat]

64. Baldinger's

Outside of Zelienople in PA still sells penny candy. Barrels and barrels of it.

[tigereye]

94. I still remember the first time we went there as kids

I know there was a big petition to save it - I don't know how that worked out. The new owners wanted to sell the land for more crappy malls. Sad. I was hoping I could get my kid out there before anything happened to it...

[China_cat]

95. It's still there. Or was as of last September when I visited

my sister, who lives in Harmony. I'm sure she would have said something if it was gone.

[BOSSHOG]

6. Football tickets?

My wife and I went to the 1975 Rose Bowl. Pretty good seats, 25 bucks each and FREE parking.

Don't know if thats comparable to today's gas price increases but such tickets have skyrocketed since then.

PS - we were just past kiddom in 75!

[suninvited]

7. I remember the coke machines taking

one quarter when I was a kid.

Now, they take a dollar or more at some places.

[Rosie1223]

8. mailing a letter

5 cents in the 1960s

[mainegreen]

9. Water. Used to be free at all restaurants. Now some have the audacity to charge.

Thats what, an infinity percent increase?
A not a number percent increase?

:P

[flvegan]

11. The Corvette was $5k when I was little.

Now it's $50k.

Right in line with gas, actually.

[Fenris]

48. Pocket change!

Try a ZR1!

http://jalopnik.com/396780/dealer-gouging-reportedly-sends-2009-corvette-zr1-to-amazingly-insane-price-of-413000

[flvegan]

49. They did that with the first ZR1 as well.

The price gouging, that is.

Wow, $419k. As unAmerican as it might be, I'll take a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and spend the change on a Range Rover to drive in the rain and a house to park them at.

[Fenris]

51. I honestly think if you are paying $419k for a Corvette it should be made of solid gold.

Yes, I would like to support American car manufacturers etc. but there is no way I'd pay that price for a Corvette if I had the money to afford one. That's dangerously close to Enzo MSRP territory. It might make sense if we were suffering from Weimar Republic-style inflation, but that's the only way I could fathom that price.

[csziggy]

70. When I was shopping for my first car, Honda Civics were $2k

Brand new, just introduced two seater Civics.


My Dad ended up finding me a Buick Skylark for $1k. I'm sure I spent way more than the price difference in gas before I drove that Skylark to death.

[Left Is Write]

12. Flour.

[Redstone]

13. Well, when I first started going to bars, a short beer was 35 cents. You could get one,

plus a shot and a pack o'cigs from the machine for just over a buck.

Redstone

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. I never heard of a 'short beer' until I was well into my 20s

But I sure remember cigs in machines for 35 cents — maybe even 30.

[Redstone]

26. This was in a steel-mill town in Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. Nothing like it;

Rolling Rock when it was real beer, in a mug so frozen that there were ice crystals floating on top...

Ahstrays, too. Just the thing for 4 PM on a 90-degree day.

Redstone

[Chan790]

17. Milk.

Milk used to be cheap...not anymore.

[Whoa_Nelly]

19. Candy and gum

Used to get Nut Goodies for a dime, and Juicy Fruit for a nickel :(




The price of clothing has gotten silly, especially jeans!


Dog Food is more pricey now than when I was a kid.

[EstimatedProphet]

20. The ultimate example: the Hershey's bar

In 1970 it was 3 times the size that it is now, and cost a nickel.

[sniffa]

21. Golf

When I was a kid (grammar school) I used to play as many rounds as I could within a year for $55. Now, it costs $55 per outing (if you're lucky). Now, I play once a year.

[Oeditpus Rex]

31. Didn't even think about that

At Salinas Fairways back then, if you were under 18 you could get a monthly card for... I think it was $12; might've been $15. We played at least every weekend and often played nine after school. Summers, we'd play two or three times per week. (We also snuck out one night and dredged something like 140 balls out of the lake on 14.)

Last time I checked San Juan Oaks it was $65 for a round, and that was like six years ago. But then, you walk into the clubhouse and you think, "This is a public course?"

[puerco-bellies]

22. Remember 5 cent a scoop ThriftyMart ice cream.

God I'm old.

[Blue_Tires]

23. obvious one: sports tickets and clothing

especially sports jerseys, hats, etc...a short decade ago, I never thought i'd see teens flock to foot locker for the right to drop three and a half bills for Kobe Bryant's high school (!) jersey

[Blue_Tires]

25. forgot another obvious one...COLLEGE!

:mad:

[Oeditpus Rex]

32. Oh, christ, yeah

Before 1978, you could get a bachelor's at any UC for about $3,000-$4,000 — not per year, for all four. Then Proposition 13 hit, the Property Tax Revolt, and those days were over.

[TBF]

65. I attended the UW-Madison for approx. $800/semester in the 80's.

I'll be lucky if my children can go to school for $8000 a semester.

[graywarrior]

27. I remember when a lof of bread and a pack of butts each cost 28 cents

[skygazer]

28. Movie tickets

My friends and I used to go every Tuesday night because it was dollar night but it was still cheap even at regular prices.

And when I was 17 or 18, I used to get 25 cent drafts at one bar in my hometown. It was Genessee Cream Ale - nasty beer but I developed a taste for it at 25 cents a pop. :)

[Oeditpus Rex]

34. I don't go to movies anymore

so I didn't think of that.

But, yeah — the Fox and the El Rey were 35 cents for kids and the Globe was 50, and for that you got a feature without commercials and two or three cartoons. Saturday matinees had two features, and our moms would drop us off around 1 p.m., go shopping (when all the stores were downtown, as were the theatres), and pick us up around 5.

The best deal ever, though, was when my sister was an assistant manager at the drive-in. I and everyone in the car with me got in free. :D

What's it cost to go to "the show" now? Eight, nine bucks? :shrug:

[skygazer]

36. At least, I think

I don't go either - I wait until they come out on DVD. Between the admission, snack and a drink, I'm dropping a load of cash on half an hour of commercials, half an hour of previews and a feature that probably sucks anyway. Not to mention cell phones, loud people and someone's head right in my way. :wtf:

[Initech]

30. Concert tickets

I remember going to see Tool back in '98 when it only cost $18 to go see them. Last December I paid nearly $90 for a single ticket to see the same band and $25 on top of that for parking. :wow:

[Whoa_Nelly]

38. I had Rolling Stones tickets for $10 back in '70

DAmn! And my dog stole them, hid them, and then brought them back to me as a "present" the night after the concert!

Flip...what an old codger! :rofl:

Flippy
~1960--1977~

[Oeditpus Rex]

40. First rock concert I ever went to, in 1973:

Rare Earth, Bonnie Bramlett (of Delaney and Bonnie and Friends) and a real good Santa Cruz band, Snail, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds Arena, where Monterey Pop was just six years earlier.

Tickets were either $2.50 or $3.50, and we brought our own beer. No hassles.

[Initech]

47. Concert security blows.

I went to the Rock The Bells show in Devore, CA (or as I've come to call the Pavilion "Satan's Shithole"). Security there is bad. The guards were knocking down people left and right, starting fights with people in the venue, and just other terrible shit they were able to get away with.

Oh the price for tickets to this show? $95. But then again it was Rage Against The Machine so it was worth it.

[harmonicon]

55. dear lord...

Did you miss the painful irony of your own post, or do you just live some amazing Belgian-government-funded life of irony as a form of art?

[Initech]

58. Holy crap...

:rofl:

[harmonicon]

62. Rage, brother, RAGE!!!

[stuntcat]

83. yah concert tickets :(

There are still some cheap shows we go to but we've paid $100 a ticket a few times too. Prince was $125 but I couldn't not go.
I won't stop going to concerts, I just bet the $125 won't be so rare in a few years :(

[Lyric]

33. Hookers and blow.

Goddamned inflation. x(

[Oeditpus Rex]

35. What's it run to blow a hooker these days?

:shrug:

[SteppingRazor]

84. Actually, from what I understand from people who partied in the '70s and people who do today....

coke has actually gotten cheaper.

:party:

[bigwillq]

37. Sporting Event tickets (nt)

[Oeditpus Rex]

42. Depending on where you sit, yeah

In the early '70s, you could sit in the back 20 or so rows of the first deck at Candlestick, behind first or third, for $3.50. At AT&T a seat like that'll run you about $40, but they've still got outfield seats for like $15, and there's no such thing as a bad sight line at that yard.

[Burma Jones]

46. We had New Orleans Saints Season Tickets, 1969 and 1970

two pre-season games and seven regular season games. With my Dad's Military discount, the season tickets were $27.00 each, or three bucks a game.

[libnnc]

39. Three Musketeers bar

I remember when they were a quarter.

[carlyhippy]

41. just about everything

Carly

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

43. Bread (.25), comic books (.10 - .15), candy bars (.05).

[Left Is Write]

56. Candy bars - the price goes up and the size goes down.

[Burma Jones]

45. Coffee and Ice Cream Cones

A Cup of coffee was damn near free when I was a kid and an ice cream cone was a quarter or so.

Of course, an ice cream cone didn't weigh five pounds back then. And coffee was just a drink, not a lifestyle.......

[Flaxbee]

50. New cars...

- a decent Honda or Toyota are now pricey, therefore used car prices are pricey.

[Bennyboy]

52. Concert tickets.

I saw the Grateful Dead, The Aiplane and Stoneground for $3.50 in 1970 or so. Now, even the GD would charge 75 bucks.

I saw the Police for 12 dollars in 1980 and now they were 250 bucks last summer. (and so not worth it)

The Rolling Stones at Winterland in 1972 I think were 10 dollars or less and now the tickets are 300 bucks plus.(but I ahve never paid mroe than 20 for any Stones show and I have seen every tour and sat in great seats).

[bluesbassman]

67. Saw Yes at Winterland in '74 for $6.00.

I remember it was $6.00 because all I had was a five, and I had to sell my last joint for a buck so I could get in (it was a really good joint :smoke:).

[Oeditpus Rex]

74. Scammer!

I never paid more than 50 cents for a joint.



:smoke:

[bluesbassman]

78. It had a little thai stick in it .

I said it was a really good joint!

[Mendocino]

93. I saw the Stones in 78

in Cleveland. $12 bucks and at the time the most I had ever paid for a concert. Peter Tosh and Kansas opened.

[BrotherBuzz]

53. I would have thought coffee shop coffee, that went from a dime....

to, what, a dollar? Buck and a half? I did the math, and Gasoline still beats it.

Milk is more expensive than gasoline but it hasn't climbed as dramatically as other things have.

:shrug:

[Left Is Write]

57. Speaking of rising prices - remember when those squares of ice cream were 1/2 gallon?

Now they are either 1.5 quarts or 1.75 quarts, depending on which brand you buy.

Food package sizes just keep getting smaller and smaller.

[Connonym]

59. I just recently realized that about ice cream

I don't eat it but buy it for my kids sometimes and I was surprised that the price was lower than I remembered. Then I realized it was because the package is smaller, duh.

[Left Is Write]

68. I was buying for the kids when I discovered that information too.

I usually don't buy ice cream these days unless they specifically ask for it. I have no idea how long the half-gallon containers haven't been a half-gallon.

[Orrex]

60. Health care--childbirth in particular

[bluesbassman]

61. Pot

Remember getting a $10.00 bag of weed, and you actually got a whole bag full?

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

79. Shit, that has to be 2 OZ

[mochajava666]

87. Thank Reagan for his war on drugs

Right after his war started, pot instantly doubled in price and hasn't looked back.

Also, I remember reading a news report back then that as pot war got hot in the early 80's, people switched to distributing a more compact and higher profit drug - cocaine. The news said that coke actually dropped from 100 a gram to as low as 50 a gram back then. Heck of a job, Gipper.

Pot was $325 a pound back in the late 70's. An ounce of similar stuff goes for 200 an ounce now. That would make a pound at $3200 - about a 10 fold increase. Most available stuff now is $400 an ounce for "high-grade". Thanks again, Gipper. Now kids are getting high on prescription drugs or huffing paint, instead. I guess that's much safer than the devil-weed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

66. Bread

It was a nickel a loaf when I was a kid.

[HEyHEY]

69. Salt

[JVS]

71. water

When I was a kid nobody would dream of paying as much for a drink of water as a bottle of coke costs. Water was free.

[bertha katzenengel]

80. groceries, cars

[raccoon]

81. It would be easier if you'd asked what HASN'T risen in price since I was a kid.

I can think of one thing: TVs.

[dropkickpa]

82. D'oh! n/t

[datasuspect]

85. sex

i remember the days of $5 hookers

[RebelOne]

86. It's been a long, long time since I was a kid.

So just about everything has risen in price.

[Dora]

88. Cars and ice cream cones. nt

[SOteric]

89. My fucking taxes.

x(

[bamacrat]

92. Sodas

When I was 11 or 12 it was 65 cents after tax for a 20 oz, now its 1.49 before. Gas was 85 cents a gallon, Im only 25 so I dont have a lot of buying experience.

[Art_from_Ark]

96. Movie matinees

Were 25 cents when I was a kid, now they're what? $4 or $5?