"The Good Old Days of Low Prices?" Topic

Cleaning up a dead wargamer's stuff--again. In the bottom of a box of brushes, I found a catalog from Command Post Miniatures--the new, 1971 catalog. Due to rising material costs, 30mm infantry in 50/50 lead/tin are running 35 cents a figure--with a 5 cent discount if your order totals $20 USD or more.

Just for fun, I ran it through an inflation calculator. That 35 1971 cents is $2.82 USD in 2024 dollars. Think about it next time you look at a Perry, Warlord or Eagle catalog, or hear someone complain that beginning wargamers can't afford to raise mass armies.

I remember Scruby redi-cast minis were .25 I think.

I remember that the cost of 15mm got up to 38 cents each in the 1990s. Then Old Glory came out with their bulk packs of 100 castings for $18. USD So they per only 18 cents each. As a result, all of the other companies followed a price drop to 20 cents. I worked with Stone Mountain as a east of the Mississippi seller.

I have always been grateful to Old Glory for starting the Great 1990s price reduction in the USA.
Thanks Russ and gang.

I was not aware that anybody was actually marketing their figures as 30 mm in the past (or present).

Greifbringer, you could lose your Geezer Permit. Apart from Command Post, there were Stadden, Suren, SAE, JAL, Scruby, Spencer-Smith and Minifigs. They were the compromise between 20mm--nice fellows who lacked individuality--and 54's, who were too large and expensive for table tops.

Then 20/25 became just 25. And they got bigger and bigger…

Back in the day I didn't think the figures were cheap. Looking back I don't feel that they were cheaper than today. In both periods I budget and plan my purchases.
In the last 20-30 years though we have additional life expenses that we didn't have back then…. Cable/internet, cell phones and service plans, children and grand children, etc

Its the postage that's killing me.

TimePortal +1

I remember a box of Airfix figures or a series 1 plastic kit cost 19p in 1976, using the BoE's inflation calculator thats £1.10 GBP today. A new box bought from a hobby store today is usually at least £3.50 GBP, and sometimes a lot more (£5.99 on the Airfix website)

What I reminicence about is the pre-Brexit era when buying from all the UK manufacturers was so much cheaper and more convenient.

David Manley, I'm sure they were 2/- when I started, around 1970. 10p in new money :)

That's the decade we really had inflation.
Kids. Get off my lawn!

Ah, yes, back in the '70s, 25mm Minifigs were 25 cents each for infantry and 50 cents each for cavalry. Now my computer doesn't even have a cents sign key.

<Sigh>

Grelber

@The Last Conformist. Thought of an annual shopping trip to the U.K.? If that won't fly, I'm sure that TMP could hook you up with a British buddy and you can send each other birthday, Christmas & midsummer presents.

As a store, I tried once to order from Venexia in Italy. I got a 40% discount which was expected but what I did not expect was the postage bill from Italy. The cost equaled 20% of the discount.

Russ at Old Glory was able to keep prices down for sometime because he had a contract with his metal supplier at a fixed price for a year. Needless to say, even that went up after the first year!

IMHO, metal prices will see the prices go even higher and 3D prints will be increase in popularity due to cost. (Within the next 5 years or sooner!) I prefer metal over plastic but am beginning to change….

It's not that the cost of it has gone up, it's more the value of your currency has gone down that much.

I told them that, Sargonarhes, but no one's listening.

Miniatures were always expensive in their own time.

I never remember saying "$1 per figure that's so cheap!" I do remember saying I would never pay more than $1 USD per figure.

I remember buying 25mm fantasy figures for $1 USD each at the local FLGS, mainly Ral Partha. Back then I was earning $3.15 USD an hour.

So if I earned $15 USD an hour today, I would be buying metal figures at $5 USD each?

Yeah, Ral Parthia had good prices on both their Colonial and Battletech ranges.

Back in the day when you could buy a pound of lead/tin for .25 USD, rather than a current-day pound of lead-free pewter for $25.00 USD

Sigh.