7+ Old Prices That Illustrate How Much The Value Of A Dollar Has Changed

As you may be able to see here, this retro Mac would have cost $3,598.44 back when it was brand new.

Not only is it fairly common to pay about that much for a desktop computer nowadays, but if we adjust for inflation, we see that this would've cost $8,284.97 in 2021 money.

What this comes down to is the fact that when never-before seen consumer tech hits the market, it tends to cost a staggering amount before manufacturing advancements help to bring the price down.

Of course, how much you'll end up paying for a roughly equivalent bag of Lay's chips nowadays depends a little on the time and place.

Still, it's not unheard of to pay about $2.50 for the same quantity today.

Although modern prices vary depending on which toll road you're taking, it's still pretty staggering to see that what would have cost you 20 cents back then can set you back between four to eight dollars nowadays.

Not only that but those riding motorcycles may be disappointed to realize that they're charged the same as cars when that didn't used to be the case.

However, the fact that this sign was left up after a gas station closed down may give us a misleading idea of how cheap gas was at the time.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, gasoline tended to cost $1.15 per gallon in 1995.

So it's possible that this station reduced the price further just so they could get rid of what they had left.

As The Washington Post reported back in 1977, a then-recent price war between retailers selling the jeans dropped the average cost from about $17 per pair to about $12.50 per pair.

Since inflation rates put that price at about $53 in modern money and you can get a pair of standard straight fit jeans for about that much now, it seems we're not missing out here.

Why? Well according to The Independent , a Big Mac would have cost 45 pence (or 62 cents) in 1974.

But as recently as last year, Buzzfeed recorded the average price of a Big Mac in the United States at $5.67. That's quite a jump and unfortunately, we can't entirely blame inflation for that as a Big Mac would otherwise cost $3.29.

That information comes from Forbes, who also reported that this amount of money would have the buying power of $21.77 in today's dollars.

And since Mattel seems to list their modern dolls for about $20 a pop, I suppose that seems about right.

Although they didn't know or didn't share how old the bottle was, the fact that the label both contains the color blue (added in 1950) and says "Pepsi-Cola" — which was changed to simply say "Pepsi" in 1962 — suggests that it was likely purchased some time during the 1950s.

Since you can a pack of six bottles of the same size for about $6 nowadays, it seems likely that the price per bottle has stayed relatively stable when you adjust for inflation.

Because once you do all of that, the price basically translates to $32.

For comparison's sake, excite.com puts the average price one would need to pay to see Ariana Grande before the pandemic hit at $176.

Of course, a big act was also a lot more likely to see higher revenues from record sales during the '70s so maybe that spike isn't so surprising.