doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Turn-of-the-century Price Comparisons

To put it in perspective, you need to compare wages then and wages now.

In 1908, wages averaged about 22 cents per hour. About a hundred hours would get you a pretty good shotgun. Not so different now, really.

Historically interesting but from an investment standpoint, I'd be more interested in the values at the last turn of the century. I think my gun safe has done pretty well since the year 2000.

In 1880 in the Uk the average farm worker received �41.52 per year, general labourer �55.88, A clergyman �272.30 and a solicitor �1600.00.
This is a page from a trade fair catalogue which Worcester museum gave us as part of our research in to the Perrins business in Worcester. It would appear that Perrins guns were probably on a par with Westly Richards guns of the time, so I guess in real terms the buying power of a farm works wage today would still buy a similar gun today.



John

If your guns have doubled since 2000, they have returned something less than 7%. To make matters worse, if you assume that, upon your demise, that your wife will have to dispose of your stash, and she is not a gun show regular, discount your stuff another 20-30%.

Given that, I just enjoy my guns. If they appreciate, it's a bonus.

The pounds sterling - dollar exchange rate:
1880 4.84
1900 4.87
http://measuringworth.com/exchangepound/

Averages are irrelevant. Remember the guy who drowned in a pond that averaged 8-inches deep?

According tothe 1902 Sears catalog black powder shells , 3 dram 1 1/8 oz. shot was $.34 abox of 25. The smokeless same load was $.46 a box.A Pigeon Grade L.C.Smith was $84.37 with extractors and $94.50 with ejectors. Remington '94 K grade $25 1900 #1 $20.#2 Ithaca $33.Parker GH $58.20.$3.98 buys the Long Range Winner ( single shot). Model '97 Trap grade $33.50. Stevens Crackshot $2.95 Model '92 Take Down $16.00. Colt Bisley $13.20. 30-30 shells $.67 per box of 20. 25# of shot$1.60, and clay targets$3.75 to $4.00 / 1000. Mark

Comparing wages, then vs now: Back a couple years ago, a writer for the Ames (IA) Tribune--home of Iowa State University--suggested that the college president and the head football coach ought to be worth no more than two English professors each. He went back to the 50's, compared salaries: college president was making almost exactly the salaries of 2 English profs; the football coach was making less than that. Times have changed.

By 1936, the Ithaca Field Grade was no longer cheaper than its competitors. Ithaca and Smith Field, Fox SW--all within a few cents of $43.

Didn't Jim Thorpe die by drowning in a mud puddle? Or was that just what Burt Lancaster, who played him, acted out because the director thought it was a dramamatic way to end the movie?

Thanks for that information S.I.T
"The smokeless same load was $.46 a box"
Look how expensive shells were also. What, a half day�s pay for one box of shells for the greater part of America�s workers, that is if and only if they were being paid in real money and not company store scrip. That�s probably why the double was so popular and why there are so many American built hardware type guns today for us to buy, I use that term not to demean but only to distinguish between a gun�s stock that is built specifically for a customer and one that is not.
The real gem would be to see the tens of thousands of Crescents, Meridens, LC Smiths, Ithacas and many others that have been totally trashed through generations of use, guns that were built to hunt everything from deer to rabbits to birds.