1964 S&W Prices

[maxicon]

The C&R prices thread reminded me of these pics posted over on S&WForum a little while back.

These are the S&W retail price lists from 1964, with the wholesale prices penciled in for LEO purchases (from a San Francisco distributor, no less!). Read'em and weep!

The most expensive model was the 29, at $140 MSRP, or $105 wholesale, but almost everything else was well under $100. That same year, a new home averaged $20k, a gallon of gas was $0.30, and a gallon of milk was $0.95.

[Black Majik]

::sigh::

$112 for a M52...

[QuarterBoreGunner]

"Where are we going today Mister Peabody?"

"Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for the time: 1964, the place San Francisco! We're going to be bringing back some oustanding examples of Smith & Wesson revolvers... and we'll see if we can get that Commie Beatnick Ginsburg to shut up for awhile."

[anothergunnut]

And you could buy guns mail order in those days...(at least at the federal level).

[Miltiades]

Those were the days...

I became old enough to buy handguns in 1964, and bought my first three S&W guns a little after that, about 1967. I see them on this price list, and recall that I paid about $100 or a little over for all three of them:

- model 39, 9mm semiauto
- model 27, .357 revolver
- model 41, .22 semiauto

I still have the models 39 and 27, and still shoot them periodically. All three were excellent guns. Here is the 39:

[dfletcher]

Looks more like a "to do" list than a poster.

Actually it looks like the 52 retailed for a bit more than the 29.

I'd be more than happy to pay the "adjusted for inflation" prices if those models were still available from the factory.

[maxicon]

Actually it looks like the 52 retailed for a bit more than the 29.

Doh! You're right - the 29 seemed logical, but I didn't look hard enough.

I'd be more than happy to pay the "adjusted for inflation" prices if those models were still available from the factory.

Inflation since '64 is currently running around 550%, so that Model 29 would go for around $660, assuming the actual price is somewhere between MSRP and wholesale.

The Model 10 would be around $315, the 17 would be $385, and so on.

I'd pay those prices, for sure...

In the meantime, a gallon of gas and the average house price have gone up over 1000% (10x), while milk is holding much steadier at only 400%.

Looks like S&Ws are closer to the 10x rate of houses and gas than the overall average of 550%.

[SJshooter]

According to the online inflation calculator, $140 in 1964 dollars = $940.94 in 2007 dollars. That's about right compared to the new factory 29-10s going for $925ish.