What non-tech products (besides pizza) that gets cheaper as time goes on?

[JEDI]

From this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2317794

I used to order pizza from papa johns. they had a football special. Whenever the Redskins scored a touchdown, u get a free topping. double if they won.

i remember one time they scored 5 touchdowns and won. 10 toppings for the price of a regular large cheese pizza!

Now u can get the Works for $11 after coupon.

 

[brainhulk]

drugs!

 

[Chapbass]

I'd say books, but thats usually because of the secondary market.

 

[waggy]

hookers. they get cheaper with age.

 

[jaqie]

Synthetic anything. (oil, diamonds, anything)

 

[Matthiasa]

hookers. they get cheaper with age.

But the medical bills they cause go up...

 

[tcsenter]

Cheaper due to economies of scale and better manufacturing techniques or cheaper due to moving production to countries with cheap labor, little worker protections and environmental laws?

One thing that strikes me every time is the price of musical instruments. The nominal price of guitars, drums and the like has hardly changed, if not went down slightly since I was a teenager (80s). e.g. $400 today buys you every bit as much guitar and maybe slightly more guitar than $400 did in 1986. A drum kit that cost $1500 today would have been at least $1500, and maybe upwards of $1800 in 1986.

On the opposite movement, the price of Japanese motorcycles and ATVs. Some sort of revaluation of the Yen during the late 80's to early 90's, made the cost of a dirt bike almost triple within a period of several years. Now my jaw drops every time I see the price of a new dirt bike. This has even affected the market for used bikes. e.g. I was browsing ads for used motorcycles a while ago, and found a few bikes in good to excellent condition selling for as much or slightly MORE than I paid for the same bike NEW 25 years ago!

 

[mnewsham]

From this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2317794

I used to order pizza from papa johns. they had a football special. Whenever the Redskins scored a touchdown, u get a free topping. double if they won.

i remember one time they scored 5 touchdowns and won. 10 toppings for the price of a regular large cheese pizza!

Now u can get the Works for $11 after coupon.

Order online

Coupon code:
post2l

Large pizza + 2litre for $10

 

[silverpig]

Anything that starts off unpopular and uses a lot of labour, and then becomes popular and can be produced with machines.

 

[Jadow]

haircuts

when i was in my teens i paid the barber like 12

now 20 years later, fantastic sams, 8 bucks

 

[CZroe]

Cheaper due to economies of scale and better manufacturing techniques or cheaper due to moving production to countries with cheap labor, little worker protections and environmental laws?

One thing that strikes me every time is the price of musical instruments. The nominal price of guitars, drums and the like has hardly changed, if not went down slightly since I was a teenager (80s). e.g. $400 today buys you every bit as much guitar and maybe slightly more guitar than $400 did in 1986. A drum kit that cost $1500 today would have been at least $1500, and maybe upwards of $1800 in 1986.

On the opposite movement, the price of Japanese motorcycles and ATVs. Some sort of revaluation of the Yen during the late 80's to early 90's, made the cost of a dirt bike almost triple within a period of several years. Now my jaw drops every time I see the price of a new dirt bike. This has even affected the market for used bikes. e.g. I was browsing ads for used motorcycles a while ago, and found a few bikes in good to excellent condition selling for as much or slightly MORE than I paid for the same bike NEW 25 years ago!

I noticed something similar in starting in 2008:

The 2007 EX250F (Kawasaki Ninja 250R) was $3,000 MSRP and still new in stock at a dealer 5 miles away from the dealer I bought my 2008 EX250J new for $3,500 MSRP. I couldn't believe how cheap a new entry-level sportbike was. Even so, every classified ad was stupidly asking thousands over MSRP for used EX250F models (1988-2007). At first, I laughed. I hope they were starting high, expecting to haggle.

Anyway, a 1993 magazine review reported the 1993 EX250F was $3,099 MSRP, so the price actually dropped in 15 years despite inflation. That's even more reason to think these people were crazy. I chalked the 2008 model's $500 MSRP hike up to it being revised for the first time in 20 years. I was wrong. The new J model was an even bigger hit so they rebadged them as 2009 models and it jumped to $3,999. The 2010 EX250J jumped $200 more. Three ticks later and it's now $5,000 for the 2013 EX300A (EX250L in other markets). When I look today at those same classifieds, people are still asking well above MSRP for the same bikes and many are getting it because it is still cheaper than a new bike.

CRAZY!

 

[jhu]

Nominal price or inflation adjusted price?

If you're talking about inflation adjusted, it's most things.

Nominal price will include cellphones, computers, software, drugs, solar panels, etc.