Iris prices have gone down!
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Iris prices have gone down!
- From: B* S* <b*@tiger.hsc.edu>
- Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 07:47:32 -0600 (MDT)
>>A coworker presented me with an iris catalog 1932 vintage in excellent
>>condition and with color photos!! The catalog was from Robert Wayman's
>>garden in Bayside, L.I., NY. The new introductions were listed at $25.00.
>> Inflation has not effected prices much in 60+ years!
Actually, if we make some basic assumptions about purchasing power, $25
would have been an astronomical price for an iris rhizome in 1932! For
example, in 1944, my dad paid $3200 for a 3-bedroom house and lot. Today
in the same community, a similar house sells for about $85,000. That's
about 27 times more. So if you wanted to keep purchasing power parity with
the 1932 introductions, you'd have to sell today's new iris for $675!
I checked some old Schreiners catalogs from the 1950s. New introductions
were indeed still $25-30, but we can perhaps assume a 10-fold decrease in
purchasing power (a guess based on my starting salary in 1965 and what new
assistant professors get now), they'd have to be priced at $250-300 now.
So what has happened is not that prices have not been affected, but that
they have gone down at an incredible rate!
Remember nickel candy bars and ten-cent cokes?
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@tiger.hsc.edu>
