1908 Straight Razor Ad

Found this online. A newspaper ad from 1908 Chicago Newspaper. Thought I'd share it. Look at those prices.

 

" If razors are sent by mail, postage is 5 cents for each razor"

 

Very cool. That was a lot of money back then. Some big names on that advertiser. Wade and Butcher, Wostenholm, Bismarck, Engstrom

 

$2 in 1908 converts to $51.98 in 2014 http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi

 

I bet the conversion would be askew if one would have had forethought enough to buy one of each of those pictured razors, put them away, then offered them for sale on today's market.
looks like 2k in inventory to me.

 

Blast it, where's my time machine?!!

 

I paid slightly more than 89¢ for this 5/8" Wostenholm Pipe; albeit a round point.
Inflation index makes 1908's 89¢ about $23 today—which is about what I paid for this Pipe razor (used).

 

1908 wages.

 

Really puts it into perspective when $0.22 an hour back then is only $5.71 an hour today.

 

$2.87 for a razor was almost 2 days of work.

 

So, by today's standards, $240 for a razor is comparable since $15 per hour is a modest salary these days. Of course, when the expression two-bit was first used, it meant moderately expensive...

 

Wow, was shaving only for the well-off? Wonder what the regular folk used.

 

Their granddad's hand-me-down, more than likely.

 

Or they just took this route

 

Yeah, that too!

 

Hey, I worked in high school for $2.85/hr (mid-1970s). $5.70 would've been unthinkable!

 

Of course, in the 70's straights would've probably still been more or less free since no one was into them then...

 

I started at $2.35 per hour in the mid 70s. We must be similarly aged

 

got you by a couple….but i'm still young at heart.

 

Sweet!