Good old inflation...

[MerricB]

Heh. While using my Dragon Magazine Archive to look up a quote by Gary Gygax, I stumbled upon an old TSR price list.

I then plugged in a few values to an Inflation Calculator

D&D (original) - $10 then (1976), $34.33 now
Greyhawk, supplement 1 - $5 then (1976), $17.17 now

G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (8 pages!) - $4.49 then (1978), $13.68 now.
also, G2: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King - $4.98 then (1978), $15.16 now

B1: In Search of the Unknown - $5.49 then (1979), $15.55 now
also, S1: Tomb of Horrors

The Dragon magazine - $2 then (1979), $5.66 now

Cheers!

 

[JimAde]

That is really interesting. So they were charging about as much (in inflation-adjusted dollars) as WotC is now, but the WotC products are bigger, better production values and have far more and better art.

That's what economies of scale get you. It's really tough to produce slick product at a low price when you're only expecting to sell 1000 copies.

 

[Grimstaff]

So what would Ptolus cost in 1978?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Interesting.

As interesting as it is to see inflation numbers, they're still only a rough tool at best.

They rarely take into account things like paper shortages, improved paper making processes, etc..., in terms of RPG books.

It's like when they talk about how oil from the 80's would cost much more than oil now and we're supposed to assume that they're using the exact same methods and tools that they were using to acheive that same leve lof efficiency back then.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

So what would Ptolus cost in 1978?

Since I'm not sure which way you're looking for the conversion 1978 to 2005 or 2005 to 1978, I'll plop both of them in here.

"What cost $120 in 1978 would cost $365.63 in 2005."

and

"Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2005 and 1978, they would cost you $120 and $39.38 respectively."

 

[BiggusGeekus]

They rarely take into account things like paper shortages, improved paper making processes, etc..., in terms of RPG books.

It's like when they talk about how oil from the 80's would cost much more than oil now and we're supposed to assume that they're using the exact same methods and tools that they were using to acheive that same leve lof efficiency back then.

Quoted for truth. Though adjusting for inflation is still a good reality check.

To answer the Ptolus question: What cost $120 in 2005 would cost $39.38 in 1978. Though there is no way Ptolus could ever be produced in 1978. Find me a 1978 600+ page book with color illustrations and those fancy-dan ribbon bookmarks. If such books were even remotely common, get me the 1978 price on them. I'll bet it's much higher than $40.