[TenTec] 516 price in perspective

[bill@invertebrata.org]

Like some readers of this reflector, I was surprised
when the price of the new Argonaut V model 516 was
announced at $795, particularly when the Ten-Tec site
had earlier given an estimated retail price of $695. 
As some others have done, I decided to get some
perspective.

At the Unofficial Ten-Tec web site
(http://www.qsl.net/tentec), original retail prices for
the 505, 509, and 515 versions of the Argonaut are
given; at the W8KC Virtual Ten*Tec Museum web site
(http://mywebpages.comcast.net/W8KC/lineage.htm), the
starting year of production for these models is noted. 
With this information, I went to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics web site (http://www.bls.gov/cpi) and used
their "Inflation Calculator."  This handy device allows
you to input a value and year, and calculate what that
value would be for any other year using the actual rate
of inflation over that period.  For example, $100 spent
on goods and services in 1971 would cost $443.95 in
2002 for the same goods and services, based on
inflation alone.  The inflation-adjusted 2002 prices
for the three early Argonaut models are shown in the
fourth column of the table below:

---Model---- -Year- -Price- -2002 Price-

Argonaut 505  1971   $288    $1279

Argonaut 509  1973   $329    $1332

Argonaut 515  1979   $429    $1062

The $795 price for the new 516 is 25% to 40% less than
the inflation-adjusted prices of these Argonaut models
when they were first introduced, an interesting result.

Bill, KD5QID