update on the FPM-200 price

 Referring to my original blog post on the FPM-200 and the BLS online inflation calculator:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/01/bls-inflation-calculator-internet.html

I noticed this item for sale on ebay:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/114783949492

WRL ad in October 1961 QST

World Radio Labs is advertising (in QST from October 1961, page 157) the FPM-200 at a significantly lower price ($1795) than the one from the 1963 Allied catalog ($2650).

The question is what the $2650 price from Allied included, maybe the power supply which WRL sells for $125 ?  The mobile rack is another $75 from WRL.

Even if all three items were included by Allied at $2650 they would only have been $1995 from WRL, so a $655 difference.

I'll just plug $655 into the inflation calculator:  that's  $6194 in 2022 dollars !   

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=655&year1=196110&year2=202202

Now the other factor is that the WRL ad is from 1961 and the Allied catalog is from 1963 so Hallicrafters may not have been able to sell the radio at $1995 and make a profit ?

This also affects the inflated WRL price due to the extra year or so of inflation:  $18,867  

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1995.00&year1=196110&year2=202202

BTW, can you imagine putting an $18,867 radio (or even worse, a $23,910 radio) in your vehicle and parking it at the store ?  Not me :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm