The historical price of razors

[joesixpack]

I have a reproduction of an old 1902 Sears & Roebuck catalog lying around and I was thumbing through it the other day. I was looking at their selection of straight razors and the price was around $1.50 on average. I was wondering what that was in 2008 dollars?

On the previous page, they had pocket knives selling for about $0.50. I can get a decent pocket knife at the hardware store now days for around $20, so that would translate to a straight selling for around $60 today. That's about what I paid for my Dovo Special back in 2000, so that seems right. Before there was such a thing as a disposable, that doesn't sound like much money to spend on something that you could expect to last for a lifetime (even two or three lifetimes. I inherited my great-uncle's W&B when he passed a few years back. He was 101)

What do you guys think? Has the price of straights gone up or stayed the same as when our great-grandfathers were buying them? Keep in mind that the Dollar/Euro exchange rate has gone into the toilette over the past two years, and that's had a significant effect on the recent prices of TI & Dovo product.

[richardhead]

doing a quick google, I found a website that will compute relative value six different ways. Here is what I found when computing the value of US$1.50 from 1902 to 2007:
Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present

Send us feedback The authors would like to find out why you are using this calculator and your impression of it. The link above will take you to a form where you can tell us the context of your question, what answer you are going to use and for what purpose. We thank you for your feedback.
Support Our Work If you find this site was "worth" something to you, would you be willing to make a small contribution to our work? The link above will take you to a form where you can do just that.
In 2007, $1.50 from 1902 is worth:

$37.29 using the Consumer Price Index
$30.93 using the GDP deflator
$92.31 using the value of consumer bundle *
$165.71 using the unskilled wage *
$226.15 using the nominal GDP per capita
$862.85 using the relative share of GDP

[davisbonanza]

In 1902 the Dollar was the unit of currency exchanged here. A dollar is defined as 371.25 grains pure silver or 24.75 grains pure gold, that was and is the value as a standard of weight and measure. Because in 1916 Congress gave up it's constitutional authority to set standards of weights and measure and to coin money and determine the value of said money to a private bank, the Federal Reserve, the Dollar is no longer the currency we exchange here. We now exchange worthless paper in the form of Federal Reserve Notes and as long as they are allowed to keep printing them with nothing to back them up, their value will continue to go to ! So I feel that the value of the 1902 Sears and the 2008 DOVO Special are the same. Let's take it on gold. In 1902 that $1.50 was traded as 37.125 grains or 2.406 grams of gold for the razor. Today that 2.406 grams of gold is trading at about $75 or 75 federal reserve notes. So you see, the value of the items in gold has not really changed. Just remember to call the paper in your pocket what they are, Federal Reserve Notes, and if you have gold and silver in your safe, that represents the true standard of the dollar.

I hope this rant was informative and if it belongs in the conversation, let me know. I was just trying to answer the questions posed.

[thebigspendur]

Think of it this way. In 1902 the average working stiff made about $30 a week so that razor at 1.50 was about 5% of his weekly salary so the average wage in the U.S is a about 50,000 a year or about a grand a week so a 5% of that is about $50. If my math is correct and it usually isn't!

[joesixpack]

All great answers! Thanks.

By all those very logical measures, it seems like any straight would fall in the $50-$150 price range (adjusted for inflation), so, by that yardstick, not a huge cash outlay for a regular guy. It's pretty surprising, then, that Gillette would be able to convince the average Joe to switch to a disposable blade back then.

What do your guys think?

[psdarby]

Keep in mind that Gillette, while in his own way was brilliant, also got very lucky. It's doubtful that he would have been as successful as he was without WW1. Shaving prior to WW1 was really not considered a daily in fashion thing. Most people would shave perhaps once or twice a week. Straight razors were still the norm, and service members were not required to shave regularly. From 1901, when Gillette invented his razor to 1914 he did well, but it didn't change the entire market. In 1914 he won a huge contract with the military and they began issuing Gillettes razors to all service members. All these clean shaven GI's came home after the war and looked good... Women liked it, and it all took off from there. This was the first time were a majority of men were expected to shave daily.


Oh, piece of trivia. The reason the military issued the razors to their servicemen had nothing to do with military appearance or with any aesthetic reasons at all. There was in fact a very practical reason to have servicemen shave every day. Anyone know what it is?

I'll post later with the answer.

[littlesilverbladefromwale]

So your gas mask would make an effective seal with your face

[bevansmw]

doing a quick google, I found a website that will compute relative value six different ways. Here is what I found when computing the value of US$1.50 from 1902 to 2007:
Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present

Send us feedback The authors would like to find out why you are using this calculator and your impression of it. The link above will take you to a form where you can tell us the context of your question, what answer you are going to use and for what purpose. We thank you for your feedback.
Support Our Work If you find this site was "worth" something to you, would you be willing to make a small contribution to our work? The link above will take you to a form where you can do just that.
In 2007, $1.50 from 1902 is worth:

$37.29 using the Consumer Price Index
$30.93 using the GDP deflator
$92.31 using the value of consumer bundle *
$165.71 using the unskilled wage *
$226.15 using the nominal GDP per capita
$862.85 using the relative share of GDP

I had wondered about this before, I looked at that website a little bit and read some of the descriptions of the different inflation rates. The one that would apply to a razor or similar would be the CPI which shows a drastic increase in the price of a straight razor compared to that of what was paid previously. This is taking into account that it is the purchase of a brand new straight razor, which today costs around $80+ or so depending on what type of razor you're getting. The best deals are on the Wapis which today costs about as much as what they would've paid then. I'm not taking into account restoring a razor from ebay where they can be had exceptionally cheap, but just a purchase of a brand new razor which I believe is the comparison being made.

I don't think gold is a good measure by which to compare the price of a razor, especially with gold being at exceptionally high levels currently at about $886.90 per troy ounce whereas, looking up historical data, it was less than $50 per ounce up to about 1970 (somehow that doesn't seem right but thats what the charts show). Wow looking at charts many fortunes must've been made recently, gold was selling at about $285 per ounce just in 2000 and now is $886.90 per ounce. Thats about a 311% increase just over those 8 years and it had recently gone up to it's record high of $1011.25 per ounce.

Edit: Historical chart viewd here not sure if the link will work, but it shows from 1883 to about 1996 gold prices. I think the increase is probably largely a supply and demand thing, given that I think our community of those who use straights is still probably relatively small to what it would've been previously when that was the only option. I'm not much on economics but I think with less demand requiring a higher wage to make it worth production and less supply has driven up the price. Then in our community demand for some vintage razors has caused their prices to go even higher.

[joesixpack]

Oh, piece of trivia. The reason the military issued the razors to their servicemen had nothing to do with military appearance or with any aesthetic reasons at all. There was in fact a very practical reason to have servicemen shave every day. Anyone know what it is?

I'll post later with the answer.

Oh! Oh! I know thew answer!

Gas Masks!

Littlesilverblade beat me to it

I knew that Gillette got the army contract, and that was a huge boost for his business. I will also admit that of all the disposables that have come around, Gillette's original is by far the best. I have always been able to get a great shave with them. Everything else has been a blood bath for me. The reason I went to straight shaving was because it was getting harder and harder to find DE blades at the drug store. I was afraid that they'd stop making them altogether.

Of course, once you go straight, there's no turning back.

[nun2sharp]

silverblade got it right, the rubber on the mask will not seal to the flesh of the face if beard whiskers are in the way.


PS:Little silverbladefromwales I apologize for shortening your name, but damn thats long.