Preliminary Note: This is not a complaint. This is something I've noticed, and I find it odd.
Estes prices in the last few decades have outpaced inflation by around 47%.
I first got interested in rocketry in the mid '70s, and loved browsing the Estes and Centuri catalogs. I remembered the price of kits being lower - lots lower - back then, so I just checked. The catalog price of a Big Bertha, already a venerable kit even then, was $3.95. I then used this inflation calculator to find that $3.95 in 1975 is worth $18.85 today. But today's catalog price for a Big Bertha kit is $26.99, 43% more.
A three pack of C6-3s back then cost $1.65, which would be $7.87 today, but today's catalog price is $11.79, which is 50% more. These two items' price increases average 47% more than the general rate of inflation.
Now, it's always true that some goods and services see price growth higher than the CPI and some lower; that's why CPI is an average. Just look at housing and college tuition for one and milk for the other. And I very much doubt that model rocket kits and engines are in the standard basket of goods and services that's used to gauge inflation. Still, this seems like it's beating inflation by a lot more than one would expect for a materially pretty simple product.
Estes prices in the last few decades have outpaced inflation by around 47%.
I first got interested in rocketry in the mid '70s, and loved browsing the Estes and Centuri catalogs. I remembered the price of kits being lower - lots lower - back then, so I just checked. The catalog price of a Big Bertha, already a venerable kit even then, was $3.95. I then used this inflation calculator to find that $3.95 in 1975 is worth $18.85 today. But today's catalog price for a Big Bertha kit is $26.99, 43% more.
A three pack of C6-3s back then cost $1.65, which would be $7.87 today, but today's catalog price is $11.79, which is 50% more. These two items' price increases average 47% more than the general rate of inflation.
Now, it's always true that some goods and services see price growth higher than the CPI and some lower; that's why CPI is an average. Just look at housing and college tuition for one and milk for the other. And I very much doubt that model rocket kits and engines are in the standard basket of goods and services that's used to gauge inflation. Still, this seems like it's beating inflation by a lot more than one would expect for a materially pretty simple product.