Re: 1950s farm prices?

Posted by Bill(Wis) on April 24, 2021 at 06:13:21 from (174.192.74.119):

In Reply to: 1950s farm prices? posted by swindave on April 23, 2021 at 19:50:17:

Movie tickets were 25 cents except on Thursday night when they were 14 cents. 10 cents for the ticket and 4 cents tax. Packed a 400 seat theatre every Thursday night and those movies were among the worst. Cigarettes were 25 cents per pack. Hot lunch at school was 25 cents. A new WD Allis Chalmers when they first came out was $1775. A two row cultivator added about $200. When the WD45 came out they were priced at $2400. My uncle purchased a new Ford 861 in 1959 for $2270. That was no trade in but some discounting. $2000 would easily purchase a new Ford or Chevrolet 4 door sedan. No frills. A friend bought a new 1949 Buick Special 4 door sedan for $1995. Standard transmission. I bought a new 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 for $2250. Thunderbird V8 with automatic transmission. No power steering or brakes. A 160 acre farm with a big stanchion barn, silos, etc., no cattle or equipment was listed for $25,000 but it was on the market for a long time. Hogs went down to 10 cents per hundred in about 1956 or '57. Soil bank came into being to take a lot of farmland out of production. $50 per acre was the payout. We were simply producing too much food. Times were good for us but we couldn't spend as freely as we do now although as soon as we could get good TV reception we bought a new Zenith 21 black and white TV for $480. I paid about half that much for my 38 (?) flat screen at Fleet Farm. We did have a Fair Trade Law in Wisconsin that kept prices too high. If a hammer was fair traded at $4.99 a merchant better not try to sell it any cheaper. Fleet Farm came into being because of that. Fleet owners could purchase equipment for less than fair trade. Farmers were fleet owners under the rules of that day. A big bolt purchased at a hardware store would cost about $4 whereas at Fleet Farm it would be about 59 cents. The $100 used car was common and a lot of my friends used them for hunting and fishing. That way, they could just leave all their hunting and fishing gear in the old car and park it out of sight of their wife. Everyone was happy. Now, I see hunters with $60K trucks carrying ATVs.

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