LF: 40 years (completely OT, but...)

[Andy Talbot <andy.g4jnt@gmail.com>]

40 Years ago today decimal money was introduced to the UK  It was half term hols, and at the age of 12 I went into one of the electronics shops in Hurst St, Birmingham (a bit like London's Edgware Rd. back then)  to buy two IN4007 diodes as I needed to make a PSU for some valve project.   Being my first purchase with  the new money I remember exactly how much those two diodes cost :   The two diodes were 50 new pence, (which probably sounded a lot less than ten shillings they were the day before)

 

Consulting an RPI chart shows about 1100% inflation since Feb 1971 which makes those two diodes something like £5.50 at today's prices.  

The current cost from Farnell for the IN4007 is about 8p, including VAT, for two-off.

 

Now,  even allowing for the fact a local electronics shop  would have a massive mark up on components, the price from a catalogue supplier would still have been in the  15 - 20p (£1.50  - £2 now) region.

 

Were electronic components really so much more expensive back then - it wasn't an exotic diode.

 

Completely OT, and nothing whatosover to do with LF,  but about the only bit of component pricing I really recall accurately from those days.

 

Andy G4JNT (or G8IMR  3 years after the big diode rip-off)