Price of saws back in the day?

[rburg]

My homelite super ez automatic cost about $285 in 78 and my s50 partner cost about $300 in 82.

 

[ft. churchill]

I was just talkin' with my co-worker yesterday about saw prices "back in the day". He paid $375 for a new from the dealer Husky 480CD w/ a 20" and a 28" bars with chains for each. This was in the Sierra foothills of Calif.

 

[kjw58]

I bought a poulan 3400 w/18" bar and one extra chain on June 6, 1981 for $394. Just found the reciept a couple weeks ago. I still have the saw and it still runs and cuts great !!

 

[Vibes]

Bought a Poulan 3400 with 18" bar new in 1986. Was just under $300 with taxes.

Here is a Sears Craftsman ad from 1980, for 5.2 & 4.2 and a 2.3 (Poulans):msp_ohmy:

Gregg,

All pro saws?

 

[Vibes]

I know this isn't saw related but this is another sign of how topsy turvy things were in the late 70's. Gas had just skyrocketed to about $.90. And i have a sales slip from a fur buyer. XXXL racoons $35 XXL $28 XL $24 L $12. Gray Fox $50 Red Fox$65 Muskrat $9 XL and $ 7 L Oppossum $6.

I bought a really nice 73 Olds Omega in the summer of 79 for $1800.

 

[MarcS]

Great grandfather and grandfather (still kicking at 83) went together on a two man Titan back in the mid 50's after my grandfather got out of the service. His memory is a little shakey but claimed it was in the range of $400. Said it was a small fortune at the time and they did a lot of "custom work" to pay it off. He says they fought like hell running it together and eventually Gramps bought a Homelite Zip to run by himself.

 

[pioneer saws]

Solo chainsaws 1967

Solo 635 with
30" bar. $312au
Solo Rex with
30" bar. $292au
Solo Super Rex with
35" bar. $356au

 

[pioneer saws]

Solo chainsaws 1972

Solo 640 with
24" bar. $253au

Solo 640 super with
24" bar. $283au

Solo 636 super with
36" bar. $387au

 

[pioneer saws]

Comparison of various chainsaws in 1987 from Solo to dealers, all in Aussie dollars.
Solo 647 $545
Echo farm ace $633
Stihl 024 $607
Husky 44. $588
Stihl 028. $652
Husky 50 rancher $588
Mac Pro mac 5200. $678
Dolmar 115. $616
Solo 654. $587
Echo 550evl. $679
Stihl 034. $686
Husky 154. $701
Dolmar 116. $719
Solo 662. $713
Solo 667. $755
Echo cs660. $759
Stihl 038. $925
Husky 266. $798
Dolmar 120 super. $843
Stihl 048. $1111
Husky 281xp. $1003
Dolmar 133 super. $968

 

[Perk]

Bought my Poulan 306A (Still runnin it!!!) in 1976. I was making $6.50 / hr as a power company lineman and it cost me a week's pay. Somewhere around $250. Greatest thing I have ever owned.

 

[sachsmo]

Bought my Poulan 306A (Still runnin it!!!) in 1976. I was making $6.50 / hr as a power company lineman and it cost me a week's pay. Somewhere around $250. Greatest thing I have ever owned.

What is the rate of a lineman now?

Me thinks I will take the saw a modern lineman could buy on a weeks pay:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[OhioGregg]

What is the rate of a lineman now?

Me thinks I will take the saw a modern lineman could buy on a weeks pay:hmm3grin2orange:

Probably so, But 36 years from now that lineman will most likely prefer whatever there selling at the time compared to 2012's plastic wonders also.:hmm3grin2orange:


Gregg,

 

[sawbones]

You will find lots of vintage price lists in this thread.

http://www.arboristsite.com/stickies/212020.htm

 

[wudpirat]

My first new saw

I purchased a Stihl 015 in '73 for $149.99. came with a case, wrench, piston stop and a 5" wedge.
Paid for it with silver half dollars, saved every half dollar I got, it was my MAD Money.
Poor clerk, he got flustered when I put a sock of halves on the counter and counted out 300.
I still have that saw and it has been used but not abused. My saw count is near 20, so the 015 gets little use.
Considering everything cost over three times it did back then, saw prices now are comparable.

FREDM,
always looking to score a free load of wood or a chainsaw

 

[zogger]

I purchased a Stihl 015 in '73 for $149.99. came with a case, wrench, piston stop and a 5" wedge.
Paid for it with silver half dollars, saved every half dollar I got, it was my MAD Money.
Poor clerk, he got flustered when I put a sock of halves on the counter and counted out 300.
I still have that saw and it has been used but not abused. My saw count is near 20, so the 015 gets little use.
Considering everything cost over three times it did back then, saw prices now are comparable.

FREDM,
always looking to score a free load of wood or a chainsaw

Now just think if you had sat on 300 pre 64 silver halfs....

 

[Chris J.]

I'm pretty sure that in the early 1950s chainsaws (chain saws back then) were expensive compared to wages, but it's all relative when you look at the alternatives, namely cutting manually.

IIRC, Mr. Bow Saw has quite a collection of early chainsaws literature. Maybe he'll share with us (hint, hint).

 

[zogger]

I dont remember the exact model, but a guy I cut firewood with had a 71 stihl brand new something, not the cheapest, proly whatever was a mid range quality/size saw at the time. I remember running it, just not the number, certainly wasnt like an 090, and wasnt some little trim saw either. His new wife bought it for him for a homesteading christmas present, (they were clearing land and building a house) took her a bit more than a months pay at her job as I recall. so it must have been around 360 to 400 bucks, something like that, two bucks an hour was common then.

I only bought used saws all the way up to 2006, I paid starting in the 70s ten to twenty bucks, tops, for a used runner. And *close* to runners are still the same 10 to 20 bucks (whatever, you know what I mean), so even used junk got cheaper in a way.

Saws are much cheaper now for what you get, much more advanced automated manufacturing processes, plus economy of scale. We have fewer makes and models, but I think they sell more saws now, so the big guys can pump em out cheaper.

 

[BigDee]

I don't recall what I paid for a little mac that lasted about a week, but it was a lot less than its replacement, a Homelite Super EZ which was most of $200. Used it and nothing else to gather all the wood to heat my house for 10 years or so -- five or six cords a year. Lost it in a fire and got a 266 Husqv at a going-out-of-business sale for $340 in 1984, with a pair of chaps too. (I was driving cars that cost less.) Used it excluseively for many years. I still have it and all the papers, and use it now and then. Works great except for a touchy chain brake that trips if I bear down.

 

[zogger]

I'm pretty sure that in the early 1950s chainsaws (chain saws back then) were expensive compared to wages, but it's all relative when you look at the alternatives, namely cutting manually.

IIRC, Mr. Bow Saw has quite a collection of early chainsaws literature. Maybe he'll share with us (hint, hint).

http://www.arboristsite.com/stickies/212020.htm

 

[Nardoo]

I paid $329.00 for a spanking new Poulan 3400 in 1982. Had an open fireplace a wood heater and a wood stove in our first house and that old Poulan kept us and the nippers warm through some very cold winters. I still see it as money well spent.


Al.