NZ Home computer prices in the early 80s

[tezza]

Just out of interest I graphed the prices of popular home computer models as sold in New Zealand from the end of 1982 to the beginning of 1985. If you are interested in seeing the result click here.

Tez

 

[Druid6900]

Quite an interesting graph, Tez.

Thing I really hated was when you bought something and a month later, the price dropped like a lead Zeppelin

Probably why I never actually BOUGHT one until the 386-33 and, even then, I made the company I owned buy it for me LOL

 

[Vint]

Very interesting chart and info.

My experiences in the 80's with new machines I purchased were:

$750. for a TRS-80 Model 1 Level II 4K with cassette deck in 1978.
$99. for a Timex 1000 + $50. for the 16K RAM pack in 1983.
$299. for a Commodore VIC-20 in the fall of 1982. (In Jan. 83 Commodore slashed the price of the VIC-20 to $139.) I bought a little too soon.
$149. for a Commodore 64 in 1984.

Those were the going prices in the U.S. for Ohio at that time.

 

[tezza]

$750. for a TRS-80 Model 1 Level II 4K with cassette deck in 1978.

That would be about right.

In NZ here these were around $2000 (a huge amount of money) or so when I first came across them about 1980. Assuming a $NZ 1 to $US 0.5 conversion then ADDING sales tax (which was a staggering 40% on computers) PLUS the shipping costs PLUS the local dealers/importers markup then you can see how the price built.

Tandy didn't have a direct presence here so the machines were imported by local dealers who bought them off Radio-Shack Australia. Just one extra middleman to bump up the price. This is one of the reasons the System 80s (TRS-80 clones) way outcompeted the TRS-80 Model 1/III in New Zealand.

Tez

 

[tezza]

Probably why I never actually BOUGHT one until the 386-33 and, even then, I made the company I owned buy it for me LOL

yes, I concur. By all means avoid paying for computers yourself if you can, as the devaluation rate is spectacular, even now.

Of all the machines I've had since 1981 (excluding machines I've collected just for vintage purposes) I've only ever bought three with my own money. These were in order of purchase...

The System 80 in 1981
A NEC 8201A (great productivity machine!) in 1986
A 286 PC Clone in 1988

All the other machines I've had (and there has been many) have been purchased by my employer for my own use.

That said, I have forked out for a few computers (laptops) on occasions. ut these have been for my kids when they went through college, not for me.

I couldn't get anyone to else to pay in that case *damm*

Tez

 

[carlsson]

Tezza, feel free to draw a graph based on these data too:
http://www.cbm.sfks.se/tidning/datorpris.html

 

[tezza]

Interesting!

It's good to see data from other countries. Just doing a rough calculation comparing Swedish prices and NZ prices around the same period using the US dollar as a benchmark (assuming an average of 0.5US/1NZ), it looks like Swedish prices were higher than NZ ones by around 15-20%.

I wonder why this is? Were there high sales taxes/import duties in Sweden?

In NZ we started off in '82 with sales taxes on computers of 40% but these disappeared around late '84/85 down to 10% (I think). However, over the same time our dollar devalued about 20% somewhat wiping out the effects of tax reduction.

I don't have precise data of our currency and taxes situation over that time. It's from memory. If any New Zealander reading this does have more precise tax/dollar value data, I'd like to know it.

Tez

 

[carlsson]

The Swedish VAT at that time was 23,46%. I find the relative price differences at various points in time more interesting than straight comparison of two markets. For example while your data points to the Commodore 64 pretty much was at a fixed price for a long while, over here it kept dropping for every month.

 

[arjoll]

In NZ we started off in '82 with sales taxes on computers of 40% but these disappeared around late '84/85 down to 10% (I think).

I thought that sales tax on computers and most electronics stayed at 40% until the introduction of GST in 1986? Certainly GST resulted in a reduction in the prices of most electrical goods - didn't stop retailers trying to get people to 'beat the GST' by buying early though

GST went up to 12.5% in 1988.

Re the dollar, it was a fixed rate pegged to USD. Muldoon caused a crisis in 1984 when he refused to devalue after Labour was elected. Eventually it was devalued by 20%, and floated in 1985.

Tezza, I thought you'd be old enough to remember all this I'd just started high school in 1985, but I was into my economics in my later years in high school (almost wished I'd majored in Economics instead of Accounting at Otago) and all this stuff was still very recent.

 

[tezza]

I thought that sales tax on computers and most electronics stayed at 40% until the introduction of GST in 1986? Certainly GST resulted in a reduction in the prices of most electrical goods - didn't stop retailers trying to get people to 'beat the GST' by buying early though

Ah yes. I think you could reduce it to 10% if you could PROVE your computer was a business expense before that. That was unlikely to be the case with these home computers (although I'm sure a few Commodore 64s would have been cited as business machines on the tax form)

Re the dollar, it was a fixed rate pegged to USD. Muldoon caused a crisis in 1984 when he refused to devalue after Labour was elected. Eventually it was devalued by 20%, and floated in 1985.

Yes. I knew a 20% devaluation came late in 1984 soon after the 1984 election. However, I had a feeling there was one or two Muldoon-inspired devaluations before that though maybe in 1982 and 1983? In the early 1980s devaluations in NZ seem to be regular events.

Ahh...the heady days of the early-mid 1980s in New Zealand economy. From as controlled as a Stalinist shipyard to as free as a rudderless boat in the storm of the free market overnight! What a ride!

Anyway, better stop otherwise we'll get ticked off by the moderators for being off topic!

Tez

 

[Vint]

Ref: $750. for a TRS-80 Model 1 Level II 4K with cassette deck in 1978.

Ref: $750. for a TRS-80 Model 1 Level II 4K with cassette deck in 1978.

That would be about right.

In NZ here these were around $2000 (a huge amount of money) or so when I first came across them about 1980. Assuming a $NZ 1 to $US 0.5 conversion then ADDING sales tax (which was a staggering 40% on computers) PLUS the shipping costs PLUS the local dealers/importers markup then you can see how the price built. . . . .Tez

$2000. - holy bit-byte Batman, that's a hefty chunk of change!
40% sales tax for computers, back then? Egads!
You know Tez, when I came home with that Trash 80 under my arm, back in 1978, my wife practically had a fit! "$750. for that thing? What are you going to do with it? "I wanna learn 'bout 'puters," is about all I could squeak out at the time. She wouldn't talk to me after that. Seriously, she refused to even talk to me! I caved in and took it back to the store - I guess she was more important than a computer anyway. Then I dragged around the house like I'd lost my best friend for a couple weeks. Radio Shack called and said "Your computer is fixed and ready to be picked up." There had been a misunderstanding - they had just switched store managers and somehow they thought I wanted the computer fixed instead of that I was returning it. (There actually was some little minor thing wrong with it.)They don't refund your money from the store on bigger dollar items like that, the refund comes out of Texas. My long face and sad behavior had paid off for now my wife caved and told me to go ahead and go get it. Wow!, I danced all the way there and brought the thing back home. I've been on the keyboards now ever since - all 31 years!
That's still about the price of computers in the 80's - so I guess I'm still on topic - I just 'stray a bit' Oh, and I believe I paid about 5 or 6% sales tax back then.

 

[chuckcmagee]

I can't really remember but I think I brought home 2 4K S-100 static memory boards around then ( 1979 ). IIRC, it was $800 for the 2 of them. Whatever the price was, I got the same "For those tiny little things!!" response from my mother. I do clearly remember only having a single 8" floppy drive as I couldn't afford another one. I fixed a Lear ADM 3A at work and my boss gave it to me. Otherwise I would have had to use ESP to talk to my Cromemco floppy controller.

 

[tezza]

You know Tez, when I came home with that Trash 80 under my arm, back in 1978, my wife practically had a fit!

LOL! I can relate. My wife did exactly the same thing when I came home with a sparkling $1190 System 80 under my arm. I should have said "Hey, at least it's not a TRS-80..they were going for $1990!" ...hehehe

I was in the dogbox for a while but I kept the machine. Anyway, I blame her. She introduced me to microcomputers at her work, so it's her fault, right?

For some reason that excuse just didn't wash

I'm sure a few others have a few "Mad-as-hell" spouse tales they could tell regarding old computers

Tez

 

[arjoll]

Never had that kind of problem. Just after I got married I was agonising about whether to buy an 800MB or 1GB hard drive to upgrade the BBS machine from its 2x 200MB.

My wife's reaction - it's not much more, go for the 1GB! :D