Prices of S-100 Memory cards in 1978

[Hugo Holden]

Processor Technology realized that the punters were struggling to assemble their complex memory card kits in 1978 , they must have had a lot of returns with solder bridges and heat damaged parts etc.

So they offered their 16kRA dynamic memory card, assembled by them as a "Semikit". See attached clip for their advertising of the Semikit.

The price of that was amazing, I looked up the current value:

$369 in 1978 dollars equals $1,679.73 in 2023, Gulp! About a 4.5:1 ratio.

So if somebody sells a 16kRa memory board these days for $400 it is about 20% of what it cost to buy new. Yet you can pick them up for much less.

 

[rittwage]

Yes, but the price today has absolutely nothing to do with the price in 1978. Every single variable has changed.

 

[DeltaDon]

I remember picking up four used failed S-100 64K dynamic ram boards for $25 (US$) each back in about 1985 or 86 and thinking I scored and scored big. By then S-100 was starting to go away and the seller wasn't interested in fixing them. All of them had a dead tantalum cap on the -5V line. The OEM maker installted the cap's wrong way around at the factory and after a few hours of operation they shorted out the -5v power powering the 4116's. I think the retail price for the boards when released a few years earlier was about $500 - $700 each. So things changed rapidly for aging technology.

 

[wperko]

Hi,

Today there are a few different camps ... those people that are purists and only want original vintage computers and boards and even components, then there's the newer tech that plops a dozen technologies all into one board with a handful of chips ... and in between are those that don't care if part of their computer is original vintage boards + reproduction boards + new technology boards.
The purists probably pay the most, the newest technology pays the least.

I like the idea of the new technology competing with the original vintage technology as it brings the cost of the original boards closer to an affordable price for more people.

.

 

[Hugo Holden]

Yes, but the price today has absolutely nothing to do with the price in 1978. Every single variable has changed.

Yes, but the conversion figure (off google) I think is just based on general inflation, and some parts/components probably have gone down in price now (relatively) while others have gone up, certainly labor costs, electricity water fuel etc is all up.