Thread: PRICE INCREASE

Originally Posted by tetawa

Hasn't taken long for the sports retailers to start warning of price increases with the $ dropping, didn't see any price reductions when the $ was up in the 80's.

Oh the short memories we have......

I seem to remember in the late 90s through 2005 ish that the likes of Ruger 10/22s were around $699 while our dollar sat at around US 53c, our dollar climbs to nearer 80c or more in the last few years making these rifles drop to $399 new. A price that was unseen since the very early 90s when $399 was over a weeks wages. (57 hours at minimum wage of $7.00 ish at the time) Now they start to climb from $399 to $449 as our $ drops which is all of about 30 hours at minimum wage. If the dollar had not improved and all other things stayed equal that gun should cost us closer to $850.

In the early 90s a new ruger M77 was closer to $1300 then and I got a great deal on a near new second hand one at $900. Same new rifle today is a similar price at around the $1500 mark and wages have doubled. (meaning less hours worked needed to pay for it)

Mate who sold the same Ruger to me so he could buy a New Weatherby Vanguard paid $1400 for the Weatherby which even without inflation is actually more than todays price on the same rifle.

And those were WITHOUT GST as well!!!

Dearer my arse!!!

Originally Posted by Tussock

They cost the same, roughly. But if you go back over the manufacturing process over the same period, the shavings and savings would have been immense. Material use alone has been trimmed, both in the product and in the tooling and machinery in that time. QAQC is clearly down.


Those companies have a corporate shakedown to move priorities in that time. Meaning we are not talking about precisely the same product.

We are talking a product where they keep the same lipstick but they cram just a little more pig under it every year

I beg to differ on that comment. Rugers were well made through the 80s, but the changes you speak of were before the 90s. I know this because the Ruger I bought in the early 90s was an absolute piece of crap then. At that point they had already contracted out the barrel manufacture and the consistency went south, fast. The design was, is very practical and effective if they had been well made. I hope they have got better, but as far as price goes, in the early 2000s they did get up to $799 for stainless synthetic and the "economy model" of wood blued was $649-$699. This was at the same time we imported the Toz 99 semi autos for the first time. The NZ dollar was at around 52c (nearly 2x kiwi dollars to the US, and 3x Kiwi dollars to the pound) We were undercutting the Ruger 10/22 prices with a better made rifle with 4 magazines (albeit nowhere near as well known). Then the NZ dollar went up to over 80c US and the result effect was the newer Rugers came tumbling down in price. Along with anything else purchased in US dollars with the exception of petroleum products as the price per barrel went through the roof enough to counter that.

Goo through some of the 90s hunting mags and check out the specials advertised. and do the same for mags printed in the 2003-2006 era. Our high dollar has been a bonus for importers for a decade, but has been crippling local products and exports at the same time.