I made this exercise for one of my blog entries, and was very impressed with the results. I *knew* that back in the day a typewriter was expensive, but just how expansive compared to other goods and services I had no idea.

And then, I discovered how to use an inflation calculator to find the approximate value of money over time, and I was shocked. For example, back in 1928, a brand-new Remington Portable 2 typewrite, complete with case, was sold for $60.00 USD. Not so expensive, you might think? Well, think again.

According to this inflation calculator, those $60.00 USD of 1928 would be roughly equivalent to... $810.97 USD of today! In other words, a portable typewriter, like the Remington 2, was approximately as expensive, in its day, as a very good personal computer is today. As a way of example, today you can buy a Dell Inspiron 7000 with 17" screen for just under $800.00 USD. And something tells me you can do quite a few more things with a laptop...

No wonder people used to treasure their typewriters and really looked after them. And no wonder there were shops (some of them part of the actual factories that made the typewriters) where you could buy an older machine that had been professionally refurbished, presumably at a smaller cost than that of the concurrent, new models.

So, how much was YOUR typewriter worth when it was new? You can find out if you find the original asking price and using this inflation calculator: http://www.calculator.net/inflation-calculator.html?cstartingamount1=60&cinyear1=1928&coutyear1=2014&calctype=1&x=43&y=11