Hello everyone, I ran across a 23 year old Missouri Meerschaum price list while sorting through some papers and thought some of you might enjoy seeing it.
Missouri Meerschaum; Year 2000 Price List
- Thread starter peregrinus
- Start date
2000 wasn’t 23 years ago! Was it…?
Back when cobs were truly disposable. At current prices which, sometimes reach 50 bucks, I would hardly call some of them throw aways. Even a bag of 7 day seconds has doubled in price over the last two years.
I bought my first cob 23 years ago. $3 and change sounds right. If I had known it would last this long, I might have taken better care of it. 
Cobs have amazing durability. Twenty-three years aga, huh?? Man, the fun flies when you're doing time.
I wonder how many red necks "item #236s" they sold... 
Ain't inflation a bitch?
Ain't inflation a bitch?
The Legend has increased in price by about 142% and the minimum wage in Missouri has increased by 133% since 2000. That's not too bad. It would only be a bitch if wages stayed the same, but in reality we are pretty much paying the same amount of work for the product.
The $50 pipes are not the "throw-aways", but rather in the same class as the Freehand on that list, which back then was almost 6 times the price of a standard cob like the Legend. Today a Freehand is only about 5 times the price, and most acrylic-stemmed cobs are only 3-4 times the price of a Legend. That's actually an improvement in value.
I'd say Missouri Meerschaum is doing pretty well in maintaining their value-for-dollar. It's about the same today as it was in 2000. This post does remind me that I'm starting to get old though...
The $50 pipes are not the "throw-aways", but rather in the same class as the Freehand on that list, which back then was almost 6 times the price of a standard cob like the Legend. Today a Freehand is only about 5 times the price, and most acrylic-stemmed cobs are only 3-4 times the price of a Legend. That's actually an improvement in value.
I'd say Missouri Meerschaum is doing pretty well in maintaining their value-for-dollar. It's about the same today as it was in 2000. This post does remind me that I'm starting to get old though...
A MM Legend priced at $3.59 back in 2000 should cost @ $ 6.32 just based upon the current value of a dollar/inflationary factors. Most are selling them for around +$8 now, so maybe a little more margin has been added since 2000. Yet all direct costs of manufacturing are WAY up since Covid. Could be a combination most likely.
Yes you are correct if using the simple inflation rate, there's a reason I used the comparison of price increase vs wage increase rather than use the simple inflation factor. There's more to it than that, as you mentioned with manufacturing costs. Labor costs, material costs, power costs, etc. all play into it, and wages themselves drive labor costs to produce an item. I think as long as the price increase doesn't tremendously surpass our wage increase, it basically costing us the same.
A MM cob could be bought with a little more than a half hour of minimum wage labor back then, and it can be bought with a little more than a half hour of minimum wage labor today. Same-same. Good job Missouri Meerschaum for continuing to give us good value for our labor(dollar).
Probably….a lot!I wonder how manyred necks"item #236s" they sold...
Ain't inflation a bitch?
