When I went to work in a local government financial office in 1968 (dodging Allosauruses on my way to work), seven of us shared a single calculator, a mechanical marvel the size of a large toaster that did multiplications by adding over and over -- chugging like a Model T Ford. Reports were typed and retyped, correction fluid was ordered in quart bottles. The entire City Hall and one copier, a spanking new Xerox machine, which had a full time operator.

What this has to do with mandolins I dunno, except I was able to buy an early-'20's Gibson F-2 for $450, and a Martin D-18 used for $300. Are we richer, poorer, better off or worse off? I'd rather buy the F-2 than the Kay for $450, but we're comparing 1947 to 1970 to 2018. Still, doubt I could have bought the F-2 in 1947 for $39.00.

Prices generally inflate, but not evenly across all goods, and technology steps in, so that you can carry around in your pocket today capabilities that you couldn't have bought for $1 million, 50 years ago. You can still buy pitch pipes to get tune your instruments, but why? A pitch pipe and a chromatic tuner cost about the same now; which one would you find more useful (unless you're a choir director as well as a mandolin player)?