I bought this today. It does everything you (or more correctly, I) expect in a scientific calculator. It even converts to and from hex, decimal, octal, and binary numbers.

It was brand new in the package, and came with a battery. Care to guess how much it cost?

The photo is a bit large, but I wanted to show the details.

 

One dollar?

 

Nine dollars and ninety-nine cents.

 

One dollar?

Exactly. I guess I am behind the times, because it amazes me. Of course, the display is small, the keys are stiff, and the injection molding looks crude, but its capabilities are almost unbelievable for the price. Just imagine that a factory in China made it for little enough that they packaged it, shipped it to the USA, trucked it to Tennessee, where it retailed for a buck and presumably the factory, the carriers, and the retailer all made a profit. Wow!

 

I bought a dollar store scientific too, but I gave it away when I found a $15 TI scientific at the thrift store for $1.

 

The economy is in boxes, you pay for the size of the box.

There is bigger profits in bar codes.

No one up to this Loosewires (non-cents) Random Dumbers.

 

will see how long it lasts...

This is what we have come to - there are people who would rather by a cheap watch than replace a battery because of the cost. What does that create? Will this ever stop?

 

No, we have come to far to turn back,only going forward will we

ever find out. What can we expect in the future,we can only think

about what could have been,memories of better times with less

calulations. Small transistor radios and the simple beach.

 

Imagine what you could sell it for if you took it back to WW2 when they were using log tables to calculate missile flight etc.

I bet they would think it was worth more than a dollar.

 

Imagine what you could sell it for if you took it back to WW2 when they were using log tables to calculate missile flight etc.

I bet they would think it was worth more than a dollar.

Yes.

And in 1971, I bought an LED calculator that would add, subtract, multiply, and divide, and that's all; it didn't even do square roots. I paid $100 for it and my salary at the time was $6200 per year.

 

Exactly. I guess I am behind the times, because it amazes me. Of course, the display is small, the keys are stiff, and the injection molding looks crude, but its capabilities are almost unbelievable for the price. Just imagine that a factory in China made it for little enough that they packaged it, shipped it to the USA, trucked it to Tennessee, where it retailed for a buck and presumably the factory, the carriers, and the retailer all made a profit. Wow!

Profit margins tend to get high when you have no worker protection organizations.China is able to produce all this stuff for dollars because they don't RnD they just pull patents to go from, then they hire kids and women for pennies on the dollar to work.Then remove luxury costs of the mnf like air conditioning, vent hoods, etc... You get what you pay for. This may be a rare occasion that you actually get a good deal but no one will ever be able to compete with China's prices till china grows a middle class they need to pay for.

 

My first calculator was a TI-30 with LED display...$100 in 1973

Now I have (4) TI-30 SLR's
$20 each somewhere in the 1990's
Same functions, no batteries, and they will never corrode.
I'm set for life