1961 Fisher Factory price list with 500-S?

rufleruf

Poor Impulse Control
I have a fun collection of the little "official" price lists. I am looking to find out how much Fisher listed the 500-S for, anyone have a 1961 price list? While were at it, which receiver models were in the 61, 63 and 66 lists.

For conversations sake, for receivers I go from:
  1. Jan. 5, 1959 - TA-500 $249.50 ($254.50 in Zone 2 - west of Mississippi?)
  2. Sept. 1, 1960 - TA-800 $429.50 / TA-600 $374.50
  3. Dec. 15, 1962 - 800-B $429.50 / 500-B $359.50
  4. Aug. 15, 1964 - 400 $299.50 / 500-C 389.50 / 800-C $449.50 / 600-T $499.50
  5. Nov. 15, 1965 - 400 $279.50 / 500-C $349.50 / 800-C $399.50 / 440-T $329.50 / 600-T $459.50
600-T was expensive!!

Other surprises:
  1. From 1964 price list: MF-320 $513.95 - no wonder I've never seen one come up for sale. The RK-20 wireless remote transmitter/receiver set separately is listed at $129.50. Model 300 Multiplex generator $495.
  2. From 1960 price list: 202-T $354.50 / 202-R $334.50
 
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Interesting that prices on all the receivers came down from 64 to 65 -- even the SS unit as well. It seems too early to be clearing out the tube items inventory, and maybe the 600-T was nearing the end of its production run, too?

Dave
 
Maybe the Japanese were making a difference by 1965? I'm not sure who was selling Sansui / Kenwood / Pioneer but they all had pretty good receivers in 1965, and there doesn't seem to be a shortage of them coming onto the market these days - there is almost always a Kenwood 1100U and several Sansui 1000A's to choose from.

Could also be lower cost players caught up to Fisher specs by then - the Allied Knight KN370 reads in the Allied Radio catalog of 1965 just like an 800-C but costs $279.95 compared to the 800-C's $382.08.
 
Yeah, the Japanese were always under-cutting USA prices for similar gear. They figured out how to reduce manufacturing costs and were willing to gamble that doing so would be offset by greater volume of sales.
 
Matt;

I do not have a Fisher price list for 1961 models, but did find the 500-S receiver advertised in the Jan 1961 issue of High Fidelity magazine and listed in the Allied Radio catalog for $349.50.

On the issue of the Japanese undercutting US manufactured equipment, keep in mind that Japanese labor costs were significantly less than that of US workers of the same time period. That labor cost advantage continued for years.

Joe
 
They may have also been putting less labor or engineering time into their gear. If you've ever seen inside Japanese tube gear, its not laid out anywhere near as clean as Fisher gear of the same era. Not to say its necessarily bad gear, its just a mess under the hood.
 
I didn't realize the 202-R retailed for $334: that's real money for 1960, and nearly $100 more than a TA-500 receiver from one year earlier.
 
Matt,

I can corroborate Joe's figure of $349.50 from newspaper ads Fisher ran in the NYC market in Feb. 1961. I do not have a '61 price list but I do have the following:

1953 - Undated
1954 - Undated
Aug. 15, 1954
Dec. 10, 1954
1958 - Undated
July 31, 1962
Aug. 1, 1963
June 1, 1964
Oct. 1, 1964
Oct. 1, 1965
Nov. 15, 1965
Jan. 1, 1967
Dec. 20, 1968
June 1, 1972

Amazingly, we have completely different sets of price lists. I would love to exchange scans. If you are interested, PM me your email and I'll be happy to exchange info.

Carter
 
If I had to guess I would have said a little less than the TA-600, so you guys backed that up.

Carter - that's a good collection. I'm sure I have more, but the easter bunny has evenly distributed them around my shop, just out of view
 
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