How Much Did Albums Cost In The Early 70's?

LOL. Hey, $0.80 cents in '64 is equivalent to $6.38 today, not insignificant.

 

I started to buy the Dylan catalogue in April,1971 from a discount chain drugstore. My Freewheelin' has a little $2.99 tag on cover and Bringing It All Back Home has a big square red sticker....List Price $4.98....our price....$3.19. I'm pretty sure they had the best price at the time but limited stock. The biggest selection was at an Ames dept. store and they were slightly more... $3.69 seems to ring a bell. I got a ton of records from those two places and can probably name quite a few even with senior man-brain fog.

 

Some stores had an orange sticker with a black letter which denoted a certain price. The letter A was the cheapest and the letter C usually denoted the normal single non-cutout album, which was about $5.69 circa 1976. The letters D or F usually was for a double album. I paid about $7.99 or $8.99 for the Red album in 76 and maybe $10.99 or $11.99 for the White Album in early 78.

All Things Must Pass was always expensive in my area. I want to say at least $15-$18.

Prices rose in letter part of 70s.

 

$6.99 in that era was typical European import price.

 

I seem to recall 3.98 for mono and 4.98 for stereo in about 1967 or so. I bought "John Wesley Harding" on sale for about 3.99 ,for the stereo, at the Montgomery Wards department store, and "Abbey Road" along with it it also for the same in late 1969.

 

In Canada you could get some for $2.99, but most were $3.99 to $4.99.

 

I wish they'd make posters out of vintage full-page ads like this. The Billboard full page ads for new releases of the 50's to 80's, too. These were the Best!

 

Inflation - Wikipedia

 

I remember when they were $4.99, and being upset when they went to $5.99.

 

Inflation/Gouge is more like it.

 

Saw Alice Cooper live at The Liverpool Empire in 75 it was 2 pound fifty pence which was about the same cost as the WTMN album.

 

I remember buying Sgt Pepper in June 1967 at a local discount store. Mono 3.47, Stereo 4.39. I remember saying to my dad (because I had no money) "Could I get the stereo, it's only a few cents more?" Of course it was nearly a dollar more--big bucks back then. He did buy the stereo version for me.

 

Refer to my earlier post. Current prices are in line with early-'70s standards, adjusted for inflation. What are you expecting? It's just the reality of economics over time.

 

When I got really big into buying vinyl albums in about '74 or '75 the usual price was $3.99 at "discount" retailers. The manufactures' suggested retail for a single LP at the time was $5.98, I think.

 

I sold them for $2.99 circa 73-77 maybe $3.99 at the latter point of that time frame

 

I just remember a big stink around 1980 when they raised the price of a single LP to $7.98. Wasn't it a Tom Petty album that was first to be released at this price? And as I recall, Tom made some noise about it. Didn't really slow me down though. I was already into those damn expensive British imports by then anyway...

 

I paid $2.86 each for `Led Zeppelin 2' and Neil Young's `Everybody Knows This Is
Nowhere' at Woolco. The Allmans' `At Fillmore East' was an outrageous $2.99 at
Sams. The real fun was rooting through the cut-out bins....Taste, `Devotion', Free,
Wild Man Fischer, etc. for a dollar or two. Sure miss those days!

 

I never heard Peppers in stereo until CD era. That almost $1 savings was huge at the time. For a dollar my Mom could get a generic Greatest Movie Themes LP. That's why my Sgt. Peppers, Satanic Majesties ($1.99) and More of the Monkees are all mono copies - and remain my favored versions.

 

Oh yes, hard times. I was 12, and I wanted 'The Slider' so badly - but it was effing 22 DM and 5 DM allowance was all I had - a month! So it took me six months of saving (could have been five but come on!) I still have that LP, my very first one!

 

My first album in 1973, Donny Osmond’s Portrait Of Donny, no less, cost £2.15. I think this was the standard price then unless the album was ‘fancy’ with elaborate gatefold or trifold sleeves or something. If I recall correctly, they stayed at £2.15 for a while before being increased to £2.25, £2.50, etc. These prices have stuck in my head because as a 10 year old in 1973, I perpetually wanted LPs but could very rarely afford them.

 

Price dropped a little in '82

 

In the late '70s I recall $6.98 being the "standard" price. Some stuff would be $4.98, and those would be the albums that were older and no longer in the Top 40. If memory serves, by 1978, you could get Rush's Fly by Night for $4.98, but Runnin' on Empty would set you back $7.98, or $6.98 if it was on sale.

 

Very first Lp my parents bought for me was Kiss Destroyer in 76 for $5.99 here in Ottawa Canada.
Now Sam the Record man had Saturday specials and I picked up Queen's Jazz and Stones Some girls for $2.99 each.
Cheers;
John

 

It was totally worth the effort/saving up. Wish that’d been my first LP..

 

LPs were $5.99 in Australia in the early 70s. The White Album was $11.98. By 1982 they were $10.99. The first album to break the $10 mark was Spirit of Place by Goanna. It had a little sticker on the cover that said 'WEA RETAIL' that even the shopkeepers had to look up.