RETRO COMMERCIALS-Sharp Calculators

[fjbutch]

Three hundred and forty five ''ferkin'' dollars....come on suckers...

[germanvlasov]

Wow! High pricy device!!! :)))

[Stubui]

I wish my calculator was silent!

[ComedyNurd]

Today, there would likely be a decimal point after the 3 in the price tag. If not, before the 3. xD

[FuyuAkiWorld]

345 dollars! holly crap! man, now we can get a calculator smaller than that for like, 5$. but for it's time it was revelotionary. it was pre-personal computers (main streem pcs, that is), so it was pretty cool back then. but im only guessing that scence i'm only 11.

[LetsPlayStarcraft]

So this is where Steve Jobs developed his pricing strategy!

[VictorHugo289mex]

Mmm, $345 in United States for sure, any other part of the planet --like Mexico-- it would have cost three times as much. 

[Postbus22]

too expensive

[stupidiculous]

I like that style of LED display. You don't see that anymore. Sold.

[HifiCentret]

@stupidiculous Me2. However calculators today are cheap things even "high quality" ones.

Btw. It's not LED. it's VFD. Vacuum Flourescent Display - a form of radio tube in family with magic eyes and CRTs. In this every number it's own tube but in later VFD calculators there's only one multi digit tube.

[stupidiculous]

@HifiCentret VFD. Cool. Thanks for the info.

[colindhowell]

The Sharp ELSI-8 (or EL-8) was introduced in January of 1971, or close to it. At the time it was the smallest electronic calculator yet produced, and it was a big achievement just to fit an electronic calculator in your hand. People who really needed a handheld calculator were willing to pay a lot of money for one. ($345 in 1971 = $1850 in 2010.)

[colindhowell]

This was at the start of the "calculator wars", during which the sizes, prices, and power usage plummeted, while the capabilities grew and grew, all with the help of Moore's Law driving chip prices down and capabilities up. But it took products like this, with the seed money they provided and the market opportunity they sparked, to set all that subsequent improvement in motion. So give the old clunkers a little bit of thanks. :)

[CAL2177]

$345 was cheap back then. I remember a Litton 4-function desktop calculator costing $1,100 in 1974. The digits were vacuum tubes.

And the people who paid that much for them back then are the same types that will fork over hard earned money every year for the newest cell phone.

[SNK038]

$345 in 1971 is over $1800 in 2010!!!

[gamer4567]

345 now down to a doller! Soon the computer im using is gonna be nothing more then what a calculator is now!

[thebloodzone1]

Are u kidding me $345! Thats insane

[spokes64]

$345 was very expensive, especially for a 4 function calculator. When HP introduced their HP35 (in 1972), it was only $375, and it had trig and log functions...a much better value.

[0neofthem]

what the fuckkk $345. might as well get a computer.

[colindhowell]

@0neofthem Sure, and you could actually get one for only $5,000 to $10,000! And you could even fit it in the trunk of your car! Oh, you needed I/O devices, too? Guess you might need a bit more room then... :D

Basically, having a calculator like this in 1971 was kind of like having a high-end laptop today.

[333maxwell]

My dad purchased this same exact model (his was a rare 'blue' one.. and he paid 350 bucks for it..

He was a salesman and he and ma sit around the table and pondered long and hard as to if it was an investment they should make.

Ths size is a bit misleading in the ad. They called it a 'pocket' calculator but came with a leather case with belt loops.

[333maxwell]

He had a long running gag where he would ask people all kinds of questions, punch in numbers and finally ask 'who owns the country' and flip it over and it would say 'shelloil' on the LED. Shell oil company.. yes, some things never change..

[desporatto]

$345???

[HifiCentret]

I'd love to have that calculator in my collection too :)

There's really something about those really early Sharp calculators. I got the EL-801 considered the first really pocket-able not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes. A neat little gem which although required a little repair now works beautifully. It too was expensive back then but not that much. Prices dropped really fast even faster than computers have done until now.

[HifiCentret]

In 71 you'd have to be very rich to buy an electronic pocket calculator with only the four basic functions, no memory and the odd (+=) and (-=) buttons which you have to be used to to do subtraction as it's different from a modern basic calculator. By 73 almost anybody who wanted one could afford a basic which worked just like they do now perhaps even with % or sqrt. By 75 they where pretty much all over the place with memory, % and sqrt. Only the scientific varities were still a small fortune.

[GNick42]

I got a similar for Christmas 1977. But know parents never paid anything like that for it

[ronofontario]

For that price way back then I hope it came with a cheese grader

[rhythmdivine07]

Probably someone like the rest of us who pay top dollar for things like IPods etc. that in 30+ years will seem stupid to people of that generation.

[MisterBouncyBounce]

$345 is a crazy price in itself but when you consider that that was 345 in early 70s money when a slice of pizza was 25 cents its equal to about $2,000 in today's money.

[manyvideoinerests]

Who would have paid that $345 though is what I wonder? My grandfather had a TI calculator he got in about 1975 and didn't want anyone playing with it and if you were caught a lecture usually followed!

[spareaxe]

Ohh I guess if it's by Sharp....then it's worth it!?

[iCamiloTV]

there is some thing special about the LCD display of this calc, and todays calcs do not really have them....

[lahmamamia]

lol you can get graphics one for half of the price or even less!

[katanacop41]

What year did that thing come out? Sometimes you can get free calculators in the mail now. That things is crazy.

[Enzo012]

1970s by the looks of it. That would have been pretty serious cutting edge stuff. $345 being worth a lot more back then than now.

[brandohuff96]

345 for it now its pocket sized for like 99c

[mukatuna]

I love the display on that, it's like really funky and alien.. so cool. It's not traditional 7 segment, and it's not nixie.

[tr41]

It seems to be an eight segment display with segments that are shaped in an attempt to make the numbers look more natural, the zeros look a bit odd though. As for the technology used, well, from the color and the shadows over the numbers in the closeups, I would say they are vacuum fluorescent displays, perhaps built from individual display tubes.

[burjoks]

What a unique display...

[EsotericDesi]

WOW! $345 for $0.99 calculator back in the days... LOL! Shocking...

[algorithm18]

Whoa, shit!! It's almost small enough to fit in your pocket, and it only costs as much as a new Ford Galaxy!

[JibblesTaint]

holy fucking shit

[MACDADDYLATINMONEY]

lol now anybody can get a better thiner one fer $1

[loudstone]

I love the line: "It will do all the computing you'll probably EVER need."

So deadpan and slightly condescending... awesome.

[drvids]

$345 must had been a months pay.. last time

[phonerboner]

wow thats amazing people used to pay $345 for a calculator and now you can pick one up at any dollar store for next to nothing!

[Kingviola518]

Wow, next thing you know, they will sell you a dollar for only two dollars

[familyguypwnsall1]

345$ DOLLAR CALCULATOR ?? OMFG XD heehe ..it looks like it only adds and subtracts..er

[someguy23475]

This is the deluxe model- it also multiplies and divides.

[familyguypwnsall1]

OHMY ! the delux model ,even better !! x) haha....

[kgoundan]

wow, $345 for a calculator back then. Now a 16GB iphone costs only $299. Wow, how technology has advanced so much! Back then, $345 was probably more that a month's rent/mortgage payment.

[adamsakr1995]

now you could buy 1 for like 2 $

[Jackaldoublenine]

cant even type BOOBS on it...

[matkovicha]

#%$!@!@ a $345 calculator!!!1

[RipJack645]

you... you gotta plug it in?

[evoclin]

wow now they are a dollar.wtf

[albert3366]

345 BUCKS!!!!!!!

[SasoriRocks988]

that is so freakin dam expensive

[mduncan36]

It's funny to look at tall the kids posting in amazment at the price and size of this thing. In '71 or'72 it was a huge productivity enhancer for people who had to do numbers all day. Remember that numbers didn't come pre-crunched out of a computer then either. Calculators were a godsend for anyone in accounting, inventory control, insurance, all kinds of stuff. $345 was cheap compared to hiring a clerk to do all that math.

[StMeade]

remember the bulky ADDING MACHINES that used to be. we had a pastel green one with a white cord.

It was as heavy as a large telephone book and bigger.

It literally had mechanical parts and would make noise in order to work the figures. And no digital read-out, If you didn't have a spool of paper, it was useless.

[melaniestevens]

Theres a website called vintage calculators.

[melaniestevens]

Sharp QT-8D "micro Compet"

Display is 8 digits, green vacuum fluorescent "Itron" tubes.

4 functions.

[melaniestevens]

See below for further information on the development of this model.

245 x 132 x 70 mm. (9.6" x 5.2" x 2.75").

Advertised October 1969.

Made in Japan.Price, in UK. in 1971, £199 Sterling (about US$475).

[melaniestevens]

This must have been the 60's not the 70's lol. MAYBE early 70's like 1 or 2 but not later than that!

[spillerxxxxx]

A CAR BATTERY* xD

[gonepishing]

battery or plugin XD

[RipJack645]

$345 for a damn calculator?

[ExperimentalArmy]

I got a graphing calculator with triple the functions for $12

[gonepishing]

this is 19in the late 1970's!

[martok666]

345$ WTF?@!$ with this money u can by 9800 GX2

[mubd1234]

US$345 in 1975 = US$2000 today.

[adryanv]

So this was supposed to be hot stuff back in its era? I mean even then and that type of tech I'm sure 300 bucks is still quite expensive.

[autoamerican79]

that's the biggest rip-off since the i-phone launched!!

[quacka101]

holy snot, is this for real?

[fordgt90]

Err, yeah.

[UptownHunter]

"For all the calculations in your life you probably need" lol

[jth54321]

If that was a small calculator, I'd like to see the large version =o)

[marleeguy]

i also had a texas instruments calculator in 1975 but itd didnt cost 345$ maybe around 50$

[CrazycamVideos]

$345 dollars for a calculator? I could get one for about $1. lol

[Dreamingallyear]

actualy there you can get one for around 50 Cents. and actualy you can get one free also.

[m8053]

"all the calculator know how you'll probably ever need". it has plus, minus, multiply, divide buttons. didn't these people ever sit gcse maths?

[chrisman737]

And does anyone remember when these were called "mini computers?" When my dad got one for his birthday it was amazing -- all of us felt like we had the future in our hands! Now, well...now it's just a calculator.

[spareflair]

$345 in 1975 is roughly $1400 today !!!

[ladygirl99]

My Lord $345 for a calculator!!!!! No wonder my mom was so poor back then :( Like someone else said you can get this for free now lol.

[chrisgreen67]

For that price, I think it would be earlier than '74... maybe around 1970? My dad got an electronic Texas Instruments calculator around '75, and I don't think he paid $345 for it! If he did, I'm shocked! I'm sure these things went down in price fast once they caught on. Thanks for posting this!

[funkfrost]

Wow, $345. It's hard to imagine calculators being so much. You can the same quality ones for like 5 bucks.

[LittleLulu62]

Only $345??? I just GOTTA have one...I'm getting a second job!!! :D

[DanceToTheRadio]

Anyone who bought one of these must've felt pretty stupid later.That is stupid money.

[nathan909]

It's prior to 1978

[IAmTheWizardMoFo]

Holy crap. $345!!! All it does is add, subtract, multiply and divide. I'll do it on paper thanks.

[beckigreen]

what year was this?

[Blaxstone]

You know, I want to say that it had to have been made around '74 or '75. I've Googled calucaltors from that time and most seemed to go at that price.

[musicom67]

1970, folks.

[Blaxstone]

Okay, so we got one guy who ACTUALLY paid for one of those or he's got a calculator collection. Either way, at least we sort of have a grasp on a year. Now, if said commentator could let us know how he got the date, that would make me and a lot of other folks who want to know feel better. Thanks!