I just found out that some 10DOF boards on ebay only cost less than $20:
(Caution: the first item on the list can measure attitude so don't look at it wrong. It senses you!)
They used to be around $100 aren't they? Now everything has a BMP085 barometric sensor on it. I wonder if that is Samsung's fault 
What's your "What used to cost 100 bucks now only costs a fraction"? Hope this thread could be kind of informative.
Well, there are the small, single-board computers. I describe "the $100 paradox" here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-choose-a-MicroController/#step6 - it used to be that for about $100, you could get any number of small computers, as well as assorted varieties of not-so-small computer. Then this arduino thing came along at about $30 and set a new price standard. Now there are no end of eval boards and etc that are under $30...
Well memory is an obvious answer, as long as you figure out the memory/megabyte. I just bought a 32 gigabyte Sandisk class 10/UHS-1 card for $27 (with free shipping) from B&H. When I started with digital photography in 2001, I was shooting with a Olympus D-510Z and later C-2100UZ. Those cameras were 2 megapixel cameras, and used smart media. SM cards topped out at 128 megabytes, but the first card I bought was 'only' 32 megabytes, and in looking up the price at Amazon, I paid about $26 including shipping. So for roughly the same amount of money, I just got 1,024 times as much memory 12 years later. Looking up the specs, SM cards were rated at 2 MB/s, and the new card I got is rated at 30 MB/s for read, and 10 MB/s for writing.
It cost me $130.00 to upgrade my Tandy 1000 from 520K to 640K. 128 Kilobytes 130 bucks
That's right. I paid around $100 equivalent to get my first laptop upgraded to 128MB from 64MB. I think I should have just popped open the memory compartment and do it myself for half the price but back then I didn't know enough about laptops. Those memory and hard drives that used to cost us $100 (say $100 for 80 gig HDD or 128MB memory around 2000) each are not still costing us $100 (say 2TB HDD or 12-16BG memory right now) but with several orders of magnitude more space. Same can be said about video game consoles. You always pay around $300 for a console.
BTW, I hope arduino wifi shield makes to this list. It costs around $100 now and hopefully will only cost $20-30 soon from now. I just got 10 of them and one has a broken inductor (you can see that easily) and another has EE:EE:EE:EE:EE:EE as the MAC address. Wondering what yield this device has in the factory.
I had one of these "Godbout S100 64k memory boards":
"What used to cost 100 bucks now only costs a fraction
Well there is this girl I know ]
My Texas TI-50 calculator! Cost me about £50 back in the mid 1970's, now I can get more calculating power from something that costs £3!
I can remember how much I paid for a HP-48SX back in 1991, but i believe it was something over US$ 200.
Then, in 1994 I sold it and bought a HP-48G, for about US$ 250
Now I have an emulator running on my Galaxy S III, that is exactly a HP-48GX, and it cost me nothing.
My first cellphone, a Motorola PT-550, also cost me a pretty buck in 1994, much, much more than I paid for the S III.
Telecommando:
dannable:
My Texas TI-50 calculator! Cost me about £50 back in the mid 1970's, now I can get more calculating power from something that costs £3!SR-50, not TI-50.
In my defence it was a long time ago!
I did spend £300 on a 9600 baud modem, when they came down from £800. Can't give them away now.
AlxDroidDev:
I can['t] remember how much I paid for a HP-48SX back in 1991, but i believe it was something over US$ 200.
Then, in 1994 I sold it and bought a HP-48G, for about US$ 250
I paid $400 for an HP-45 in 1974. It was such an advantage I never regretted a nickel of it. Adjusted for inflation that's $1887 today.
About 1985 , spectrum analyser 50 K.
Got one yesterday for 10 Canadian.
Google DVB-T and SDR radio, amazing.
In 1983, I bought (on behalf of my employer) a computer for use as a teaching aid for technical staff.
BBC model B with 32K bytes RAM, twin 51/4inch floppies and a monochrome monitor cost £1500.
Fortunately, we already had a printer.
For comparison, the year before, I bought a brand-new Ford Fiesta XR-2 for under £5000.
groundfungus:
It cost me $130.00 to upgrade my Tandy 1000 from 520K to 640K. 128 Kilobytes 130 bucks
That's because you bought a Tandy? What year?
In 1985 I paid $150 each for Chinon 360k 5 1/4" floppy drives for my 64k S-100 8085 system. But RAM chips didn't cost much except during the Bush embargo, then they doubled!
I remember everything changing Jan 1986 when the clones hit all the fests. Putting a PC together from then on usually took a screwdriver and maybe pair of needle nose pliers for the jumpers. Prices really dropped, especially for those who knew the tech.
My first "computer" was a ZX-81 (kit $99.95). 16K ram expansion ($99.95). Printer ($99.95). Cassette recorder ($29.95). Still have it.
And for the icing on the cake many of the HP calculators have retained a very impressive resale value to this day. Lots of people collecting HP calculators, My HP 32sii seems to be going for over double what I paid for it new!
Lefty
Tape-deck, Cassette player, music installations, photo camera with film, trip with airplane within Europe
in general all obsolete tech
robtillaart:
Tape-deck, Cassette player, music installations, photo camera with film, trip with airplane within Europein general all obsolete tech
True. My very first Sony Walkman cassette player was pretty expensive. That was what we called a "portable" device back then. By today's standards, it would be a furniture.
I also had one of those 35mm cameras, the famous Olympus Trip 35.
I still have a 1979-vintage Pentax MX SLR body.
It cost £100 new, and I found one on eBay a few weeks ago at £150.
