Black Friday pricing or not, CE discounts are holding up...

Black Friday pricing or not, CE discounts are holding up as some of the best deals around, according to a price check from The People History website, which features the average cost of everyday products over the years. In 1960, the average cost of a new house was $12,700 and a new car cost an average $2,600. But a “modern, Danish-style” 23-inch black-and-white TV listed for $219.95, equivalent to $1,691.71 today, according to the inflation calendar from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today a Haier Chinese-style 24-inch LCD flat-panel 1080p TV costs $215. A new Polaroid Land Camera cost $93.45 the year JFK was elected, or $718.75 in 2012 currency, while a ‘60s-era Polaroid 250 Auto Land camera listed for $49 last week on eBay. That $94 camera budget from 1960 would today buy a 14-megapixel, 4x optical zoon Canon point-and-shoot model at B&H Photo with money left over for a 2GB “film” card that can hold 1900 5MB pics. A $49.95 adding machine in 1960 would cost $384.57 in 2012 dollars. Today, you can buy a handheld Aurora calculator from Amazon for under $5, or save your money altogether and use the calculator app on your iPad. Gasoline hasn’t fared so well. The 25-cent-per-gallon price in 1960 would be $1.92 on the debit card today, but the median price for a gallon of regular in the New York area Friday was $3.69, according to GasBuddy.com.