Here’s What $100 Was Worth the Year You Were Born

1980

What you would have bought with $100: Two portable radios

In 1980, a Sony AM/FM Portable Radio was priced at $40, or at least that’s what an ad for Fretter Appliance revealed.

1981

What you would have bought with $100: One BMX bicycle

We all wanted a brand-new BMX bicycle and, at the dawn of the Reagan era, a Boy’s 20-Inch BMX With Handbrake was priced at $99.95, so maybe you actually had one.

1982

What you would have bought with $100: 25 battery checkers

Almost four decades ago, a Radio Shack Battery Checker was priced at $3.99, meaning that you could get 25 of them with a one-hundred-dollar bill.

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