Posted On: Friday - August 8th 2025 7:36AM MST
In Topics: Economics Inflation
(Not to scale. Larger than actual size... unless your phone is tiny.)
Yep, it's another real-world inflation post here. I present just a couple more inflation data points, but they aren't very precise ones this time. We're lacking accurate numbers from memory and/or accurate time scales.
That could be it above - no way to tell without a scale there - a 10mm / 1.5 mm pitch* wing nut. I was just glad to have found one, first of all, at Ace Hardware. I'd have liked one with even bigger wings for my purpose. I bought the single wing nut to hold the spare tire tight against the vehicle, with a fender washer and the threaded hook from the vehicle. It works. It cost me $2.89. Yes, $2.89 for a wing nut!? Yes, I sound like one, because, I swear you'd only have to go back 10 or 15 years to see them in a bin for, I dunno (that's the problem) maybe 35¢, maybe 55¢, I swear no more than a dollar.
While talking about the onesies or fivesies quantities at the hardware store, my friend and I agreed that inflation in these items can be easily ignored by the consumer of such. It's one thing if you're working on a project, specifying 200 carriage bolts, this many of these nuts, washer, etc. Then, a price change like this really matters.
To check this, I just looked them up on McMaster-Carr, and I see that in quantities of 10, these same (zinc-plated stainless) cost ~ 80¢ apiece, while in quantities of 25, they're ~60¢. I wish I had old numbers, but that's not out of hand. OTOH, for singles, Lowes shows English ones (per my very quick search), so I picked 3/8" and see them at just under 2 bucks.
So, these marketing folks who set prices have rightly figured that we don't notice or don't care, about these small items being 3, maybe 8 or 10 even, times as much in price as 10, 15, or longest 20 years ago. I agree. I just bought one wing nut and spent in the neighborhood of 2 bucks more for it, which, compared to inflation at the grocery, is peanuts (a very small can now). Still, though it's a small piece, that wing nut is in that BLS Basket 'o Goods... unless it's a cheap China-made basket, and it falls out a hole.
Anyway, I have neither an accurate time scale nor exact start number for wing nut (generally all small hardware) inflation, but it's like, A LOT.
Unfortunately, this is not the right chart. I found a USPS .pdf, but I cannot find the exact service we use. We aren't in a big hurry, but we do need a tracking number.
For this one I do have an accurate start price, but not a time scale**. My kid was in four of these coin clubs. Older readers may remember these same type clubs, particularly one called Columbia House, set up for music lovers. One would get vinyl records, cassette tapes, or yes, (sorry, I'm sure they were great, yeahhh...) 8-track tapes, in the mail. (Actually, one could get reel-to-reel tapes too.). The deal was, with no input from you, they'd send you one every month, and it was up to you to keep it and pay a fairly good price or send it back. The latter required paying the postage. If you were late, sorry, you owned the record and owed the money. This was not a good deal for lazy people,
These coin clubs, in fact, require postage to be spent every month, because it's not one record but a bunch of coins you receive montly, not all of which you are likely to need. Sending in $5.65 each month for each, even if we are prompt, for 4 of them was no good. Therefore, I got my kid to drop 3 out of the 4. Hey, it's better than his buying comics or bubble gum.
Unexpectedly (heh!) it took $7.30 this time for the same, 5 biz-days ground service with tracking. Since my kid has kept old receipts for those tracking numbers, he was able to tell me the old rate - $5.65. The increase is just under 30%. See footnote** - I don't have a time scale yet, but I may get into this more to get a reasonably good short-term (handful of years) inflation rate with compounding for this particular postal service. This also is a very small portion of the BLS Basket o' Goods AND Services, but they've gotta know about it. It's the government, after all.
Yeah, I know, perspective. These changes involve small portions of the basket as compared to our, and all Americans' spending on groceries. i've been shocked lately when my wife, also in shock about it, shows me some receipts. I used to do the grocery shopping for us going back 10 years or so. I see numbers that are double for the same general stuff.
In closing, yes this post title was misleading. I can see where the reader may have thought it was to be about something else entirely, about some other type of club with some different hardware. No, but if inflation keeps going like this, some wingnut just might go Postal. NOT FUNNY, haha.
PS: There was an old joke a musician made between songs during his show at the local bar. Here I though it was original - I don't think so: "Hey, I am in a great mood tonight, ya'll. I just signed a contract with Columbia Records!" We all felt good for him and applauded. "Yeah, I just have to buy one record a month, and after the end of a year, I get a free...." You had to be there. You had to be THEN.
* A fundamental difference in thread specification for SI vs English units is that SI (Does System Internationale sounds awfully Communist, or is it just me?) uses pitch - thread-to-thread distance rather than the inverse, threads per distance. I'm used to the English way, but the SI way makes perfect sense too. This is the same as specifying wavelength instead of frequency.
** I may look up more once I ascertain exactly what mail service this is, so I can see the previous rate rise and use that for my one-off run (vs, the rise).
Comments:
Possumman
Monday - August 11th 2025 7:17PM MST
PS I have a bit with a countersink designed for predrilling ipe decking that I used on my recent rebuild. Ipe is too rich for my blood but the bit works like a charm on 5/4 PT pine. I used the star drive deck screws as I had a half bucket of very spendy stainless ones left over from an ipe job. At my age (71) I figured the crappy PT pine would be fine if I get 15 years out of it! YMMV
Moderator
Saturday - August 9th 2025 4:37PM MST
PS: That's kind of strange, the ACE store burning up twice, Adam. I'll check out your links.
Adam Smith
Saturday - August 9th 2025 8:33AM MST
PS: Good morning, Mr. Moderator,
Fortunately, we have a couple decent hardware stores in town. Between the two I can usually find what I'm looking for...
https://www.mooreslumber.com/
https://andersonfeedandhardware.com/
We used to have an ACE hardware that had the best selection of nuts/bolts/fasteners/etc. but it burned down. Twice. After the second fire Wyman said he was going to rebuild but he hasn't. He's getting close to retirement age so that might have something to do with it. He also has a location in Dawsonville but I usually don't get out that way for nuts/bolts/fasteners/etc.
News about the 2018 fire...
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/fire-at-popular-north-georgia-hardware-store
https://accesswdun.com/article/2018/2/635211/2-suffer-minor-injuries-store-destroyed-in-lumpkin-county-fire
News about the 2004 fire...
https://accesswdun.com/article/2004/8/153513
News about the Dawsonville location...
https://www.dawsonnews.com/local/business/new-hardware-store-is-looking-to-break-ground/
I just posted those wingnuts because of the prices. ($300 for a box of 25 and $46.56 for the long arm wingnut from the UK.) After the fiasco with getting the refund on my rotator ratchets that never came I'm disinclined to order from Europe for the time being.
When it comes to ordering online, there are just some things that have to be ordered that way. For example, I recently found some water in the trunk of Mrs. Smith's car after a rain. Fortunately I had a tarp down because we picked up some mulch at the HomeDepot, but I can't have water getting in...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/127115387444
There is simply no way I can find something like the trunk seal for a W210 in town. (I have to order many car parts this way as the cars get older.) I usually try to find sellers that offer free return shipping because they are generally easier to deal with if something gets damaged or if the product isn't quite what I thought it would be.
Anyway...
Happy Saturday! ☮️
Fortunately, we have a couple decent hardware stores in town. Between the two I can usually find what I'm looking for...
https://www.mooreslumber.com/
https://andersonfeedandhardware.com/
We used to have an ACE hardware that had the best selection of nuts/bolts/fasteners/etc. but it burned down. Twice. After the second fire Wyman said he was going to rebuild but he hasn't. He's getting close to retirement age so that might have something to do with it. He also has a location in Dawsonville but I usually don't get out that way for nuts/bolts/fasteners/etc.
News about the 2018 fire...
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/fire-at-popular-north-georgia-hardware-store
https://accesswdun.com/article/2018/2/635211/2-suffer-minor-injuries-store-destroyed-in-lumpkin-county-fire
News about the 2004 fire...
https://accesswdun.com/article/2004/8/153513
News about the Dawsonville location...
https://www.dawsonnews.com/local/business/new-hardware-store-is-looking-to-break-ground/
I just posted those wingnuts because of the prices. ($300 for a box of 25 and $46.56 for the long arm wingnut from the UK.) After the fiasco with getting the refund on my rotator ratchets that never came I'm disinclined to order from Europe for the time being.
When it comes to ordering online, there are just some things that have to be ordered that way. For example, I recently found some water in the trunk of Mrs. Smith's car after a rain. Fortunately I had a tarp down because we picked up some mulch at the HomeDepot, but I can't have water getting in...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/127115387444
There is simply no way I can find something like the trunk seal for a W210 in town. (I have to order many car parts this way as the cars get older.) I usually try to find sellers that offer free return shipping because they are generally easier to deal with if something gets damaged or if the product isn't quite what I thought it would be.
Anyway...
Happy Saturday! ☮️
Moderator
Saturday - August 9th 2025 6:43AM MST
PS: Thanks for the links, Adam. That first one is the part I could have better used. Note that price. This is something that I, of course, didn't need in bulk. About $12 is OK, I guess for that wide wing nut that would be perfect for securing the spare tire. But ... can you get onesies for that $12 that was for the quantity of 25.
I haven't checked out all your links. I do appreciate your help, but the on-line buying, well, that's another post. In this case, I was in no hurry and didn't get to the HW store until probably a week after I thought about this. So, I could have gotten something on-line. My old-fashioned sense doesn't like not being able to see and feel the part first. For a wing nut, what could go wrong?
That said though, In the case of single piece, today's shipping prices that are 2 or 3 x what they were a couple of decades ago are a big negative for ordering on-line.
I haven't checked out all your links. I do appreciate your help, but the on-line buying, well, that's another post. In this case, I was in no hurry and didn't get to the HW store until probably a week after I thought about this. So, I could have gotten something on-line. My old-fashioned sense doesn't like not being able to see and feel the part first. For a wing nut, what could go wrong?
That said though, In the case of single piece, today's shipping prices that are 2 or 3 x what they were a couple of decades ago are a big negative for ordering on-line.
Moderator
Saturday - August 9th 2025 6:38AM MST
PS: Hello PossumMan. I saw a very good short comment of yours on TUR that I want to go "respond" to, can't remember now, but I may have been out on the time, or I saw it on my phone. (I don't do UR writing and such on it.)
Anyway, I did stock up on deck screws myself. I got a couple of BIG plastic cases of them. The gold-colored (not covered!) ones have the internal-Allen heads which I really like. However, I was not using them for decking, so for my use the points on them were too dull to get them to enter the 2nd board correctly. They'd push off and there'd be a gap depending on where in the turn of the threads the screw was when it dug in. This sucks! You can't use them for the purpose I wanted, so we went back to Phillips heads that at leas had good points.
Am I missing something, PM? Are they only good for making decking where you can lean hard on the drill with your weight?
Anyway, I did stock up on deck screws myself. I got a couple of BIG plastic cases of them. The gold-colored (not covered!) ones have the internal-Allen heads which I really like. However, I was not using them for decking, so for my use the points on them were too dull to get them to enter the 2nd board correctly. They'd push off and there'd be a gap depending on where in the turn of the threads the screw was when it dug in. This sucks! You can't use them for the purpose I wanted, so we went back to Phillips heads that at leas had good points.
Am I missing something, PM? Are they only good for making decking where you can lean hard on the drill with your weight?
Moderator
Saturday - August 9th 2025 6:33AM MST
PS: "It sounds like a case of going nuts or having a screw loose.". Ha, multiple titles would have worked here, Adam.
Or "going to get a case of nuts, a nut-case", as it were, because that's the only way to get a good price. Just playing with the words here, but I have thought on occasion that due to hardware stores being fewer and farther between and the discounts for buying in bulk, one almost needs to have one's own hardware store. (You're always missing that one size you need though!)
Or "going to get a case of nuts, a nut-case", as it were, because that's the only way to get a good price. Just playing with the words here, but I have thought on occasion that due to hardware stores being fewer and farther between and the discounts for buying in bulk, one almost needs to have one's own hardware store. (You're always missing that one size you need though!)
Adam Smith
Friday - August 8th 2025 10:26PM MST
PS: Good evening, everyone!
https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/5-8-11-wing-nut-4-1-2-wide-1-1-8-base-dia-ductile-iron-plain-usa-pkg-of-25
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275074564976
https://www.ebay.com/itm/256549202292
https://www.ebay.com/itm/357422302979
https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-star
☮️
https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/5-8-11-wing-nut-4-1-2-wide-1-1-8-base-dia-ductile-iron-plain-usa-pkg-of-25
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275074564976
https://www.ebay.com/itm/256549202292
https://www.ebay.com/itm/357422302979
https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-star
☮️
Possumman
Friday - August 8th 2025 5:06PM MST
PS I just rebuilt my very old deck and the price of lumber and hardware particularly good deck screws and lags etc was crazy.
The Alarmist
Friday - August 8th 2025 8:07AM MST
PS
It sounds like a case of going nuts or having a screw loose.
🕉
It sounds like a case of going nuts or having a screw loose.
🕉