Is This Economics At Work?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(02-24-2023 08:03 AM)zixingcheche Wrote:  ...and if you want to have the 2007 version, which is the 35th years anniversary edition.
the price is around USD 230.

the same thing happend on HP-50g too. (USB 450)

The question is only, if anybody ever actually pays these crazy asking prices. With a little patience one can still find these calculators for decent prices on eBay in Europe. Last year I got one of each (HP-35s and HP-50) for less than 30 Euros. Bargains still exist :-)

What these prices really mean is that the end of RPN calculators for this kind of exam has drawn very close. Every other "NCEES approved" calculator (https://www.prepfe.com/fe-exams/resources/calculators) from Texas and Casio is in the below 50$ price range, some from Ti even below 10$ or actually free of charge if you use the digital version. Who would spend a multiple of that on an HP calculator unless he or she already has one? And all those who never used RPN, which must be a vast majority, will certainly not buy an overpriced RPN model just for one exam. This is also economics at work: When prices get too high, demand will just drop to zero.

Regards
Max