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Gas Price Circa 1939/40


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Guest Bob Call
Posted

Photo of gas price sign late 30's or 40 based on 37/38 Chevy in background. Sign on building looks like it says something about Plymouth and DeSoto. Can't figure out what R.R. is on the price sign. Any guesses.

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Guest Skyking
Posted

Maybe Rail Road? I wonder if they transported it by rail then..............

Posted

Assuming that's 1940 and using a inflation calculator, gas was the equivalent of $3.30/gal today. It's around 3.90 at the cheepy stations in the L.A. area right now. Hmmmmmmmm...........

Edit. Dave Moon and I type at the same speed, but use a different inflation calculator.

Posted

I paid $3.87 a gallon in Hammond, Indiana, on Monday. So that is pretty close to the inflation adjusted price.

Posted

$3.73 today for regular unleaded with 10% EtOH at Vancouver, WA Costco.

That $0.205 gasoline was the real stuff back then, with lead too.

Posted

I get so tired of hearing how the oil prices are what they should be according to inflation when they're the main reason for the inflation. They shamelessly doubled and tripled their prices in the 70s the 90s and the 00s. Sometimes they let it dip down a little but then they come roaring back. They used to always give you a reason for raising prices,now they don't see the need to give you a reason, they just raise it because can. They used to put a ceiling on the prices and let everybody else catch up, now they have a floor under the price so it can never go below $3.25 or so.

Guest Skyking
Posted

I bet the worms stayed the same price...............

Posted
I bet the worms stayed the same price...............

The last time I saw worms for sale they were $5 a container. They're usually more. You could buy a nice tire for $5 in 1940, or 62 1/2 loaves of bread. ( 1940 Prices )

They must be good worms!:D

Posted
I would be more interested in how the breakdown has shifted over the years than the bottom line.

Almost 20% of the pump price went to the gas station. Sounds reasonable to me. Almost 35% of the pump price was taxes. Sounds reasonable to me.

I doubt that the gas station or tax authorities are getting such a good cut now.

In California the state wide gas price average was purported to be $4.01 at the beginning of this month. Also this month the state gas tax was raised to 71.9 cents/gal. Federal gas tax is 18.4 cents/gal. So there is $0.903/gal tax or about 22.5% of the purchase price. Your state will vary as both the retail price and the state tax will be different.

Back then I bet the CAFE would be somewhere between 12 and 18 MPG so a whole lot more tax money was collected per mile driven. Which means more money was available for construction and repairs relatively speaking.

Guest billybird
Posted
I get so tired of hearing how the oil prices are what they should be according to inflation when they're the main reason for the inflation. They shamelessly doubled and tripled their prices in the 70s the 90s and the 00s. Sometimes they let it dip down a little but then they come roaring back. They used to always give you a reason for raising prices,now they don't see the need to give you a reason, they just raise it because can. They used to put a ceiling on the prices and let everybody else catch up, now they have a floor under the price so it can never go below $3.25 or so.

Agree 100% You just can't do anything with a bunch of crooks with a license to steal.

Guest Bob Call
Posted

Skyking is probably right, gasoline was most likely transported by rail from the refinery to the bulk plant nearest this retail outlet. Also notice the U DriveIt sign. U DriveIt was predecessor to Hertz.

Here is a breakdown of the cost of a gallon of gasoline as of July 1, 2013, compiled by an agency of the State of California, energyalmanac.ca.gov.

Estimated 2013 Gasoline Price Breakdown & Margins Details

Most states have a minimum retail outlet mark up law to prevent large marketers from under cutting small marketers and forcing them out of the market.

As a 50 year plus veteran of the petroleum exploration and production industry I strongly resent the comment "bunch of crooks with a license to steal". Energy E&P company's net profits after taxes average around 7% per annum. Try living one day without petroleum or natural gas and the products made therefrom.

Energy E&P is a gambling game for big boys. Prior to drilling 10's to 100's of millions are spent on geology, geophysical, engineering, permitting and drilling rights acquisition. A typical Bakken formation well in North Dakota costs between 7 and 8 million dollars to drill, complete (including the evil 65 year old hydralic fracturing procedure) and equipping for production. Evil BP Production America employees 250,000 people in North America.

Sorry about getting on a political rant.

Posted

I saw a station @ $3.31/gal yesterday, but chose to go to one of my favorite "NO-ETHANOL" places, and paid $3.49/gal after driving round trip to Houma for dinner with the Lagniappe Chapter of Louisiana's AACA Region.

Guest Skyking
Posted
I saw a station @ $3.31/gal yesterday, but chose to go to one of my favorite "NO-ETHANOL" places, and paid $3.49/gal after driving round trip to Houma for dinner with the Lagniappe Chapter of Louisiana's AACA Region.

I envy you guys that still can buy non-ethanol. If anything, I'd love to have it just for my lawn equipment.

Guest windjamer
Posted

About 1952/1953 Gulf came out with a cheep gas they called Gulf-tane, I remember it was 12 or 13 cents a gal. Worked good in my 42 Ford.LOL

Posted

I had a customer who was in the energy exploration and production game. He drilled 5 natural gas wellsin Canada and all produced. He was all set to start selling gas when the ENRON scandal happened and the price of natural gas plunged to below his cost of production. He watched his $5 million investment fall to the point where he had to declare bankruptcy and sell out for pennies on the dollar. He risked his owm $ trying to make a profit. Was he a crook?

Guest Bob Call
Posted

First tetraethyl lead was made in 1853. Relatively unused until 1921 when Charles Kettering of GM endorsed it for anti-knock gasoline additive and trademarked the name Ethyl. In 1923 GM and Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now Exxon) jointly formed the Ethyl Corporation. Today tetraethyl lead is used only in aviation gasoline.

Guest Bob Call
Posted
I had a customer who was in the energy exploration and production game. He drilled 5 natural gas wellsin Canada and all produced. He was all set to start selling gas when the ENRON scandal happened and the price of natural gas plunged to below his cost of production. He watched his $5 million investment fall to the point where he had to declare bankruptcy and sell out for pennies on the dollar. He risked his owm $ trying to make a profit. Was he a crook?

Most of the exploration in North America has typically been done by individuals and small independents like your friend, commonly called "wildcatters". When they make a discovery the big boys move in and buy out the small operators. For instance the Bakken shale in North Dakota was first drilled in 1950 but was not commercially successful until about 10 years ago when some independent operators, not big multinationals, tried drilling horizontal laterals and completing with hydralic fracturing. I had worked for a small independent operator in the early 90's that was drilling horizontal wells in Kern County, California, but they were not using multi-stage fracing so were marginal economically. They sold their holdings to Texaco and Texaco started using multi-stage fracing and made the project economically successful.

Guest Henry White
Posted

20&1/2 cents for gas? Must've been the good stuff. My uncle used to have folks come in and buy five gallons, for which they would toss him one dollar and tell him to "keep the change" four cents as I recall. I am guessing this was around the time of WWII.

I pumped Shell gasoline for minimum wage of $2.00 per hour in 1975 and gas cost about 50 cents or so depending on grade. My pay was roughly 4 gallons per hour. Today it is self serve only in most states, and the employee making minimum wage today earns roughly 2 gallons per hour, or less. The working man has taken a huge pay cut in 38 years.

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