Things you used to have to pay for...

[ERD50]

Inspired by this thread:

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/things-that-used-to-be-free-110978.html#post2666149

I thought it might be interesting to reflect on the positive, things we used to have to pay for, that are now 'free' (OK, TNSTAAFL).

Long distance phone calls. OK, we pay a monthly rate for the service (but that was always the case, and maybe more, even before adjusting for inflation, than today). Remember when the family waited until Sunday to make that call to out of town friends/relatives?

Same vein, and most of us never even got a chance to pay for it. The dream in 1964 - video phone calls! Now they are taken for granted, in full color, and high resolution! Yes, a monthly fee for internet or mobile phone, but the call itself is not a charge.

Paying bills. We used to have to pay for the envelope, pay for the stamp, pay for the check. Now we do it for no extra charge from our banks.

Tune ups for the car. Almost nothing to do any more. No points, no carb adjustments, no timing adjustment, spark plugs that go 50K~100K Miles, etc.

That's a start. What do you recall?

-ERD50

 

[Sojourner]

Stock trading fees. $0 trades are wonderful when you're selling 100s of puts and calls every year!

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, I remember pops placing a person to person call to himself when we got home from the family vacation to let my aunt know we arrived safely.

The operator would place the call, aunt would answer and say "he's not here", no charge.

 

[38Chevy454]

Online operator/installation manuals and parts lists. For appliances, yard equipment, tools, vehicles, and more.
Used to be have to pay and order a paper copy.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, now you can download the PDF even before the product arrives and you don't have to save the manual. Or if you lose it.

 

[scrabbler1]

Another phone feature which once cost extra but is now free (or simply part of the flat charge) is touch-tone service. I remember when touch-tone became more and more popular, around the early or mid-1980s, when we began having to dial more digits to make calls, either through more area codes (like in that other thread I started last week) or with separate long-distance phone services where you had to enter your calling card number. Rotary or pulse mode phones just didn't cut it.

 

[CSdot]

Stamps to mail a letter = email

Paper Maps = now free on your car's built in GPS or on your cell phone

Film processing = all digital now

Separate TiVo = now built into your TV or SAT system

Buying DVDs = now subscription based Netflix

Buying a nice Camera = now just an added part of your cell phone

Buying CDs/Albums/Tapes = any song you want is now free on YouTube

 

[njhowie]

Appliance and auto repair - there's a Youtube video for just about everything these days.

Our 20 year old dryer has had issues a couple times over the past 10 years. Youtube instructed me how to repair the first time. The second time I had enough knowledge/confidence to diagnose and repair all on my own. These were easily $75-$100 service call items plus parts/labor and we're talking parts that cost less than $5 a piece on Amazon.

For the cars, any time we get a check engine light, I plug in the cheap OBD reader, get the codes, then find an article or Youtube video that tells what to check and/or replace. For the $80-$100/hour the shops/dealer charge, I can do a lot of experimenting cheaply before taking it in.

 

[CaptTom]

Encyclopedias. Library cards. Newspapers. Magazines. Attending conferences to learn about new developments in our field.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

The dream in 1964 - video phone calls!

I remember as a kid seeing these at a home show where they had two video phones set up where you could try it out. How futuristic!

Another phone feature which once cost extra but is now free …

Remember when you had to rent the phone from Ma Bell and each extension phone was extra? I was going to complain about my cell phone bill but it occurred to me that when you add in what I used to pay for long distance it’s actually cheaper (if you don’t count the cost of an iPhone ).

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Computer operating systems.

I am old enough to remember when you had to pay for an operating system for your PC, but now you can get a free one!

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Library cards.

I have never paid for a library card in my life.

 

[braumeister]

I have never paid for a library card in my life.

Depends on how you look at it. About $200 of my property taxes go to the county library system to fund my "free" card.

I hasten to add that it's money very well spent, and I'm happy to pay it.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Depends on how you look at it. About $200 of my property taxes go to the county library system to fund my "free" card.

I hasten to add that it's money very well spent, and I'm happy to pay it.

Which is a prime example that what many folks consider as "free" just isn't. There is rarely ANYTHING that is truly "free."

 

[sengsational]

Mobile apps! Just think of the utility you get out of all those free applications! Yes, the big guys manage to harvest and sell your data, and some annoyingly push ads on you, but there's lots of apps that have tens of thousands of lines of code that one guy wrote, "just because". For Android, if you want open source things, lookup F-Droid...all free and open source.

Does anyone remember that "meme" (wasn't a word at the time), that had a full-page ad from Radio Shack that pointed out that your smart phone did 3/4 of what they were selling separate products for?

 

[Go-NoGo]

Mobile apps! Just think of the utility you get out of all those free applications! Yes, the big guys manage to harvest and sell your data, and some annoyingly push ads on you, but there's lots of apps that have tens of thousands of lines of code that one guy wrote, "just because". For Android, if you want open source things, lookup F-Droid...all free and open source.

Does anyone remember that "meme" (wasn't a word at the time), that had a full-page ad from Radio Shack that pointed out that your smart phone did 3/4 of what they were selling separate products for?

This one ?:

From this article in huffpo
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/radio-shack-ad_b_4612973

 

[MC Rider]

Mom and Dad used to use a 3 minute hourglass egg timer for the long distance calls.
Back when we had a long coiled cord on that rotary phone.

 

[RobbieB]

I've got a long coiled cord wall mounted push button in the kitchen today. And it gets lots of use -

 

[Markola]

Classified ads. Newspapers’ business models have been destroyed but, hey, we can get rid of junk on Craigslist for free.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Depends on how you look at it. About $200 of my property taxes go to the county library system to fund my "free" card.

I hasten to add that it's money very well spent, and I'm happy to pay it.

But those facts have not changed with time, which is the focus of this thread.

 

[Chuckanut]

Hotel rooms (sometimes) - This summer I completed a short get-away road trip in my area. Out of four hotel stays, I paid $$s for one. Three were paid for with points, and one was a 'free' night because I have their associated credit card.

Back in my young adult days, there were no points and no free nights.

 

[ERD50]

Stock trading fees. $0 trades are wonderful when you're selling 100s of puts and calls every year!

This got me thinking of stuff from way back. Today, we get free stock quotes. In the old days, only people with stock tickers (like Gomez Addams!) had access to near real time quotes.

I looked up some history on the devices, but did not find what it cost to access the service. There must have been a monthly fee or something?

I'm not sure it ever occurred to me, or maybe it's so obvious that I never thought about it, but calling the stock symbols 'tickers' comes from the reference to the 'ticker tape' machines, and that name comes from the 'ticking' sound they made.

Anyone know what it cost to subscribe to a 'ticker' service back in the day (they were still in use in the 1960's).

edit/add: found this from 1962:

A ticker rental is approximately $ 55 to $ 65 a month

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=1_B7FrTQotUC&pg=GBS.PA2344&hl=en


-ERD50

 

[Music Lover]

Yeah, now you can download the PDF even before the product arrives and you don't have to save the manual. Or if you lose it.

Reading online manuals is part of my research before buying a product.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

I've got a long coiled cord wall mounted push button in the kitchen today. And it gets lots of use -

We still have 3 long-coiled rotary phones in our home. One is wall-mounted in the kitchen and the other two are table-top models. One in the bedroom and the other in the office. We don't use cell-phones and we only make/get maybe 20 calls per month but when we do get a call it's cool to hear all three ringers ringing at once.

I still remember the days of long-distance charges. It's nice that those calls are 'free' now. But I also remember when the phone bill was $25 a month or so. Now it's $90 but that includes the 200Mbps fiber internet connection.

Of course, we're probably one of the few people left who use a fiber-optic internet connection and still have a copper line for the (rotary) land-line phones - both with the same provider.