Anybody got a guess on what a 992B sold new would be in todays dollar...would also be interesting to know what Hamiltons production cost was on the 992B???

I did a little digging in the Ch. 185 archives and came up with some Hamilton catalog images of 992B's over the years, then I corrected the prices to 2006 dollars.

1940 -- $60.00 or $842 in 2006 dollars




1949 -- $71.50 or $579 in 2006 dollars





1951 -- $90.00 or $728 in 2006 dollars





1963-1964
$75.00 (Case #15) or $483 in 2006 dollars
$85.00 (Case #16) or $547 in 2006 dollars
$89.50 (Case #17) or $576 in 2006 dollars

Ed, that means if we could find an untouched completly brand new 992b today, what would it be worth? Just about what we are paying. Right?

In 2006, what would you have to pay for a 992b?

That depends on how "untouched" it is Phil. If it was truly untouched, even without box and papers, I'd estimate the value would be a lot higher than the inflation-adjusted numbers I posted above. But that claim is made a lot more often than it turns out to be really true!

Hello Mark,
Below is an excerpt from a Hamilton 1940 price list.

Hamilton sold the 992B to the wholesalers for $24.95.

I haven't read anything about their markup to the wholesalers, but we know in order to make a nice profit, their bottom line cost would be considerably less than $24.95.

Robert