Slide rules HOME page PRICES < SITE MAP >
What's new

Prices of popular models of slide rules
The following table gives the price of some popular slide rules. The table is based on rules sold on ebay from July 2000 to June 2001 inclusive. I have only included rules where at least 5 were sold.

For all rules included I give the median price (half the rules cost more and half cost less than median). To give an idea of the range of prices, where more than ten rules were sold, I give the upper and lower quartile prices (25% of rules were more expensive than the upper quartile and 25% were less expensive than the lower quartile).

A separate, tentative, analysis suggests that prices of the top 10% sales of a particular are around 1.8 times higher than the median and the top 5% are around 2.5 times higher than the median. The cheapest examples of a particular model are about 0.5 times the median.
Model Number sold Upper quartile Median Lower quartile

Acu Math 400

63

$8

$5

$3

Concise 28

56

$21

$16

$13

Dietzgen 1734

43

$75

$51

$39

Dietzgen 1738

12

$37

$21

$17

Dietzgen 1767

40

$10

$7

$5

Faber Castell 2/83N

53

$230

$163

$108

Faber Castell 57/87

21

$21

$18

$11

Faber Castell 57/88

24

$39

$31

$25

Faber Castell 62/83N

9

$179

Fuller

24

$1,502

$802

$384

Keuffel and Esser 4053-3 Polyphase

242

$26

$13

$8

Keuffel and Esser 4081-3

207

$35

$21

$15

Keuffel and Esser 4081-5

9

$250

Keuffel and Esser 68 1100 Decilon

176

$148

$92

$66

Keuffel and Esser 68 1215 Decitrig

154

$41

$26

$19

Otis King

74

$200

$138

$106

Pickett 120

188

$10

$8

$4

Pickett 140

48

$10

$8

$6

Pickett 160

31

$15

$10

$6

Pickett 200

59

$19

$14

$11

Pickett 400

15

$26

$21

$14

Pickett 600

118

$33

$23

$19

Pickett 902

200

$15

$10

$6

Pickett 903

24

$13

$11

$9

Pickett 904

10

$34

Post 1447

126

$13

$9

$6

Post Versalog 1460

171

$51

$38

$30

Post Versalog 1461

20

$113

$92

$88

Sterling 594 Decimal Trig Log-log

65

$10

$9

$5

Notes.

1. The prices are based on a computerised analysis of completed sales information from ebay. Given the varying formats used by sellers it is possible that not all sales of a particular model have been included. It is also possible the rules sold without model number would have been included had it been given.

2. I tried analysing separately sales where phrases indicating condition, such a "Mint in box" or "MIB", or completeness, such as "in case with instructions", were used but with the relatively small number of sales of each model there was little consistency in the results.

3. Sellers sometimes sell a group of rules as a single lot or sell instruction books for a particular model. By limiting myself to the range between the upper and lower quartiles, most of the these would be excluded.