For comparison, I got out my 1992 Tower Catalog and looked up some prices of ARFs.

For example, the Hobbico Avistar 40 ARF sold for 124.95 (149.95 retail) back in 1992 can be had for 89.99 today, and I dare to say the quality of the ARFs today is better than the ARFs of old.

The quality of the engines and radios seemed to have goe up while the price stayed relatively constant for nearly 10 years.