JBall,
around 1974 i was living in Europe and i bought an Electrolux vacuum cleaner for the equivalent can. money of around $70.
one year later, i was back in Canada and a salesman knocked on my door and wanted to sell me the very same model, for $500.

reasoning like you do here, i should have thought that, in the space of one year, the machine had made a giant leap in quality.

Without prejudice. ;-)