Wouah ... things are getting expensive in UK.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rigol-DS1054Z-4-Channel-50MHz-Digital-Storage-Oscilloscope/143260735421
Anybody want a nice Rigol DS1054Z at 1000$US
Sounds as bad as lumber prices in the GWN. I need to replace a deck where the wood is rotting. I am guessing the pre-COVID price was $1500. Last year hit $3500 with people staying home and making improvements, driving up the demand just as the supply chain suffered. I mistakenly held off assuming everyone else would be done their decks last year. Current price is $5000.
Instead I think I found a local guy with cedar and a portable sawmill. Hopefully I can save some money dealing with him. SWMBO will probably get jealous at how much time I will spend with the surface planer this year...
Even my lumber of choice.....twisted, warped, knotty #2 one inch pine boards have gone nuts in price.
I was in the Home Despot the other day and noticed that 4 x 8' sheets of OSB floor underlayment were priced at about $50/ea. That's nuts!
-Pat
Thats one of the effects of Covid-19, not much is leaving the lumberyards etc due to lockdowns so everything has gone up.
I'm not so sure that's the real reason. I suspect much of it is taking advantage of the situation under the guise of "lockdown". The reason? Stock of this stuff is good. You can hardly go into any store today and not trip over a huge stockpile of toilet paper or paper towels. The only thing I notice in my local grocery still in short supply is cleaning products. But other than that my local grocery seems fully stocked.
And there's no shortage of lumber either. Now maybe in the UK that's true but not here.
Edit, and also for the first time in almost a year the price of gasoline in NYS is approaching $3.00 USD/gallon. It did get as cheap as just above $2.00 USD. Apparently the spec market sez people are gonna vacation this year.
Interesting, your neighbours to the north do have a shortage. Also, anyone who has stock is taking great advantage of the situation. The local yards are all empty, and are saying they are only expecting to receive 50% of their orders. What does come in from the sawmills is not fully dried. There is speculation they are running the lumber through the kilns extra fast to take advantage of the high prices and get more bucks for less work.
In a normal year, I guess people would look at a rotting deck and decide to just go away for vacation. Last year, people are stuck at home and not spending money on vacation, so they replace the deck.
The exchange rate at the moment makes it favourable to sell the lumber into the US. Good prices for the Americans and good profits for the Canadian suppliers. No lumber for the average Canadian.
Gasoline jumped from $1.03 to $1.25 per litre in the last month. Good think I am not commuting to work these days.
Supplies in the grocery stores all seem fine. Prices are going up. If the price is not going up, then the containers are being discretely shrunk. A buddy of mine design moulds for thin-wall plastic injection and he is extremely busy...