In 1998 I saved up for 2 months to buy my first high performance ball, An Attitude 3. With grips and slug + tax, it was around $230.
$230 in 1998 has the same buying value as $336.01 in 2016 according to the CPI Inflation calculator. For the performance in relation to current inflation, bowling balls are cheaper than ever. We're lucky that high performance balls aren't $399.99 MSRP.