This is occasionally true, but that is very infrequent. The example I like to cite is swords. Despite swords playing no role in modern combat, modern swords (t

This is occasionally true, but that is very infrequent. The example I like to cite is swords. Despite swords playing no role in modern combat, modern swords (the real ones, not knockoff/costume swords) are of a higher quality, fit, and finish, than anything a knight or samurai would have been able to obtain. While being dramatically cheaper, in the sense that someone would have many fewer hours to work to obtain one. There are counterexamples of products which would have been cheaper at a given quality in the past, or readily available when they're difficult to obtain in the present. But once you rule out things made with ivory and whalebone, these are scarce indeed.