Effect of dipping into LIFO inventories. Robertson Corporation uses a LIFO cost flow assumption for inventories and cost of goods sold. Its beginning inventory for the current year totaled $48,900 and its ending inventory totaled $42,600. Cost of goods sold for the year totaled $286,700. A note to its financial statements discloses that income before taxes would have been $2,700 lower if it had not dipped into LIFO layers during the year. Compute the purchase price of merchandise that Robertson Corporation would have had to acquire to avoid dipping into its LIFO layers.