While AR15 price drops to as low as $400-450, why not AK?

It is supply and demand. People paying $2000 for an AR everytime a "panic" comes around has everyone and their brother making AR's. Once everyone has a few dozen they have to be persuaded into buying another and price drops (at least before people start going out of business completely).

The lower AR prices are a reflection of a saturated market (large supply, lower demand). After the panic bubble of the last couple years the demand has been met which forces manufacturers to cut prices to keep product moving.

Most AKs parts/components are still made outside the US and thus those prices are somewhat fixed and beyond the control of US suppliers.

HankC said:

Have to wonder why AK price is not dropping as much as AR. AKs still going close to $500 while $450 low end AR is not unusual. (VZ2008 is not really an AK.) Obviously folks still buying AKs that keeps the price up. I hope we will see $350 AKs soon and then I will get a couple.

Click to expand...

Another reason, I'm thinking, is that AR's have a good bit more refined and precise machining than AK's do. But I personally would shy away from AR's at some of these lower prices. A sub $600 S&W M&P is pretty danged decent, and about as low a quality level as I'd be willing to own in an AR.
Also, we actually are already seeing AK's getting close to that $450 level. I got a very solid,straight Romy WASR, with the newer solid hardwood stocks, sling,bayonet, full cleaning kit w/ rod, for $499...delivered.
And I've heard about the NPAP's being found for something like $469,delivered.
I think it would take something like another economic depression to see $350 AK's again, and that would be mostly in the used market, IMO.

The importation of AK's has been on the decline since the early 2000's. Recently an executive order was signed that blocks the importation of Russian goods, including AK parts kits. With an increasing demand for AK type rifles and a decreasing supply of imports, we begin to see the reason for the price difference.

If i have to get another AK , it would be the Zastava O Pap. Solid as a rock....

I got a very solid,straight Romy WASR, with the newer solid hardwood stocks, sling,bayonet, full cleaning kit w/ rod, for $499...delivered.

Click to expand...

To the point of the OP I bought a WASR 10/63 with plastic "tactical" furniture and the same accessories listed back in 2006 for slightly over $300 ($320 something if memory serves) out the door at a local shop. The same shop today has the WASR's starting at $550.
Bulgarian's now are about $1000, in 2006 I belive they were around $600.
So in eight years prices have nearly doubled, I don't think current AR prices are currently double what they were in 2006.

i doubt AKs will ever go down in price until somebody starts mfg them in quantity for sale here.

Click to expand...

Kind of hoping Century's all made in USA c39 rifle takes off even if it's nothing more than just an insurance policy against further import restrictions

Its simple. AK's require hand fitting. AR's are a slap together affair. Same reason revolvers are more expensive than similar auto's.

Like most of the other posters have said, it's supply and demand.

Twenty years ago you could find SKS's by the crate for 80-100 bucks each. It's not that they were that bad of rifles, but that overwhelming supply drove prices down. Now that imports of them have really slowed, their cost has gone way up, and they've pretty much reached an equilibrium price of about $400. Owning one, I'd say that's fair. They're worth it, but I wouldn't pay much more for one.

I think a similar thing is happening with AKs. Stocks of surplus don't last forever, and AKs aren't as plentiful as they used to be. Now that that glut is gone, they are finding their way to a fair open-market value. As supply decreases further, prices will only go up.

That being said, I think their price is also kind of tied to the AR - generally speaking, they are a substitute good for buyers looking for a military style semi-auto rifle. I doubt that a WASR type AK will ever be priced much higher than an entry level AR, though they are pretty close right now.

In a similar sense, I think that there is an over-supply of ARs right now. If I had to bet, I would say that AR prices are more likely to go up $100 in the next five years than go down $100 in that time.

just need more manufacturers and more parts made in the country and then im sure the price would drop.

A lot of the AK's commercially available here are built from imported parts kits. These used to be fairly inexpensive, but are now much higher in price. They also no longer can have barrels imported with them, so that adds additional cost to use a US made barrel. On top of that, they need additional US parts to replace perfectly functional foreign parts to satisfy 922(r). AR rifles don't need to do that. ARs are like the SnapTites of the gun world, minimal tooling is required to assemble them, and for the most part, the individual parts are pre-finished. AK's require riveting and other machine operation, plus parkerizing and other finishing procedures.

Plus everyone and his halfwit cousin have been cranking out AR parts for the last few years, they are a glut on the market.

Pre panic ars cost around what they are going for now this is just prices going back to normal ppl have to remember these things were designed to be produced quick and cheap the $1200 basic ar is a panic time thing and a load of crud

One of the best sources for high quality affordable AKs was just cut off so that doesn't help. Prices have come down somewhat but not as much as AR prices. I own probably a dozen + AKs but given what one can get high quality ARs for (Colt and BCM for example) I wouldn't be buying an AK unless I was all set up on guns for any and all practical uses and just wanted to have an AK.

I think the days of the $300-$350 AK are long gone. The new normal looks to be $500-$550 on the low end fair market value.
To me the soft spot for AK is the mid to high end 'boutique' AK. I don't see it gaining like the low end or holding as aggressively because this will likely be mark feature entry's will look to field product.

Domestic supply and production is probably the biggest drawback of the AK, and the largest advantage of the AR.

When I go to the LGS, I see about 70-80% of their rifles as AR-type rifles, and only a handful of AK's (sometimes none).

Everyone and their brother markets an AR, and aside from that, anyone with basic mechanical skills can build their own. Neither is true about the AK, and the current Russian embargo has removed some of the players from the game.

AK has now established its reputation in the American market. Many doomsday preppers on budget prefer the AKs. Many Iraqi and Afghan war vets are saying they prefer the AK in combat in blogs and youtube videos. AKs are reliable and packs a punch. The demand now is higher as more people want diversity . Even IO is making their own AK version to meet the growing demand. Seems like the AR market has reached its peak , so AKs are now making its own niche in the American gun world .

I know that the AK was designed to be built cheaply and easily but it was designed to be built as such in a country (or countries) with large state-supported industries and a workforce that was not necessarily highly paid or highly mobile...although I think defense industry jobs "behind the iron curtain" were pretty good and desirable. As such, and AK is really built whereas an AR is assembled from a huge variety of standard parts.

The very things that made the AK pattern so easy for the Eastern Bloc to produce in large numbers (big factories with huge labor forces) are what are keeping the prices at a plateau.

where are you finding a $400 ar? because I know some folks who would be all over that.

I don't expect AR prices to stay this good for that long. I think companies are just trying to sell off a bolus of surplus inventory. When that is done I expect they will go up some.

As cheap as the AK was to build, it was so prolific only because of great expense (much like our AR) on the part of nation states. Just because we can get the parts from old arsenals of defunct military eras for less than scrap prices doesn't mean the same components can be reproduced new for the same (and in America, no less). The fact is those trunnions cost more than barrel nuts, and sheet metal stamps/dies are more expensive and less adaptable than poly molding or CNC equipment. The remaining springs, pins, and parts are more or less direct counterparts of the same in AR's, but the final assembly requires quite a bit more work (precision pressing, rivets, welding) than AR assembly.

A FAL costs more than an AK which costs more than an AR to produce --but likely only because their popularity tends to follow that order as well. AKs could get a bit cheaper, but only if reduced market for ARs drives them up in price as a 'niche' product, somehow (like before the 94 AWB)

BTW, with PSA VZ2008's at 400$ shipped, you'd be a fool to go for either an AR or AK at the same price; quality won't be nearly as good (nor the firearm, for that matter ) and you can bet it won't come with 5 mags.

TCB

It may be partially due to those pesky Russian sanctions.

Russian AKs will demand a premium well, because they are Russian.
The non-Russian Aks will demand a premium because they were designed by a Russian.

On the bright side, wheat should be cheaper.