It would be rediculous to pay more for a gun that came in such poor shape that half the parts have to be replaced or repaired.
It is not because they need to be replaced or repaired. In fact often times the original parts are of better quality or better alloys than the American parts they are replaced with.
It is because legislation requires a specific number of US parts on a foreign made rifle in order for it to have certain features or use magazines over 10 rounds.
This is due to the first President Bush imposing feature based import restrictions (later passed into law by Congress), and the ATF then defining what made a rifle still subject to such restrictions.
In the end we got a ruling that even for mere ownership, no more than 10 of certain foreign parts could be in the gun or it was still subject to the rules that is was subject to in order to be imported into the country.
A rifle made in Switzerland would be subject to the same law, and require it also not have more than 10 foreign parts in order to use magazines over 10 rounds, have apistol grip installed, etc So you would have to start replacing parts on it as well.
The way a lot of firearm manufacturers get around these import restrictions to sell to the civilian market with basic things like a pistol grip, or with standard capacity magazines, is to have a manufacturing plant in the United States. If made in the United States it is not subject to import laws.
So many foreign company firearms are actually made in the USA.
However manufacturing in the United States has higher costs associated with it than manufacturing in a place like Russia/China (China can no longer export firearms to the United States, just every other consumer product, and Russia cannot export handguns.) So you pay more for the same quality, sometimes more for lesser quality, and often quite a bit more for better quality.
Because of this there is a middle ground met where some purchase the foreign made quality firearm and convert them with extra attention to fit and finish and decent replacement parts to meet the 10 foreign parts rule, while not having to manufacture the firearm from scratch at the higher production costs of the USA.
