Why are Chinese sks so expensive now?

[u/cheddarkittyy]

I spent $450 in December 2024 for my Chinese sks. My dad just got his pal and I was looking to get one for him and it’s $850 now? What? Why did the price almost double in just over a year?

[u/iloveblackmetal]

supply and demand

[u/ant_accountant → u/iloveblackmetal]

Exactly. There was a huge influx of Chinese SKS's last year. Every dealer that imported or purchased them in bulk were competing against each other for sales.

Now available stock is dried up. Largely because the SKS remains unbanned and is still a relatively cheap shooter. Prices wont go down until another batch is brought in, and that depends on whether the Chinese have more to cycle out of their armory or not.

[u/yummybunnybear → u/ant_accountant]

Last year was probably the height of the fear of the SKS being banned too. The gubberment was originally pretty vague with what an SKS ban would look like. Since then they've "softened" up a bit to suggest just banning new purchases. So last year the stores were incentivized to move inventory out in a wary market but this year they're counting on people purchasing the SKS as a "forever semiauto" no matter the price before the hammer comes down. Of course the stores are still wary of new sales being banned by OIC at any time, but I guess this is how they've weighing the risks.

[u/Iokua_CDN → u/yummybunnybear]

I think you are right,  they were selling Sks rifles for cheap when they were afraid of it being banned and them being stuck with the inventory.

Now that it looks like the sks will remain unbanned...prices  are shooting up.

[u/Iokua_CDN → u/ant_accountant]

With the new Chinese sks rifles and the French ticklers,  I feel like they must be near run out of Sks rifles? Like how many more are actually sitting there in China still? There's latest ones seem pretty new, I can't imagine they making them much newer than those. 

[u/Ok_Reason5045 → u/Iokua_CDN]

Correct. China built SkS for military purpose not for export purpose. After type 81 came out, sks is no longer to build. French tickler was build around 1978-1980 when is around end of building history.

[u/backrollerpapertowel → u/Ok_Reason5045]

The Chinese build literally hundreds of thousands if not into the millions for export purposes. They even made models specifically to meet the needs/interests of the export markets.

The sks is one of the top most mass produced firearms in the world. It’s not running out anytime soon.

[u/SirKickBan → u/[deleted]]

This. Products don't have an inherent set value, they're 'worth' whatever price people are willing to pay.

[u/escv_69420 → u/[deleted]]

My Daddy bought a Superbird in '77 for $4000. Sold it in '80 for $6k. Now they're a million dollars and no amount of fudd complaining will make them $4k again. I don't get why people expect SKS' (or any gun no longer made) to be any different.