Reply #194: I think $100 is about the going rate internationally for an AK-47... [View All]

someone could probably smuggle one in from Central America disguised as a routine cocaine shipment for under a thousand, I'd expect (that'd leave room for 900% profit), but there'd be no way to legally possess or sell it, unlike a pre-'86. The price is so high because there are very, very few pre-'86 civilian transferable AK-47's--the registry was closed well before the Cold War ended, after all--and because of the fixed supply, there is a constant bidding war among collectors who want one.

A non-automatic civilian AK-47 variant goes for about $400 (I own one, paid $379 in 2003), even though they cost about the same to manufacture as the real thing; the difference between $400 and $15,000 is the demand vs. supply thing. It only applies to the civilian market, though; if a police department or the military wanted a real AK-47, they could get one for the same price as a non-automatic civilian model, as the 1986 ban does not apply to them.