I don't disagree with anything that's been written here yet. There are many reasons why the price of AK's have risen. However, there is also a pattern that American shooters have toward the acceptance of Russian/East Bloc/Red Chinese firearms. When they are first imported into the US, they are derided as "commie guns", "junk". "peasant weapons" and other insulting terms. As time goes on and people show up at the range with them and gradually, some brave souls would give them a try and find out they are good firearms. Then, gradually word gets out and the prices go up because everyone wants them. I was the first guy on the block, so to speak, to show up at the range with an SKS, a Mosin-Nagant, a Makarov, AK's and a VZ-52 and old guys would walk over to my position and say "what the heck is that?" American shooters are a very conservative bunch in the sense that they aren't usually open to new types of firearms and it take awhile for them to warm to them.