Curioisty question

[Greasemonkey]

Since about May or so I have been watching, looking etc. In my bi or tri weekly trips to maybe 6 or 7 shops and watching a local buy/sell trader site, the number of SKSs have really diminished, and even virtually vanished. In 4/5 months I've seen maybe, a dozen, and thats a stretch(mostly over priced in my book and sold real quick) on the local trader board and 4 in shops. Even a cursory check of GunBroker once and a while only pulls maybe 3 at a time within the state. Aks and ARs are a plenty, Mini 14s and Mini 30s are a plenty, but the SKS locally in general has gone poof. I have been through 4 gunshows as well @ 8 bucks a pop(with $1 off coupons ) just to satisfy my curiosity, 2 were even semi local, an hour plus drive, and I saw 2 at one show and 1 at another. There was also 2 at a local estate auction house, a badly bubbaed Chinese and Yugo, someone really wanted @ $700 a pop. I've even looked on Armslist once or twice   the result was pretty much the same.

Now a year ago, they popped up fairly regularly, usually as trade fodder, occasional collector oddity or just a generalized flip and dump to make a quick buck. Two even three years ago, I could leave the house and come home with 2 dozen various makes and models, but now, it's hardly nothing.
Is everyone just sitting on them? Fear of the upcoming events? Where they all at? Obviously GB moves some with 101 Chinese and 45 Russians, but that used to be just a fraction of the private, behind the dumpster sales I'd guess, now that seems the only game in town and only place you can find them.

So is it a locality thing, I mean Va aint a balls to the wall gun strict state(yet ), is it a regional thing or some kind of supply/demand sales cycle I never noticed before or what, where did they all vanish too?

[Phosphorus32]

Interesting question. I don't see many around here either.  So let the hand-waving commence 

1.  It could be that people who only have one or two SKSs may be holding onto them for now. An internal 10 round mag seems like a safe bet to be "legal" in the long term for those worried about new "assault weapons" or magazine capacity limiting legislation.

2.  The surplus Chinese SKSs are just about dried up. SOG (64 remaining) and J&G (565 remaining) are the only ones I see with Type 56s in stock and they're listed at $50-100 more than the ones I bought at retail 2-3 years ago. With that decrease in supply, those people who bought a few cheap ones with a plan to sell the rest are no longer selling. Yugoslavian M59/66s are still available but they're pricey enough at about $425 that not many people are buying more than one.  If they have any eye on the market they know they won't  be able to flip them, so no reason to order more than they want.  So that's not a source of local private sale stock either.

[Loose}{Cannon]

I dunno...  Only one shop I ever stop at every once in a while, and he always has a few and never the same guns.

[John Galt]

This is a really interesting question.  I know that in all the gun shows and pawn shops I've been too in the last 2 years or so only produce an occasional sks.  In MI and WI, pawn shops, sks's made up half the gun selection. 

[padams8888]

I haven't seen one in our pawn shops in a couple years....no kidding. A LGS had 3 Russians and 1 Chinese about 6 months back....hit and miss around here.

[Greasemonkey]

2.  The surplus Chinese SKSs are just about dried up. SOG (64 remaining) and J&G (565 remaining) are the only ones I see with Type 56s in stock and they're listed at $50-100 more than the ones I bought at retail 2-3 years ago. With that decrease in supply, those people who bought a few cheap ones with a plan to sell the rest are no longer selling. Yugoslavian M59/66s are still available but they're pricey enough at about $425 that not many people are buying more than one.  If they have any eye on the market they know they won't  be able to flip them, so no reason to order more than they want.  So that's not a source of local private sale stock either.

I have thought about this.. in the past few months I've rooted around and dug up Garands, M1903s, M1917s, M1Carbines, even K98s and other style Mausers, K11-K31s and Finnish/Russian Mosins, even a CETME and a FN49 and many others, some of those have not been imported in many years but now, show up more than an SKS. Even the odd stuff like a MAS 45 22 trainer I can dig up. But heaven to Betsy.. not an SKS

As common as they are or as they once were, and at least I'm not the only one seeing it.....sounds like they have pretty much gone incognito

1.  It could be that people who only have one or two SKSs may be holding onto them for now. An internal 10 round mag seems like a safe bet to be "legal" in the long term for those worried about new "assault weapons" or magazine capacity limiting legislation.

I would have thought if it were a fear factor, the "assault weapons" would have become more scarce and prices would have sky rocketed on them, even on high capacity magazines and their accessories to hide, stash and tuck away in those neither regions people think officials wont look. If anything, what I see is they have gotten more reasonable in price in the past few months, it's more laid back which to me, is quite the opposite of a pending election with whats on the line this go around, especially when you compare it to the feeding frenzy buying spree of last 2 elections. Even thus far, the ammo supply seems still reasonable and intact.