I have a pre ban Norinco 56s-3 that I bought in 1989. It is an early import without any markings other than the serial numbers and "7.62 China" and "IACO Sac CA" on either side of the barrel. Here is the thing; I bought it to shoot. I have put 2000+ rounds through it over the years. At this point do I put it in the safe and stop shooting it based on the market price for these rifles? I have taken good care of it (except for a crack in the upper handguard, but that story is on another thread)and it is all original. Also, I have no immediate plans of selling it. My thought was to purchase a WASR for the range and leave this one alone. What say you?

Put it in the safe. Pre bans are more like investments now. I don't shoot any of mine. Buy a WASR and shoot the crap out of it since there are a billion of them out there. I prefer Arsenals as shooters.

I still shoot my valmet.     19th century colts are what you put in the safe, or unhandled series 70 1911's in the box





break-fee will make the chinese rifle perfect again, IMO





but yeah, buy more AKs.    Kind of like boots, if you have enough to spread out, they will all last forever
ETA: just realized yours isn't the thumbhole like mine, I have the blued chinese ak's, yours prob cooler    (but I still shoot my hk91 from same time period)

I have shot an early bakelite 56S marked like yours, but plan to wear out my Poly spiker.

I would say just shoot it. If you have already fired 2k thru it, it is basically a shooter grade firearm now. it will never have the value that virgin NIB polys are bringing now days. I'm seeing crazy prices as high as $2700 for NIB rifles

I agree.....shoot it. I have 3 pre ban Chicoms and shoot all of them.

AIRBORNE!!!!!

Yeah I guess I overlooked the 2000+ rounds you have through it already. Might as well enjoy it at this point.

Shoot it, enjoy it, clean it up good, your rifle will keep looking good and give you years of enjoyment.

Even if it was NIB, I'd say shoot the thing.  

AK-47 values, regardless of the make, model or country of origin, are artificially inflated in this country.  Why?  Because our Govt strictly regulates their import, or in many cases, bans their import.

Our wonderful NIB Chinese AKs are worth a carton of milk just about anywhere else in the world.

Yes, today they are worth a lot here because we can't get them but guess what...you could stick that in a safe hoping it will be worth thousands someday, and tomorrow with a stroke of a pen it could be worth the $200 or less that it sold for before it was banned.

So I say shoot them.  Enjoy them as intended.  Because these rifles will never be worth much.  If the ban is ever dropped, the value disappears entirely.  If the ban is never dropped, or tightened to stop Romy AKs and such, American manufacturers will start to build them 100% here.  The price of those will be high but the quality will likely be good, and again, your pre-ban Chinese will only be valuable to a small subset of hardcore collectors who want an inferior product that is "legit".

Shoot em.  Have fun.  If it were truly a "rare" rifle, or historically significant, then by all means sock it away.  These are neither.

My 2 cents.

Totally agree.I shot all my preban Chicom's,thats what they were built to do,shoot and enjoy them.

I agree that you should  shoot any rifle.  Two issues though -
One: The ban will never be dropped. Don't even dream about that.  It will only be made tighter, so prices will increase for an "inferior" Chinese preban AK.
Two: A 100% American made AK will be very, very expensive, again driving up the prices of an "inferior" Chinese preban AK.  
Either way the value of the "inferior" preban Chinese AK will only increase.

I'm gonna disagree.

1) Never say never.  Favorable administration, you never know.  This ban is one trade agreement (i.e. we'll stop being oppressive bastards or stop putting lead in all your kiddie toys if you wipe away the imprort restrictions on our guns) from vanishing.
2) A 100% American made AK can only be so expensive.  Even a 100% American made AK will still be cheaper than an AR.  The receiver is stamped and there is no mil-spec to worry about...cheaper, period.  Hell, most AKs you buy today are US receivers.  What's left to build...barrels and trunnions?  No problem.  So if you can get a AR for, or under $1,000 today at some point (probably soon) a company is going to offer the 100% made in America AK for less than $1,000.  So how much can your Chinese AK go up in value, if they are already going for $800 in a lot of spots?  The answer is, they won't.  There aren't enough collectors who are so anal about authenticity to drive up the price of a Chinese AK.

The price of these guns, maybe goes up a little over time, but you have to ask yourself if a couple hundred extra is worth not firing it and enjoying it.  I say no, especially when you factor in inflation etc.  All you've done at the end of the day is deny yourself the pleasure of firing your weapon.

Favorable administrations have already enacted parts of the current bans.  It would be great but your fooling yourself if you think the bans will ever go away.

Receives are a price of cake.  Tooling up to forge then machine carriers, bolts, sight bases, gas blocks on a large scale is expensive. There is a reason none of that is made in America now, too expensive.   AR's have been made in America since the early 60's so they have had a lot of time to perfect the process and make it cheap.  

Prices on preban AK's is continuing to climb.  Supply and demand, demand it there but the supply is gone.  

Plus I don;t know if I could buy a AK made in America.  It would be like buying a AR made in China, just ain't right.

Another facet that would make it interesting is the Russians believe they still have worldwide rights to the design. If a US maker tooled up to make enough to satisfy US demand and possibly export, they would put pressure to have it stopped.

I have two Chinese prebans, should sell one, but cannot decide which to part with. If prices spike around the election I will be hard pressed to hang onto both.

I have a Polytech spiker that was a high school graduation gift from my dad in 1987 (my first ak).  Although i dont shoot it as much as in years past, i still like to get it out occasionally and run a few mags through it. In my opinion, ak's were made to shoot, so i think you should just enjoy it!!

Thanks for all the input folks. I finally got some decent pics, so here she is;
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6782843525_8f6af38a30_b.jpg

Nice rifle, looks a lot like mine. :)

Very nice Chicom's.Shoot em and enjoy them.If you dont someone else will someday.

Not trying to start a fight but it is worth debating.

So the question remains tho, reasonably how much would anyone be willing to spend on a Chinese rifle?  Someone will begin to manufacture 100% American AKs if imports entirely dry up.  It isn't a matter of if, it is when.  The demnd will be there, so someone will build them.  Even if the Russian feel they own the rights, they'll simply pay the rights fee to do it.  The rifle still wouldn't...couldn't match the price of an AR if built here.

So while you might not want to buy an American AK, reasonably how much more would you spend for the stamp all other things being equal?

That's my point. If even an American AK can be built at AR or below prices (around $1 to $1.2K) then realistically a Chinese NIB is just not going to go for much more than that.  Especially knowing the premium isn't for a rare gun....there are literally millions of Chinese AKs in the world.  Also, not considering it was be a remarkably easy gun to, if it were valuable, to fake.  Take a home build receiver and fake the Norinco stamps...can any expert really tell the difference what with the myriad variations of these weapons?

Sorry, I just don't ever see these rifles being worth much more than they are now, and certainly not significantly more...so it just isn't worth storing them long term for value's sake.

Without debating every point,   here is my opinion......I dont want a   American AK.......  you can make  as many as you want and and for as cheap as you can....you could put a " fake " stamp on in ,  carve  norinco on it ,  whatever.....i still dont want it,  and it still will NOT effect prices of preban chinese AK's ....... and remember  there maybe be millions of Chinese AK's in the world,  but there are NOT Millions here,    finite amount of legally imported Chinese AK's here already......  and you can hold your breath if you want to ,   but there will be no more imported.......As much as you  cannot accept it,  this is a " Collectible "    yes i said it,  a gun made 30 years ago is already a        " collectible"  .......    To each  his own  i would NEVER fault anyone for collecting  or shooting what they like...... Preban Chinese AK,  WASR frankenstein  or U.S.  AK  !!!    

Joezeta

If the supply of AK were to dry up, then the price of all AK’s will sky rocket.  

Your point is confusing.  You say people will not pay more than $1000 for a preban Chinese rifle if someone makes an AK in America that also costs about $1000.  Why?  Currently we have a huge supply of $400 dollar rifles coming in from Romania and $750 rifles from Russia and people are more than willing to pay $2000 or more for a preban Chinese rifle.   Why would the price suddenly drop if an AK was produced here?  I see the price increasing even more.  

There are reasons all preban rifles cost more 1) they are preban – legal to own in current ban states, 2) no 922 compliance to worry about, 3) they are no longer being imported to the US.  

There may be millions of Chinese rifles worldwide but 99.9% are illegal here and cannot be brought into America.   In the US preban Chinese AK’s are relatively rare compared to other AK’s.   They have not been imported since 1989 in full preban configuration.

I also disagree that it would be remarkably easy to fake a preban Chinese rifle.  If it was, someone would have done it already.  There is a lot of subtle difference in Chinese rifles that would be difficult to copy and make a fake easy to spot.  It would take a lot more than a Norinco stamp.  Plus I’m not aware of anyone making an aftermarket Chinese 1.5mm receiver.  Correct front sight bases and gas block are pretty much not existent.   I’m not an expert and I’m pretty sure I could spot a fake Chinese rifle easily.

We only need to look at history - In 1985 no one would have ever thought a crappy $400 Chinese rifle would be highly regarded and sell for over $2000 today.   Who would have thought a $70 Chinese SKS would sell for $350-400 today?  

It isn't so much that I want an American AK or a Chinese AK; I want a quality AK. All else being equal I'd buy domestic every time.

I don't care if the price goes up or not but since the supply is fixed to slightly diminishing, and population is increasing, I don't see demand waning. I doubt anyone will sell a nicely blued AK new in the next 10 years.

I say baby it & shoot it occasionally but don't make it into a bullet whore.

The price of them will only go up due to the permanent ban which will never go away. The golden age for AK's here in the US was the late 1980's.
They are authentic, very well made Ak47's made by the red commie bastards themselves hence the collect-ability aspect,...anything else is a clone. (with the exception of the other pre-ban imported Ak variants such as Mitchell Arms Yugos etc..)

why are 1960 gibson les pauls or fender  strats,  or 1960 corvettes going for so much money when there are  so many other well made guitars and sport cars being made?


they are collectible but not great investments: If you want a good investment by gold or invest in the market

Shoot it!

clean it up and store it.

Or sell it and buy two arsenals.

AK's have gone up because the dollar has gone down. The carton of milk analogy is nonsense, Chinese AK's bring a premium price anywhere in the world because they are considered the best! They may be outlawed by our government making it so you couldn't sell one at any price, but drugs are illegal too, yet easy to get. An AK is an AK, most of the high prices are due to rare variations, or early importers bringing in limited numbers, so your paying for a name.

They will always be worth more than a domestic made AK. The only way they will lose value is if the ban goes away and I wouldn't count on that.

It doesn't matter if only collectors would buy it, there is enough out there where someone will always buy it.

$ 800 ?? You are out of touch with the prices of pre ban AK's. They are already well above that. With the national market you gain with the internet they will never be hard to sell either.

You might get a beat up Norinco for 800, even that is a decent deal. Nice Polytech Spikers have been going for 1400-1500 on gunbroker lately. Legends much more.

I wouldn't use GB as a price point, lots of over-priced guns on there that linger for months and months never getting sold, just re-listed at higher prices.

I am talking about ones that sold not overpriced ones.

I only base it on completed listings.

The out of touch with reality sky high ones are much higher than I discussed earlier.

The people that think a nice Chinese pre ban is an 800 gun have not kept up with the times.

A Sile just sold on GB for $1925, new in the box.

Shoot it.
I have several polytechs and shoot them all.
Guns were made to shoot. If their value is high that should be because they are a good shooter.
And like someone else said, they will go up, so even after shooting it you will easily keep your investment and probably 99% make money on it as an investment.

Sold my Polytech factory 416 double folder to a guy at work for $1800 cash.Nice examples bring in the top money.
I was offered $900 for my Polytech MAK 90  386 factory stamped rifle the other day.Im keeping that one.

I seen that. There was a pair of 56S's that went for about 2500 and 3000 too. I don't think that is quite the norm yet, but hey that guy got it.

I can't believe the prices that pre-bans are getting on GoBroker! Even MAK-90's are commanding almost $1000, WTH is going on?

Put it in the safe. . when you go shooting get it out and shoot the heck out of it. . clean it and put back in safe. . .repeat as necessary. I anguished over the same thing when I traded into my Polytech plant 386 Galil sidefolder. .man these guns are made to shoot. . feed it. . its hungry. . its begging to bite into primer caps and create happiness. . feed it now. . .I thought about selling mine and even sent an email or two on WTB threads. . but I'm keepin it. . .those other AK's work. . . dont get me wrong. .but the accuracy from the heavier barrels and thicker receivers is far superior to the garden variety euro Ak's. .you can tell how much better the quality is just by feeling how much smoother the slide racks. . pre-ban chicom's have all the beauty of the prom queen. . and are more dependable than the good ole girl next door. After spending time with my Chicom going back to Euro Ak's thrown together on US receivers or even back to another converted Maadi ARM (which was a damn good gun) like I had before would be like making out with an ugly woman. . it might work. .  but it aint the same and you sure as hell dont want to let your friends see you do it. ..