Has anyone else noticed how the quality of surplus steel mags has gone way down recently? In recent months, I have ordered mags from 3 different vendors.  All of them have adds claiming the mags are in "excellent" condition. Of the 12 mags i ordered, 2 of them would qualify as excellent, 3 would fall into the good category, 5 would go into the fair category with very little finish on them and minor dents, and the remaining 2 are totally unuseable with major dents that prevent the followers from working. The point is, why do they advertise for "excellent" quality mags, when most dont even come close to that category?

Ever order some french fries, and notice the bottom of the container has a bunch of small, crappy, burnt pieces-parts?

Same thing here.  The companies bought pallets of these mags and most likely were selling the "nice" ones first off the top.  After the scare, they were sold down to the remaining scraps of mags.  Hopefully panic buyers will clear out these and new shipments will be coming in soon.  Pricing may be higher but at least the quality should be back on par.

And the websites will always have the same descriptions......

Just my opinion though.

I bought twenty recently and they were not as nice as in the past . I will give you that , You have to think that like all surplus it runs out at some point

I finally get another 7.62 AK and mags get harder to find...awesome.

I ordered 10 "new" Mags from Exile Machine (site industry partner) for $13.25 ea and three had mangled floor plates and one had pitting. Most had.dents and dings , not my idea of new condition. To be fair they have offered to refund the worst ones .

Ordered 20 used mags from Apex for $9 each and while some have surface.rust will actually be better mags once cleaned up.

Point is its a crap shoot  , I just wish they would  figure out a better grading system and  describe them more accurately.

Its deception pure and simple.  Has nothing to do with the grading system.

the great stockpiles of 7.62x39 magazines peaked at the end of the cold war...   they had to run low at some point.   The ones I commonly see now look like garbage compared to the ones I bought in the late 90s.   However, they still mostly work.

At least there seem to good USA made alternatives that also help with the 922 count.  So you have that.