well gusy i am looking into buying my first ak first i wanted an ar but the aks seem a lot cheaper and just as good plus they can be negleclted more or so i have been told.i have seen the romainia ones for around 300 on the net. is this is good one is there anything i should know about them before hand. also what are good mags to get and where is a good place to purchase them.
thanks
james

The Romanian Sar Ak is a very good rifle.  Some things you need to look out for are the crooked front sight.  I hear the 2003 models don't have that problem as much.  

I would try to purchase one at a gunshow or dealer that way you could physically look at the sights and make sure they are straight.  Aim surplus is probably the best place to get a Sar.  

Aim Surplus also has some of the Polish steel mags for $7.95 each, which is a good price on mags.

www.aimsurplus.com

Everything you ever wanted to know about Romanian AKs:

Romanian Kalashnikov Rifles

I'm very happy with the SAR-1 (7.62 x 39) I bought from a local dealer.  The price with tax ($350.00) was the same I could have gotten by buying from AIM Surplus + shipping + FFL transfer fee, plus I was able to examine the rifle for front sight/gas block canting.

Ten mags??????? Well I guess that's a start.  AIM will reduce the price to $6.95 a pop if you buy at least ten.  Me...... I got to have more than 10 mags for a gun.

Try 10 or 20 steel mags and pick up 10 of the polymer ones too.  That will give you a good selection.

NEVER pay more than $8 bucks for a 30 round steel AK mag.  I see people paying $10 bucks for Bulgarian or East German mags.  That's just stupid.  I have got a box full of mags, and you know what? I've got mags from just about every piss ant little Com Block country (except Russia).  You know what? I can't tell you which one is EG, which is Romanian, which is Hungarian, or Bulgarian or Polish.  All I can tell you is that the mags are steel and chambered for 7.62x39mm and were made in Eastern Europe (as oppossed to Chinese mags which I can tell apart).  If I were a dishonest guy I'd buy 1,000 Hungarian mags for $5 bucks apiece and then resell them as Bulgarian mags for $10 bucks to suckers (which probably goes on all the time).

Now polymer mags are a different animal.  I have a fond place in my heart for polymer mags and will pay more for them.  The Polish polymer mags that AIM has are nice.  Nice enough to get 10 or 20 of them anyway.  I don't like them as much as the Bulgarian mags, but still they have a place in my mag pile.  Buy some while you can.  You never know if import restrictions will get better or worst (even if the AW ban sunsets).

Bulgarian polymer mags are truly built differently though and are tougher.  The old steel mags were all built Soviet Mil-Spec so there really aren't significant differences in any of them.  That system of conformity had broken down by the time polymer mags rolled out.  And there is no "mil-spec" uniformity between the former com-block countries anymore.

But polymer is polymer and it's good to have 10 or 20 of them. It's good to have 10 or 20 of the Polish ones too.  Get 'em while you can. Guns will always be for sale.  Mags? Who knows.