This is the first time ive commented on these Type 81's.
I have to say, how glad I am I didn't get one! I saw theme come up for presale and was like OH GOD I need that.... Then thinking, and said that's really just a fancy SKS.... Then decided if I was going to spend over $1000 I would just get a Mini-30....
Looks like a made the right decision, these things look like they were build by my 5 year old son.
Yes with rugers you have to buy a stiffer hammer spring, but the rest is very high quality.
I honestly think some very shaddy people made a lot of money preying on the gun community, knowing we go nutz over a "ALMOST AK". I think we all know that if they were on the LGS racks and you could check it out before buying it, all of us we say
"WTF $1000+ for this?" and ill get the SKS and 1 Duckbill mag please.
My take on them is that if they were just sitting on the shelf at the LGS I'd pay around $600-$700 for one. What we paid extra for was the limited numbers coming into the country and like you said the almost AK.
I know I paid a couple hundred more than it's "worth" but to me we should all know by now these days that with guns and pretty much everything else out there you don't pay what it's worth, you pay what it costs if it's something you want.
Do you really think your $60,000 pick-up truck is "worth" that much? No, it costs that much because no matter how high they raise the price, as long as they offer low interest financing people will be stupid enough to pay it. Did it cost the guy that built your house $500,000 to build it? No, it cost him $200,000 and the market supports charging $500,000 for that house in that neighborhood so that's what it costs.
Our market is the same, we have some very impulsive people with lots of disposable income who jump on a pre-order without knowing anything about what they are buying other than being told it will be non restricted and maybe shown a picture and they stand there with a handful of money waiting to be told how much it's going to cost. This is one of the reasons I refuse to do pre-orders and why I waited for these to clear customs before I put my money down. I was going to buy the M10x but between the price hike and the CEO's comments about supplementing poor US sales with a price jack for Canada rifles I just moved on and found this for less money and it looked AK'ish

.
Am I happy with my purchase? Yes, it's a relatively inexpensive firearm that so far (for me anyway) has worked perfectly and since to me it's just a x39 bullet hose that's more fun to shoot than an SKS it does what I wanted it to do. I have way nicer firearms but this one can be tossed in the back of the truck, drug through the mud, dropped, scratched, whatever and I'm not going to get upset. I can't say the same about my ACR, AR180B, or other NR black rifles. It's a $1000 beater and it's reliable (so far).