Back in the mid to late 90's, the Garand was the cheap affordable milsurp.
At the Calgary Gun Show (and at many dealers in the Gunrunner Paper), there were crates of SKS's there for $99.00
and racks of M1 Garands for $99.00 just to show you how they were priced.
You can thank Greed, the SPR movie, the BoB Series, the Gotta have it Now mentality and syndrome,
and You dressed up in your 101st Airborne costume!!! LOL, ePay and the Internet for the inflated prices.
Supply, Demand and Desperation.
Desperation is an emotional state in which a person feels a situation to be hopeless and without satisfactory options.