I am wondering how places like Atlantic Firearms have/ (had now) converted Siagas for under $900. As I said in my first post I am kicking myself because I could have gotten the Russian CAK132 for under $900 before this whole ban mess happened. I am having a tough time understanding how the conversion parts cost so much. I understand that the Saigas have gone up in price but I don't understand how the conversion would be so much.
A big part of it is that Atlantic and similar outfits can buy bulk quantities of parts at wholesale prices in order to bring their overall costs down. For example, most AK's on the market now use Tapco G2 FCG's. Tapco doesn't sell G2 FCG's directly to the public but rather through distributors like Midway or Brownell's. These distributors then mark up the price of the FCG and sell it to the public. Atlantic, or any other large operation, most likely buys their parts directly from Tapco and thus "cuts out the middleman" or perhaps more accurately becomes the middleman so that they don't have to pay the distributor's markup. Likewise, I'm sure Tapco gives a significant discount to someone wanting to buy several thousand G2's than someone just wanting one or two.
Also, 922r factors into the equation too. Since 1989, it has been illegal to import and sell a complete AK rifle unless it is modified to a "non-assault weapon" sporter configuration like an unconverted Saiga. All non-sporter AK's legally sold in the U.S. since that time have had a certain number of specific parts replaced with U.S.-made parts in order to become, legally, U.S.-made guns. This law has created a situation which makes U.S.-made parts more desirable and thus more expensive than imported parts because, for the most part, they don't have to compete with the cheaper prices of the imported parts.
Also, some of the specific compliance parts are easier to swap than others. A large firm like Atlantic which is doing hundreds or thousands of conversions is likely already set up with the proper equipment and technicians to make replacing a part like a barrel or gas piston no big deal, but you or I doing so with hand tools in our garage is quite another matter entirely. The producers of U.S.-made compliance parts know this and thus the more easily replaceable parts like furniture and FCG's are sold at a premium because there is more demand for them.
Finally, while I don't know about Atlantic specifically, you do have to be somewhat careful about pre-converted rifles if you want to be able to use surplus magazines. Magazine bodies, followers, and floorplates count as compliance parts and some commercial converters use U.S.-made followers and floorplates, or even entire magazines, to get them under the magic number of imported parts. While this makes the rifles legal to sell, the moment you or I inserts an imported magazine without these compliance parts into the gun we have, in the eyes of the law, manufactured an illegally imported assault weapon and are now felons. One of the advantages of a 7.62x39 AK, as I see it, is the wide availability and low price of surplus magazines so doing a Saiga conversion that cannot legally use surplus mags makes little sense to me.
Like I said before, if you're not worried about having a rifle set up just like a Russian military AK (sans the select-fire capability of course) you can get something relatively close to an AK for a fairly reasonable price through a Saiga Conversion. All I did to mine was basically convert it from the sporter stock to a fixed stock and pistol grip by adding a U.S.-made stock, pistol grip, trigger, hammer, and disconnector. My conversion gives me a rifle which is more compact, and to my mind useful, than the sporter configuration it came in without excessive expense and I'm still legal to use either SGM Tactical U.S.-made mags or the original Russian-made mags. If, however, I wanted a rifle set up like a true military AK, I'd just buy a rifle already set up that way because it would probably cost the same or less than converting a sporter-configuration Saiga and I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of converting it myself.