I've always liked the older guns,unfortunately they tend dry up over time.Could some project the future availabilty of the following guns,say....3 years from now? would there be any left,and how expensive would they be.
Makarov
Lee Enfield Mk 4
SKS
I can offer what I think on the 3 listed.
Its not so much availability but the key word you already mentioned... expensive, and whether or not you want a certain variant. Plus importations which are ending every day.
Russian Makarovs are getting harder to find and East German ones come and go. Neither have been plentiful like they once were and the prices seem to jump about $100 every few years. Give or take a few bucks and Russian models are current at around $500 and East German ones at around $400. Once these dry up from C&R distributors, all thats left is sellers on auction sites, and gun shows. Unfortunately they'll be able to dictate their own price.
Regarding Enfield No4 rifles, it wasn't too long ago that they weren't available anywhere except from auction sites. Then a flood of them hit the surplus market and they can be found for around $150 to $200. US marked Savage Enfields on the other hand have started to dry up and are getting more expensive when they do show up.
Now about the SKS...
Years ago you could buy Russian and Chinese ones at Woolworths for about $50. Now you can't touch a common Russian refurb model for under $250 and some people are jacking the price of an average code 26 Norinco to about the same. Once the Yugoslavian models stop being offered from distributors, people will start selling those for that price as well.
I wouldn't be surprised to see any model SKS eventually being in the neighborhood of $500 within the next 5 years. After all thats what they Yugos were going for when they first showed up here and some people are already paying over $350 for Russians and Albanians.
Bottom line is anything semi automatic gains value quickly. Take SVT40 rifles for example that just a few years ago were $600, now they're over $800.