You must be remembering differently.
$800 SKS during 2008-2009?
$1,000 DPMS ARs?
$900 AKs?
$100 a brick of .22lr?
2012, certain gun prices came down a little bit, but not by much....
Its 2019 now and we can get $350 complete, budget, decent quality AR15s, with some models (polymer lower) being even cheaper... AKs are still $600+ though. I haven't seen SKS for less than $400 around here.
Best gun salesman we ever had, even at panic prices.