Wes350:
I think your question runs through my head each day I wake! And many good points have been stated here, however I believe the real heart of the matter lies amid two primary factors. 1. The original Mauser Sporting Rifle was a complex design that required a multitude of machining operations to produce, thus today's streamlined and automated factory manufacturing processes are not particularly well suited to this sort of production- look no further than photographs of the dizzying array of machines in the pre-war Oberndorf Mauser complex to validate this point 2.) These rifles were produced with an incredible amount of hand labor (as lancaster points out), labor that is no longer obtainable as labor has become an increasingly difficult and expensive factor of the manufacturing equation while still realizing a profit- (simply look at the outsourcing of manufacturing to Asian factories due to the inexpensive labor practices there). I believe the Original pre-war Mausers are among the very best bolt action rifles ever made- anywhere. They were produced in a very small quantity (only 127,000 complete rifles, actions and barreled actions from 1898 to the end of the Second World War) when one considers the potential output of Mauser, who made many millions of M-98 rifles for foreign and domestic military contracts. Their rarity and quality of manufacture is the reason they are so sought after and why so few (Johannson, Empire, Prechtl, Satterlee, etc.) have invested the enormous capital to recreate them. These expenses can only be passed along to the customer in order for a company to survive.