I think you were lucky drawing a good one. Back in the late '80s a gun shop near me had a sale on Chinese SKSs. They kept a barrel of them out on the floor and let them go for $60 a pop, complete with bayonet. I would look them over carefully and choose the best one I could find. Still, I wound up buying four of them before I got one that could shoot straight. Some of the others were astonishingly inaccurate. The one I kept is a good rifle and very well balanced. I doubt that many people have the time or opportunity to search for a good one as I did, so there are probably a lot of duds out there.
Rats, I gave $45 to much!