I figure the price of a cherry Thompson, minus a select-fire AR-15 or two, is still very much above five thousand. And sometimes they're finding five or so vintage transferables at once.
Yeah, but opportunities like that are rare and rapidly getting rarer. Such that there are often only one to three class three's in a state.
Meanwhile, if new machine guns were legal, they'd be able to sell a whole lot more of them.
Besides, a 'cherry' original run thompson is going to be $$$ even if new machine guns become legal. They're antiques, famous, well built, in the movies left and right... They're a collector's item.