[carguychris]

The Russian commercial IJ-70 variants were sold by a wide variety of brand names, including IMEZ, Izhmash, Baikal, Big Bear Arms, and KBI. Most of the pistols are more or less mechanically identical, although some may have "target" grips (see above) and all but a few have an adjustable rear sight, which has somewhat of a bad reputation because it's fragile and tends to break off if the pistol is dropped.

Double-stack Makarovs were usually labeled IJ-70-18AH or -17AH and were sold with a 12rd or 10rd mag depending upon whether the AWB was in force when they were imported. The double-stack mag is a 2-into-1 column design to allow the use of a standard slide, so the top end of the gun is the same size as a standard Mak, but the grip frame is much thicker. Other than the less CCW-friendly grip size, the main problem with the double-stack guns is spare mag availability; most of the guns were apparently sold with a single mag and the importers didn't sell many spares, so spare mags are scarce and command high prices on the auction websites. OTOH the single-stack pistols all take the same mags, regardless of whether they're military or commercial, and spares are cheap and readily available.

The commercial versions are generally less expensive than the military ones, but prices have risen over the last few years and closed the gap somewhat; these guns used to sell for $120-$150, but values have climbed into the $250 range as it's become clear that the pipeline of new ones has probably been shut down permanently.