Cbarnard52@aol.com wrote: > > I am seriously contemplating buying a field scope from one of the discount > houses in NYC and I wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts good or bad on > the following stores. I got these names out of a recent issue of Popular > Photography: Dear Cbarnard52: Since you don't indicate where you live, it's a little difficult to direct you to good MD merchants near you, which gets us to the real question....which is.... why try to save a few pennies when there are good local merchants who will give fair prices, and to whom you can turn for learning, support, and back-up if/when something goes wrong? Case in point: I got the best possible deal around for my Swarovski scope at the local Wild Bird Center, and.....are you ready for this?....when it was delivered from Swarovski with a large white hair between the front lenses, WBC was there to give me an on-the-spot exchange (....and no doubt some QC person in Austria was severely reprimanded.) If everybody buys from NYC, Walmart, etc, pretty soon there won't be anyone in business locally from whom we can learn, compare, and be assured of knowledgable support and follow-up. IMNSHO, buy shade-grown, and support your local birdingmonger. Yours for better birding, David Strother Bethesda, Maryland dstrother@pop.dn.net