Excellent point, it's not fair, and I did not mean to infer that this is my preferred practice. However, the store's price far exceeded my means and I thought the scopes were overpriced. My only means of retribution was to join the New Jersey Audubon Society, as a "donation" and buy about $100 worth of books that I could have got for a lot less at Amazon.com. A minor compensation, I admit. I could bring up the free enterprise argument, but I guess I'll just forget about applying for sainthood. Parke. Phil Davis <PDavis@ix.netcom.com> on 11/20/99 12:15:44 AM Please respond to mdosprey@ARI.Net To: mdosprey@ARI.Net cc: (bcc: Parke H John/WLGORE) Subject: Retail vs. Mail-Order [was: Re: [MDOsprey] Spotting Scopes] Been on travel ... catching up on messages ... At 07:37 AM 11/16/1999 -0500, Parke John wrote: > I recently purchase a Leica APO-TELEVID 77 . > Because I was confused by all the advise I was getting on spotting > scopes, >I went to the New Jersey Audubon's: Center for Research and Education , >Cape May >Court House, NJ 08210, 609-861-0700, which is on Rt. 47 near Goshen. I >compared >all the top brands. I lined them up and compared apples to apples right there >on their deck. (snip) > I purchase the scope from one of the photography warehouses in New York; >Adorama. (save a few hundred $) Parke, et al. - I dunno ... this bothers me. As the former co-owner of a "wild bird store", does everyone think this is fair? Specifically, the scenario in question is to go to a "nature store" whose owners pay good money to keep expensive inventory (like 77mm spotting scopes) in stock; and has rent and utilities to pay; salaries to pay for people to set up the scopes, answer questions, etc.; to use their equipment for comparison shopping; pick what you like; and then go and mail order the item from a discount house? If people want to buy discount, that's fair, but to "use" a retail store for comparisons and then not buy from them seems unfair to me. Thoughts? Phil ================================================ Phil Davis home: PDavis@ix.netcom.com Davidsonville, Maryland USA work: PDavis@OAO.com Greenbelt, Maryland USA ================================================