Re: 200-400 dollar spotting scope
If you are spotting for yourself and not someone else.
If you are shooting with a scope and not irons.
If you are only looking to see/score your own shots.
My suggestion is to save the $$ you'd spend on a spotter, esp a cheap one, and put it into a better scope.
With a high quality 20x to 25x scope you should be able to see them w/o a spotter. I'm betting that you can probably see them with the new 5-20x SS that you can currently pick up for $999.