And that's really it right there. It's a great scope for $1000 less than what other people have to pay. How many people would buy a Nightforce NXS for $2700? A Vortex Viper PST for $1750? A Bushnell DMR for $2500?
I grew up in a General Motors town, one of the most GM-dominated cities in the USA. A huge number of people in town could get GM cars at employee pricing, either because of their own employment at GM, a close relative, or some funny business. If you were one of them, GM cars were so cheap there was no reason to buy any other brand. If you weren't, you'd be an idiot to buy GM, because the resale value of a GM car was based on the huge number that were originally sold at employee price, so anyone who paid normal retail (even pennies over invoice) would be incredibly underwater on the value of their car. So, if it's not obvious, anyone who could get the GM price bought GM, and anyone who couldn't bought only foreign cars, which had their own market and largely sustained their resale (Ford and Chrysler competed for GM buyers so had equally bad resale).
I think this is basically what Leupold has done. Their scopes are greatly overpriced at normal retail, but on resale you're competing with people who get the special discount.
If you're eligible for the discount price on Leupold scopes they may be a good deal, even a great value. I don't begrudge you buying a Leupold if you can get the discount. But if you're not getting the discount, their higher-end scopes are probably among the worst deals on the market.
