DanS, I have been a customer of Orion for several years now and you simply cannot beat their sale prices. IMADreamer, check out your local astronomy club. Most have a buy/sell forum on their website and you can usually pick up some nice scopes at some great prices. I am the forum administrator for my astronomy club and have seen some really high dollar scopes with little use on them sell for 1/2 the retail price...or even less if it is an older scope. My club also loans out different types of scopes to members so that they can see how it works before making the investment.