Gentlemen,

I have reacently been looking to purchase a Leupold VXIII 8.5-25x50 LRT (Fine Duplex) for my .300 Remington Ultra Mag. I have noticed that while trying to "price shop" for this scope that EVERYWHERE I look it's $849.99 without exemption. I am talking probably 20 dealers online with the exact same prices. I am certianly under the impression that Leupold is fixing prices on their scopes, or at least mandating to the retailers what they must sell them for. Isn't this illegial??

I have seen them on Gunbroker from one specific individual who is selling this exact same scope for $750 NIB. He also has a good record. How does he get away with it an nobody else does? The only reason I don't snatch it up is because he is in Texas like myself and with sales tax and shipping I would end up paying just about the same if not more.

Does anyone know of any place where Leupolds are a little cheaper? I looked on the sample list and unfortunatly they don't have the exact one i'm looking for either.

Yeah, the game really changed when Leupold (recently) introduced the mandate on price listings. Since then, I have bought a lot of Zeiss Conquests....

I have had pretty decent luck finding Leupolds cheaper on eBay - although there are obviously issues buying on eBay as opposed to from a dealer. Until now, I have not experienced any problems, though, and I have surely bought 20 scopes or other optical items (not all Leupolds, though).

- mike

A manufacturer may not set a minimum selling price. This has been struck down by the courts years ago (many states used to have "Fair Trade" laws which allowed mandated retail selling prices). What a manufacturer CAN do is set a "minimum ADVERTISED price" (MAP), which is what Leupold is doing. Leupold will cease (or at least threaten to cease) selling to a dealer who advertises below it's MAP scale -- thus the reason you see the 20 identical prices. Leupold is not alone in this practice, however, as most of the higher-priced European brands also use the MAP system.

Now, if you'll go down the street to Academy Sports and Outdoors, you'll find that they have a couple of Leupolds on sale, UNadvertized, at below MAP. Unfortunately, none of these are the scope you're looking for. Academy and some other dealers will skirt the MAP by advertising "all optics 10% off", but not specifying the brand or price. Thus, if you can catch such a sale, you can buy an advertised MAP product below MAP.

The advertised offerings below MAP are typically backdoor deals in which the "authorized dealer" markets an MAP product through a "brother-in-law". In other words, the dealer will let an unauthorized dealer sell his inventory by advertising it below MAP. If the manufacturer gets wind of this arrangement, they will threaten to cut the dealer off.

If you ask the manufacturer, MAP is to protect the small dealers so that they won't be undercut by larger dealers. This excuse rings hollow in Leupold's case since Leupold started the MAP at exactly the same time they started selling through Walmart, thus making it appear that "protecting" the little guy was hardly Leupold's motive. Their motive is to maximize their own profits. Whether MAP is effective in doing this is another question, but it at least relieves some of the backpressure from dealers to cut wholesale prices.

I could have sworn that Leica had a minimum selling price..... Anyone heard this?

Try eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-LEUPOLD-VX-III-8-5-25x50-SF-MAT...Z31714QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-LEUPOLD-VX-III-8-5-25x50-LR-MAT...Z31714QQcmdZViewItem

I bought from this vendor a few times. They are Okay.

Danny

quote:

Originally posted by bulldog563:
I could have sworn that Leica had a minimum selling price..... Anyone heard this?

"Leupold is not alone in this practice, however, as most of the higher-priced European brands also use the MAP system."

PM Sent!

There's a gent at 24-hour Campfire who was retailing Leupolds and then had Leupold refuse to supply him scopes because he undersold on the regular price. There was a discussion about this a week or so ago on the optics portion of the forum. It's worth a look-see. Tom Purdom