Is a company says they are dropping the price on a new product that they say has the same performance and is a replacement, you have to ask yourself, how does this scope suck more?
Price dropping doesn't happen in the business world for the reasons leupold is claiming...
They have cut their lineup as far as finishes and models offered, and I'm sure they have lowered their costs, as claimed. Yes, it's true that other companies do not pass along their savings to customers. If they would, it wouldn't seem so strange.
There is another possibility- They were overcharging for the previous VX-3 line because of the many different models available. If they would have cut the models back, but made no more changes, their cost would have also gone down. But, there would have also been complaints for dropping certain models in a lineup. So, they just nix the whole lineup, introduce a new model, and only offer it in a more limited range of choices.
One thing I don't understand is how the MSRP for the 1.5-5, 2.5-8, and 3.5-10 are all the same. There is no way their cost is the same on a straight 1" tube with smaller lenses, as it is on a 40mm belled tube with larger lenses. Unless of course, again, they are basing it on expected sales volume.
