What is a fair price for a used Vari-X III 2.5-8 in good shape? There are ring marks, but nothing that bothers me.
Much depends on what generation of vari-x-iii it is. The quality of the optics improved over time and old models, obviously, aren't as good and aren't as worth much as the last of the vari-x-iii models. You can tell the year of production by the letter prefix (or suffix) on the scope's serial number:
The Leupold Answer Guide
Age of a scope
Beginning in 1974, Leupold began letter coding riflescope serial numbers. All scopes produced during that year had the letter E as a prefix to the serial number. The next year the letter code was advanced to F, and so on through the alphabet. The letters I,O, and Q, were skipped so that they wouldn't be confused with numbers. When we reached Z in 1992 we started over at the beginning of the alphabet with letter A. This time we used a suffix. At this writing, in 2002, we are in letter code K.
74 E
75 F
76 G
77 H
78 J
79 K
80 L
81 M
82 N
83 P
84 R
85 S
86 T
87 U
88 V
89 W
90 X
91 Y
92 Z
Letter is now a suffix
93 A
94 B
95 C
96 D
97 E
98 F
99 G
00 H
01 J
02 K
03 L
04 M
05 NThat information is directly from Leupold's website.
Anyway, all of that being said if the scope you are looking at is one of the newer vari-x-iii's then I would guess that the market price for it is between $250 and $275 in a face-to-face transaction.
Some people are paying $300+ which amazes me. The new VX-II's have the same lens coating as the old vari-x-iii's. There is no reason to pay more money for a vari-x-iii than a VX-II. Once everyone understands how much the VX-II has been improved, the vari-x-iii market will take a dive.
There used to be quite a few good buys to be had on eBay for VX-III's because many people give them the same value as the vari-x-iii. You would see a vari-x-iii 1.5-5 sell for $280 and then see a VX-III in the same model go for the same money. People are catching on now, but it's still not uncommon to see vari-x-iii scopes sell for $300+.