Well, personally, I believe alot of the time you pay for what you don't need when it comes to scopes. Look, is it wise to spend 25 bucks on a no name scope and then expect it to work? No, but you needn't spend a ridiculous amount either. You can go to Wal-Mart and get perfectly servicable Simmons scopes for under the 150.00 mark, and for alot of applications, they will be ideal, especially if you are just looking for a target/light hunting scope. If I were going to go on a once in a lifetime trip for Kodiak bears, or Big Horn Sheep, or Bongo, or Lion or something like that, you can bet the farm that I am gonna spend the money (or, ideally, find a super good deal used) on a really, really good scope, because I am paying for reliability and ruggedness as much, if not more, than I am paying for the optics. For popping tin cans, paper and squirrels, I personally think its dumb to spend more than 150.00, and to take that logic further, I think its dumb to even spend that much when you can find good used scopes for even cheaper. Matter of fact, I will even go so far as to say that if your patient and not under any sort of time crunch, its possible to find some really outstanding optics on the pawnshop/ebay/garage sale circuit for unbelievable prices. My dad bought a shepard scope at a pawnshop for under a hundred bucks (I can't remember now exactly what he paid for it, but it might have even been for under 50 bucks) simply because they didn't know what they had.