Benmore Peak Observatory

Recently I have been contacted by several people interested in obtaining
telescopes or binoculars. Often they have been browsing online auction
sites and have questions about the items they have viewed there.

A word of caution is in order: many, if not most, of the items available
on such sites are either of extremely poor quality, or are grotesquely
overpriced, or both, unfortunately.

As an example, one unscrupulous seller is claiming the items they are
selling - in this particular case, large binoculars - are "premium" grade
and asking for ten times the current American retail price!

These items are most certainly not "premium" grade. They are usually
anything but high quality, and often so bad as to be essentially unusable.

Caveat emptor.