A quick (unscientific) review of the Astromart Refractor classifieds reveals that of just 116 ads, fully 10-11 of them are for 3" Stellarvue refractors. About 8 months ago I parted with my own Stellarvue 80/9D when I bought a Takahashi FS-78. At that time there were more refractors listed (220+ if memory serves) and only 3 or 4 other 3" Stellarvues available.
When the Orion 80ED arrived at just $429 to good reviews, rapidly sold out, bounced in price to $499 and then sold out again, many on these forums, including me, speculated that the 80ED could have as much of an impact on the similarly-priced 3" premium achromat segment as it would on the much pricier high end 3" APO segment. Is the high availability of 3" Stellarvues in the Classifieds evidence of Orion 80ED impact? Alternately maybe the loyal Stellarvue faithful are upgrading to the newly available Stellarvue TMB 3" units. Something to think about...
When the Orion 80ED arrived at just $429 to good reviews, rapidly sold out, bounced in price to $499 and then sold out again, many on these forums, including me, speculated that the 80ED could have as much of an impact on the similarly-priced 3" premium achromat segment as it would on the much pricier high end 3" APO segment. Is the high availability of 3" Stellarvues in the Classifieds evidence of Orion 80ED impact? Alternately maybe the loyal Stellarvue faithful are upgrading to the newly available Stellarvue TMB 3" units. Something to think about...
