[Wavytone]

Reminds me of my DIY experiments long ago when I had a box of assorted surplus lenses I acquired for next to nought.

A couple of MgF coated 30mm binocular objectives (plano-convex doublets) arranged convex-to-convex with their flat sides facing out made a startlingly good classic 40mm Plossl. Inserting a third coasted plano-convex doublet in the middle with the convex side facing the sky also made a pretty darn good eyepiece though the eye relief was very short. Note these doublets were all coated, although rejects from binocular assemblies.

Likewise you could buy some smaller doublets from SurplusShed.com and make your own Plossls which would easily outdo the Meade MA eyepieces... but the downside is those won't be anti-reflection coated so the light losses will be horrendous (about 60% transmission).

But these days the old Meade MA eyepieces really are rubbish ... take a close look at the plastic field lens and I'd bet it wasn't antireflection coated, which is why it scratches so easily. In comparison $50 buys a very nice (fully coated) product from China. My last buy was a Prostar 38mm 70 degree affair in a 2" barrel, which cost a whopping $49. Awesome eyepiece for the money.

IMHO there is no reason to pay the TeleVue Tax if you do some research.