This is part 2 of my "praise for suppliers" through my own (fairly) recent purchasing experiences!
AOE is often recommended here on IceInSpace as one of the best suppliers of binoculars that are well suited at astronomy, and at very reasonable prices. I just wanted to relate my own experience and confirm their reputation!
I was after a set of fairly large bino's as a combined Christmas/Birthday gift for my brother - he lives outside Alice Springs so he has wonderful skies but is sadly equipment challenged (his only observing hardware being an old pair of dusty & well worn 7x50's that he got 2nd hand around 15-20 years ago).
I had found a set of 20x bino's on AOE's clearance page that would fit the bill perfectly, and at a bargain price, so I sent an order in. This was a Monday from memory.
I received an email from Raff at AOE a day or so later explaining that this particular clearance item had in fact cleared - on the Friday immediately before I sent my order in! I thought to myself "Them's the breaks, I missed out, no problem" and I had a hunt around their listed bino's for a suitable alternative.
Over the next few days Raff and I swapped a few emails. I mentioned to Raff that my intention had been to check out whichever bino's I got for my brother and then a little later down the track order a pair of the same for myself. Raff suggested that if I was able to buy 2 pair of bino's at the same time, either 2 of the same or 2 different sets, he would give me a good price.
I emailed him back with 3 or 4 suggested combo's that I thought I could possibly stretch my budget to, along with another combo that I thought I would not be able to afford but was interested to see what price he may offer.
When he said "a good price" he was telling the truth - Raff did his very best to find a way to allow me to give my brother a decent set of bino's, and still be able to get a set for myself, and I'm pleased to say I sent an order in for 2 pairs of the
20x80T triplet bino's - the combination I "could not afford".
Raff did not have to do this, he was going to sell me at least one pair of binoculars (probably 2 pairs of somethign anyway) but he went out of his way to help me out, and to leave me feeling
good about a significant purchase (that was way beyond what my budget
should have been) and I have had had no regrets at all.
These fairly heavy binoculars arrived swiftly, well packaged, and in perfect condition as one would expect. As with my purchase from My Astro Shop this package arrived in time to beat the Easter break thanks to Raff's help.
These same bino's have been mentioned around the forum previously, all I can say is that they look great, give great views, have excellent lens coatings, the "soft" (semi-rigid) carry bag has a 3 stage closing design that keeps all dirt and dust out, and these are an all around winner for someone after a larger pair of bino's that give great performance at a great price! Omega Centauri looks awesome through these!
Raff's list price of $219 compares well with a pair of similar (
very similar
) bino's I have seen in my local camera store. The 'very similar' bino's there are marked as "Bushnell" 20x80's and sell at $349.
Do yourself a favour, get to AOE's website and buy some bino's!
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