It all depends on what you intend to use a scope for. If you plan to use the scope on a low recoiling rifle that you will just be shooting in daylight hours at a range or plinking in a gravel pit like a 22 up to a 223 then it makes no sense to pay more for a scope designed to handle heavy recoil, filled with dry nitrogen to prevent foggingor with multicoated lenses to transmit light well in early morning or late evening hunting situations. There are plenty of scopes out there in the75 to 150dollar range that will be fine for low recoil plinking. Now for hunting I like and think that you need a better scope. Scopes that will stand up to powerful recoil without failing or shifting POA. Scopes that will not fog up in early morning cold or rain. And a scope that allows you to see well enough to shoot during the low light hours when large game often move the most. That said however I have always been able to find a scope that met those requirements in the 300 to 500 dollar range. I'm not knocking the super expensive scopes in the 500 and up range.But for huntingI have never seen any practical usable advantage of a 1000 dollar scope vs a 500 dollar scope.