One thing to keep in mind is that it's a dealer, not a direct manufacturer that hosts this site. That's pretty huge, in and of itself.
There are a lot of brands beyond just Discovery & Stellarvue that offer choice of direct from importer or dealer. University Optics, Orion, Oberwerk, TAL, Intes, all come to mind.
The advantages of shopping with a *local* dealer are fairly obvious:
- may have equip. in stock
- may offer selection advice
- may allow in-store, or even field testing
- may or may not charge shipping
- may or may not offer setup & testing as part of purchase
- may handle any problems with purchase
That last point is one that definitely bears checking out with each specific dealer. Paying any dealer extra, only to be told that it's up to you (the purchaser) to ship warranty items back to the factory has turned off many a potential repeat customer.
The advantages of shopping through an online dealer are sometimes a little less clear.
- may have lowest price
- may not charge sales tax
- may offer far more brands and models to choose from
- may offer vast amounts of otherwise unavailable info. in terms of online forums and downloadable manuals and tech help
Anacortes and Company7 are both good examples of the latter.
On the flip side, buying directly from the mfr. or importer can have some advantages:
- sometimes lower price
- sometimes ultimately cheaper shipping
- may offer specialty items not available to any dealer
On the last point, above. At times, Discovery has offered telescope configurations that were available only online. For instance, I was very keen on their "Mars Special" Dob, but my local dealer not only couldn't get that scope, but couldn't get any info. on it, beyond what was available to me on the Discovery web site. Similarly, various volume dealers and importers are often able to offer special configurations or package deals that aren't available through other channels.
So really, there is no real rule of thumb. You've got to weigh the merits of each particular purchase. Personally, I think that there is some merit to giving biz to a local stocking dealer, if, and only if, they represent an actual service in terms of helping the local astro community and not just a mechanism for extracting profit.
It's a minefield out there. Be careful, and work to establish a good relationship with a few trusted sources.
Mike Swaim