Re: Leupold 1.1-8x24 Mark 8 CQBSS
The price is inline with S&B, Premier, Hensoldt, and USO.
I realize that there are not any optics available currently that have the same features.
The comment was referring to what their listed federal pricing compared to those other products.
As you can imagine it is not the 4K that the retail market is paying.
Just straight capitalism at work.
They don't have the supply to meet the demand, so they charge what the market will bear where they need to slow sales.
Knowing how Federal contracting works, it is nice to see that they are not gouging the government.
Since .mil requested the product and Leupold is the only manufacture currently able to meet the contract requirements, they could be charging a lot more than they are.
Ultimately it is a very smart business move to show good faith.
That goes along way towards maintaining the working relationship.
Without having first hand knowledge of this acquisition, it looks like it followed the new procurement model which puts the burden of itemizing the contract requirements of the contactors that choose to compete.
It is a great way for the government to save money, but since it puts much more risk on the competing contractors, participation can be limited to those that can afford the R&D loss if they don't get the contract.
Bottom line, .gov identifies a need and solicits for a solution.
Bidding companies develop a solution and provide a bid for it.
There can be provisions built in to provide funding to the bidding companies if they are able to sufficiently demonstrate their ability to develop a solution within a predetermined time frame.
This is not always the case though.
You can see how risky this type of thing could be for a company.
(Sorry, having had to sit through a week long class on this recently I felt compelled to share.)