Agree with everyone else above. Vortex holds tremendous value in the market and has a large market share, but the value holds differently than Swaro (which, after several years in the industry, I could argue that Swaro is disgustingly OVER valued in the marketplace, but that's a different conversation and you didn't ask that question). The Alpha's NEVER go on sale, so people are forced to pay full retail for them, so buying used is the only equivalent to purchasing an alpha class optic on sale that a guy can get. All the other brands go on periodic sale throughout the year for every major holiday, so because of that, it's easy to get 20-ish percent off on Vortex optics if you have the patience of a petulant toddler. The same goes for Leupold, Maven, Bushnell, Burris, I could go on and on.
As an example, let's say you want a pair of 10x42 Razor HD binos. They're about a grand full retail. During June or July, can't remember which month, Sportsman's Warehouse has their "Vortex Month," where you can get a gift card with every Vortex optic purchase. It all depends on the retail price, but the Razor HD's typically come with a $150 gift card if I remember correctly. So essentially, you're getting those razor's for $850 on that sale. You could use them for a year and sell them for about $750-$800. So while you've lost $250 relative to full retail price, you've only lost about $100 on that year of ownership. That's about 12.5% investment loss over the course of ownership.
Just checked our local classifieds, there's a pair of SLC's for sale right now for $900.00 in the original box and strap and the winged eyecups as a bonus. Mathematically, it looks like those lost a greater percentage of their retail value when compared with the Razor HD's above.
Then there's the issue of the Birdie Tax with Swaro too. Swaro discontinued the SLC's a few years ago, and when they left the market, the SLC's retailed for about $1600.00. Now Swaro sells the EXACT SAME binos in their Kahles Helia line of binos, and you could buy them brand new in box right now for $950.00 from a dealer. So are guys just paying a premium to be able to have the green binos hanging around their neck? Because according to what Swaro did with the SLC's, they seem to have been overcharging people and people are happy to mindlessly pay the premium.
Used market for optics and gear is a crap shoot, and gear is only worth what guys are willing to pay for it. At the end of the day, everything we buy is a status symbol and a flex of some kind. If you don't like what Vortex has to offer, don't buy it. But If you really wanna get microscopic, it's pretty easy to poke holes in every company's business practices and pricing strategies.