well firstly, you aint paying for someone to brand their name on it, secondly, you don't get near to what you want you et it spot on, which to me there aint no price comparison, in most cases you aint paying tax, vat etc and if you want to scale down on the costs of grips, rings and fittings etc you can.
I went for 3 Ballista slims and went all out on top notch fittings and eys etc, they cost me ?450 for the lot. If I'd cut back on all the bells and whistles they would of set me back less than ?100 each and would still ave been for personal specification and quality.
I'll be going back for 3 x 3.5 tc's soon. To me the benefits are the personal touches for look and especially feel, eyes and set out to my specification and more importantly in tis day and age, the security tagging.