I certainly hope the $500-600 SSi had a Leopold, Nikon or etc. scope on it.
Been about 4 years ago now, but paid around $240 for a new 308 SSi Mossberg I found on clearance at a Houston Gander Mtn store that had about 5 of them (all 308) to pick from. Nice rifle that I occassionally take to range to shoot. Only complaint I have about the rifle is the trigger pull....which is too heavy to suit me. I get decent groups with the rifle at 100 yard targets, but a lighter trigger pull would really help its accuracy when shooting from a bench. One of these days, I'll figure out how to disassemble the action to work on the trigger to reduce the pull and smooth it out. From posts I can remember reading years ago, this can be done, but no one ever explained how they did it.