Panhandler,
Please take this constructively. I feel your pain because I hate to be disappointed as well. But,the size and weight of the scope is something you can find out before you buy it. The poor image might be a warranty issue that you haven't given Leupold a chance to remedy for you. As far as the tripod is concerned, if your concerns are legitimate, maybe Leupold would offer to exchange it for something better. Before I buy optics via mail order or the net, (savings being the reason) I try to get my homework done to avoid disappointments as much as possible. If you are going to send it back to Leupold to have it repackaged, why don't you see if they would address at least some of your issues with it. Leupold is generally not my first choice in scopes, but their quality is generally very good and the one time I used their warranty service, it was excellent. I hope you get your issues resolved. Good luck.