Telescope prices only make sense once you split the shelf by what the instrument is for, because the same money buys wildly different things. This page takes the printed figures in this index and sorts them by job rather than by number.
Beginner instruments
The three cheapest printed figures here are all beginner instruments: $79.95 for 76mm, $91.00 on sale for 114mm, and $305.00 for a tabletop dobsonian. Across that range the money is buying aperture almost linearly, and the largest of the three is the first one most observers would call a properly capable telescope.
Specialist instruments
Above that, price stops tracking aperture. A $498.00 apochromatic refractor gathers less light than the $305.00 dobsonian and costs more, because it is built to put a clean star image across a camera sensor. A $995.00 solar telescope has 40mm of aperture and does nothing at night. Neither is overpriced; both are answers to questions the beginner instruments do not address.
What separates a good instrument from a bad one at the same price
At any given price the differences that matter are the mount, the focuser and the supplied eyepieces, in that order. A wobbly mount makes a good tube useless; a plastic focuser that shifts the image when you turn it is a nightly annoyance; and the bundled eyepieces are usually the cheapest part of the package and the easiest to improve.
Questions people ask about telescope
How much is a good telescope?
A genuinely capable instrument starts around three hundred dollars, which in this index buys a 130mm tabletop dobsonian. Below that you get a real but small telescope; above it you buy tracking, aperture or specialisation.
Do telescopes hold their value?
Reasonably well, which is why the second hand market is worth watching. Optics do not wear out, and the parts that do, focusers and electronics, are usually repairable or replaceable.
Is a cheap telescope a waste of money?
Not if it is a real one. The $79.95 instrument in this index shows lunar craters and Jupiter's moons. What is a waste is a long thin tube on a wobbly tripod advertising 525x, which is a different product at a similar price.