Glasses Online?

My youngest son’s vision was not up to par so about six months ago we headed off to the eye doctor.  No big surprise, eyewear was needed.  Good vision does not run in my family. I’ve been “optically challenged” since I was about ten or eleven years old. When I was told, I was crushed.  My goal was to be an astronaut with NASA and I knew that that perfect vision was required (at that time).  Thankfully, my son didn’t seem to mind one way or the other.  We started looking at frames and the familiar gasps of shock occurred every time we looked at a price tag.  The cost of frames (never mind the lenses) is just amazing to me.  I think they use pure gold, silver, or rhodium!!  Ya – yes, I had to lookup the last one.  🙂  We found something we liked, wrote the big check, and life moved on.

A month or two after this, I started wanting prescription sunglasses as the little clip on lenses I had been using were not very good.  Of course, I went to the local glasses shop and was once again shocked by the price of outdoor eyewear.  I walked away sad…

A few days later, I started poking around the Internet for online sources of prescription eyewear.  Guess what?  There are dozens of sources and the prices seemed almost reasonable.  I happened up 39DollarGlasses.com and decided to give them a try.  Picking out a frame without being able to try it on is REALLY hard.  I did a little reading about different measurements and finally picked the Aviator Gold frames (#3016).  I was already over the $39 lead in but still less than $50.00.  Like everything else you buy, the little add-on’s are what get you and I ended at $78.85 after selecting the NuPolar Polarized CR-39 Optical Resin Sun Lenses.  A far cry from $39 but MUCH better than the $500 that the local spectacles shop wanted to charge me.  I decided this was a reasonable experiment so I placed the order.

The glasses showed up pretty quickly (about a week, if memory serves). They needed some “tuning” to fit. I’ve been wearing glasses so many years that I’ve done this myself a hundred times so no biggie.  My initial impression was that the frames were “ok” but certainly not super high quality.  The lenses seemed just fine – my vision was the same with them as with my high-dollar, locally made glasses.

I’ve been using the sunglasses for about three months now. My opinion has not changed much.  The frames are still “ok”. The screws seem to loosen fairly often and the lenses will pop out when this happens. I added a slight bit of lock-tight and that problem has been eliminated. The lenses are still a bit loose though – a bit of care is required when cleaning.  Overall, I’m happy with the purchase and I feel better about wearing better UV protection than the cheap clip-ons were providing.  I am quite a cheapskate though.  I am always happier with an “ok” product and “good” price than a “great” product and an “elevated” price.

If you can find a frame that fits your face, I recommend giving 39DollarsGlasses.com a try.