How do you tell if you get what you are paying for when you buy eyewear these days? Is it worth it to pay extra at an doctor's office or are the internet cheapies just as good? Titanium frames? extra thin? Where are the blank lens made anyway, china?

The wife gets hers from Lenscrafters. Basically you pick out a frame there you like after you try it on or you bring in a frame you like and they stick the lens on. They grind it on the spot and get it done while you shop around. How you shop without your glasses if you need it is beyond me unless you have a 2nd pair or contacts. If you tip them, they actually use high quality duct tape otherwise you get the regular contact cement.

Problem with internet specials is that your selection of frames is limited to what they have and if you don't like it, well, the best case scenario is you have to return it via the mail service or UPS. That is a bunch of downtime.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

We use Lenscrafters, too. Great frame selection, and there's always a sale of some sort going on.

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1989 300 SEL that mostly works, but needs TLC

Lenscrafters also gives some sort of AAA discount too, IIRC. I know I got a 30% off coupon in the mail from AAA for use at Lenscrafters. Besides, you have 30 days to see if you like it or not.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Most of the name brands (Prada, Gucci, Armani, etc), if not all, are made by normal eyewear companies such as Luxottica, Flexon, etc. You may be paying more for the name, but the quality is still the same.

If you have good insurance, you might check up with your optometrist. I recently got a nice pair brand name glasses at a good price.

In what way? I go to the East and West Towne ones and got good service from them. They do adjust her glasses for free and clean them on demand. Even repair the pieces on the nose that come off.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I've used LensCrafters for my glasses and my youngest daughter's contacts. Good service. AAA discount was nice.

Yes, there are actually only about 4 frame makers. Most "designer" frames are private label runs by the big 4. Hugely profitable business. In a former life I sold vision services (disease state management) to health plans and employer groups. Learned a lot about the eye industry from hardware through surgical interventions.

Ciao

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KyGuy
'04 E500 Brilliant Silver/Ash (50K)
'01 ML320 Desert Silver/Parchment (67K)
'99 C230 Kompressor Black/Black (62K)
'93 Mitsubishi Montero (134K)(Home Depot Express)


'70 6.3 Gold/Tobacco (128K) (sold and now in Germany)
'94 E420 Silver/Blue (80K) - Sold
'97 E320 PearlBlack/Parchment (77K) - Sold
'66 300SE Coupe (owned 2002-2003)

The Lenscrafters were in the Malls. East or West Towne not on Odana.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Lenscrafters will price match. I learned that last fall. Got them to match the Costco price. Go to Costco, get a quote. Costco charges a fee if your bring in a frame so add that into the cost.

You know what I don't get with eyeglasses, is why do they use a screw as a hinge. Isn't a screw a fastener? ie., it's meant to hold one thing to another without moving? Doesn't it defeat the purpose to use a screw as moving part?

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

my $0.02... I worked for about a year during college making eyeglasses at Pearle vision. When the lab was slow I'd go out and sell glasses for the commision. Eyeglasses may be the most marked up item that I know of other than jewelry. I had access through the computer to what Pearle paid for the frame. It wasn't uncommon to sell a $100+ frame that Pearle would pay about $3 for. The exception to this was the Armani frames which were only marked up about 50%. That's why all the employees would get the Armanis with their 50% discount. They were good quality too, I've had that pair for about 15 years and they're n great shape - outta style though.

As far as lens go... the blanks were about $4-5 each with a mrsp of about $50-75 on average. The add ons were money makers too. For example, polycarbonate is already UV resistant when it comes from the factory but they'll charge you the extra $30 for it anyway. If I remember. the commision on that was $2. The flip side is that if it was a wierd prescription and we had to gring the lens in the store the cost was about the same for a lot more work on my part. Many stores can't grind lenses though, they have to send them out as most techs don't know how to use the machines.

So, as a result I hate buying eyeglasses. For the most part I know how much I'm being ripped off. That's why the last time I bought glasses I used optical4less.com out of Hong Kong. Takes forever to get your glasses (about a month+) but they are as good a quality as the cheapies in the chain stores that cost around $100. Just be careful about lens thickness; there's no reason that the Hong Kong guys have to follow the US rules on minimum lens thickness, which is about 1.2 mm if I remember right.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

Howdy All,
Get laser eye surgery :-)

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Frank X. Morris
17 Kia Niro
08 Jeep Wrangler 4 door unlimited

Some terms to google: silhouette titanium rimless "high index"

http://www.thineyeglasses.com/default.asp
This site shows use of modern advances in eyewear. Warning:They don't use professional models.

I buy mine in Europe...My latest set of frames and Optically coated Zies lenses cost me a cool 225 euros last august including an exam (doctor spent an hour with me). At any of the blood suckers here those same lenses alone cost $600 not counting the frames or exam. Top quality at half the cost of plastic here.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I wish I had that much hair on my head....

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Where does Drew Carey gets his specs?