Monday, December 17, 2007

Stop spending $300 for eyeglasses, order online.


I was sitting with a friend at lunch the other day, he was talking about his new eyeglasses, and how they were way overpriced. He had paid $300 for eyeglasses at the local shopping mall, and felt like he had been ripped off.

Now, I thought I was a step above him. I would buy my eyeglasses at an discount optical store called America's Best Contacts and Eyeglasses. When I was a kid, this was the place that my parents had dragged me to, and had me pick eyeglasses off the 49 dollar rack or whatever.

America's Best is full service eye wear store. They have two doctors on site, and I have always had good service there. Here is the problem. Even though they have low prices, compared to the internet they are very expensive.

This is the secret that every eye retailer doesn't want you to know.

I'm going to introduce you to a slick deal that I found on the internet.

The place is called Zenni Optical. Places like this even undercut the Walmart eye doctor, by a ton.

How does $8 and up per pair sound? Zenni has thousands of frames. Honestly, the 8 dollar frames weren't the geeky tacky frames that I would expect at that pricerange. I would have bought the 8 dollar frames, but decided to spend the big bucks, and step up to bendable titanium frames.

Here is my bill from Zenni.

SKU Product Item price Quantity: Total
31270 3127 Bendable (Memory) Titanium Full-Rim Frame
Options/Prescription:
Frame Colors: 21 Black
AR Anti-Reflection Coating: Anti Reflection Coating
Lens Tint Choices: No Tint
Clip On Polarized 80% Sunshade: 0
OD-SPH: -1.50
OD-CYL: -3.75 X
OD-AXIS: 10
OD-ADD: 0
OS-SPH: -1.50
OS-CYL: -2.25 X
OS-AXIS: 180
OS-ADD: 0
PD-Pupillary Distance: 74
Prescription & Lens Type: 1.57 Mid Index Single Vision , No Charge
Prescription Strength: X = Extra Strength -
$29.90 1 $29.90
Subtotal: $29.90
Shipping cost: $4.95
Total: $34.85


The custom made eyeglasses arrived at my door in 6 business days. The quality is great. Now get out there and buy yourself a couple pairs of eyeglasses, and don't worry about breaking them. At this price point they are pretty much disposable.

A final tip, check out the tint option for glasses. You can get transitions lenses, or have a regular pair of glasses dark tinted, and use them as sunglasses.

Until Next time..

Justin

7 comments:

Unknown said...

good link but do you know any website/store that offers cheap eye glasses and eye exam in the boston area.

thanks

Justin said...

Sure..

You might want to call around. I would start with Walmart. I bet they are very cheap.

Anonymous said...

How do you know your Pupillary Distance? You do not only your doctor does. It seems to be hazard to your health to guess your Pupillary Distance just to save $$.

Unknown said...

Your pupillary distance (PD) is not a state secret. Just ask your optometrist nicely next time you have a eye exam and she'll write it in with your prescription. Alternately, it's easy to measure it yourself. See here for a guide. Also at the same blog is a list of cheap eyeglass online stores.

Anonymous said...

Make sure that you read the comments on the link you have provided entirely. I am bit concerned about people getting eyeglasses online.

Anonymous said...

This is indeed a great offer for eyeglasses, but I still prefer my pinhole glasses.

Anonymous said...

I ordered glasses from Zenni three years ago. They were great glasses. I recently ordered a new pair, but I'm having trouble getting them. They said the first pair was damaged in shipping, I was suposed to get the second pair in 6 days and now they are telling me they haven't received them from lab yet. It's been 4 1/2 weeks. I'm very upset and I will not order from them again.