For anyone who wears glasses...very cool

[karen]

I was at my cousin's house yesterday, and I noticed that her husband was wearing some pretty cool new glasses. He got them online for $8!! He has another pair with transitions lenses that he got for $40!

Who knew you could get glasses so cheap online?

He got his from zennioptical.com, but I found this guy's blog, and there's a bunch of different places that have them.
http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com/

I haven't ordered yet, but I think I'm going to try a few different places just to see how it works out. I'm so excited!

Has anyone else ordered from these places?

[tizzylou]

Karen, i haven't ordered, but I am very interested in finding out how this works.Both my husband and I wear glasses so this could amount to a large savings for us. I'm also interested in saving on the price of contacts for a friend of mine who is raising her 3 grandchildren ,all of which wear contacts. So let me know how it goes, and if there are contact wears out there who have ordered on line , would you please give me your favorite sites. Thanks.

[Cupcake]

Thats very interesting, thanks Karen. Over here, low income people can get glasses free on the National Health Service, but almost all need to buy frames as the NHS choice is usually nasty plastic frames a la Buddy Holly. For even a simple pair, it's upwards of $200. Any lens enhancements, one pays for in full.

Any saving is *much* appreciated, so I'll pass that info on!

[karen]

I agree- they're far too expensive. In the past we've resorted to soldering or super gluing them back together just to make it until payday. If it works out it will be so much fun! It will be so nice to have a backup pair, and maybe a pair of sunglasses in my current prescription.

I think we're each getting a pair from goggles4u.com and zennioptical.com. Goggles4u has a really cool interface where you can upload your picture and try them out online- it was kind of fun- especially when they're $13!

It takes about 2 weeks to get them in- so I'll report back.

[karen]

I got my package from Zenni in the mail today! I'm very pleasantly surprised. We ordered from Zenni, and 39dollarglasses.com. Zenni ships from China. I ordered them on 12-1, and they got here today- pretty impressive really. 39dollarglasses ships from NYC, and I got those quite a while ago. I didn't love the 39dollar glasses ones I got...they just didn't look good, and even though I made a separate phone call to make sure they had anti-reflective coating, and my card was charged for it, it didn't make it on to the glasses. The ones I ordered for DH had a massive ding in the coating.

The Zenni ones are pretty impressive. For $30 I'm thrilled. They're bendable titanium frames, with an extra strong prescription, and ant-glare coating. My eye doctor charges $40 just for the coating. I took them to my eye doctor, they needed an adjustment, but the prescription is dead-on, and I'm wearing them right now. I'll continue to support my local eye doctor- he's a good guy, and he's right here, so if anything strange happens I just have to go across the street to get some help. But it's nice to have a spare pair, and it's really nice to have a cheap pair that I don't have to worry about quite as much (my glasses get very messy here). I also got a pair of sun glasses- again, no drama, $22, and I like them. I don't know if I'd recommend Zenni for anyone with tri-focals or other hard prescriptions, but for a cheap pair of glasses, they're really fantastic.

I'm attaching a pic- please excuse my hat hair, no makeup look. I have to make a bunch of stuff today, and needed to start with a clean face.

[ladycattat]

Verrrrry cute glasses, Karen!!!! And did I mention that I love your bangs?
I might try that place for me and DH; especially DH, as he is very rough on his glasses and they end up costing us; even with insurance; into the $200.00 range.
Laurie

[~*mikie*~]

They look great, Karen! I'll have to mention this to Michael...he must have a dozen prs of glasses...no fooling. *I*, however, who am blind as a BAT without mine, have ONE pr because they cost so dearly. I have progressive lenses & a very strong prescription, but Michael's scrip would be easy AND he loves glasses,ROFL!

mikie

[JenW]

You look loverly, Karen!

I have two in my house that wear glasses. I am not sure how good of an option this would be for a kid. DD goes to Eyemasters locally and we can get two pairs of glasses for around $100. The extra coatings cost more, so if she is sold on the Transitions, we might give it a try.

[karen]

Thanks! I got lucky with them. It took a few trips to a few different stores to see what worked for me, but it was kind of fun.

Mikie- they do have progressives, but I know what you mean about going direct to the eye doctor. I got my pupillary distance slightly wrong- it's not a huge booboo, but I'd rather they were just right. My guy would have gotten it just right, or fixed them for free- but the last pair I got were almost 10X the price. I figure it's about $.50 a day for good glasses, and I'll probably get my primary pair from him just so I have a "good" pair.

I'm thinking about these in burgandy:
http://www.zennioptical.com/cart/produc ... =28&page=1
They're not for every day, but it seems like it would be fun to have them.

[tizzylou]

Karen, I like the look of those, they would be fun, but I think I'll choose them in purple. (I'm on a purple kick lately).