$39 glasses

[Paul]

It has been a while since we had a glasses thread, I think.

I had read on another venue about 39dollarglasses.com, a web site that takes order for glasses and has an optical company ship them to you. The prices start at $39 for basic frames and single-vision polycarbonate lenses. Other frame and lens combinations cost more. You need to have your prescription (they do not try to examine your eyes over the Internet), and if it does not include your pupillary distance you have to measure that yourself, which I did. (In certain states, PD has to be measured by a doctor or optician. My optometrist doesn't put in on the prescription; he assumes that the optician will measure it, but I don't live in one of those states.)

I was thinking about doing a trial order for a $39 pair to replace the distance glasses that I've had since about 1992, but then something unfortunate happened to my bifocals just as I was going out of town. I had no time to go to an optical company, nor were they open at that hour, so I ordered a pair of progressive bifocals and they arrived the day after I got back. I was especially pleased that there was an option to upgrade to Varilux lenses, because I have always been most comfortable with them and the optical department at my HMO doesn't offer them. The total cost was a bit less than my out-of-pocket cost would have been at the HMO, even after applying the HMO allowance for frames and lenses.

I'm very happy with the lenses. The frames are nothing special (they're made in China, not Italy as are most of the frames I've seen at optical companies) but they are OK since I was not looking for anything exotic.