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I get some email regularly from people who are looking for deals on a particular name-brand frame. I typically tell them that this is not the point of the glassyeyes blog, but I could be more helpful. There are deals to be had on name-brand frames and one of the places that I know delivers the goods is FramesDirect.

I've had neighbors looking for non-prescription sunglasses and co-workers who just had to have that name brand embossed into the temple. FramesDirect worked for them.

The only reason I bring this up, is that they're having a 3 Day Sale using the aptly-named coupon code "3DaySale". This ends October 1.

The deal is, you get $50-off of frames WITH lens purchase over $109. That's not a tough bar to reach with them -- they're much more expensive than my favorites over to the left, BUT much less expensive than the place at the mall -- with an even larger selection.

The low-down is, you're going to spend $45 or so for basic plastic single vision lenses without UV. You're going to want UV protection for $15. Anti-reflective (AR) coating starts at $45.

If it were me, I'd get something classic, like these Shurons for $92.

Then I'd add the basic plastic lenses, skip the AR (as no one had AR back in the age of Mad Men) and add UV coating. With the $50-off you're looking at about $112 and much, much less than you'd pay elsewhere. I'm sure you can find frames for less as I didn't really want to spend too much time perusing brands I can't stand.

My guess is this will be useful to some of you.

Sales like these do one more thing for me -- they validate the fact that markups are HUGE in eyeglass frames and lenses.



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1 comments:

At October 1, 2010 at 9:53 AM RedStickHam said...

Good piece on FrameDirect. Even though they aren't about inexpensive glasses, they do have a place in the online eyeglasses market. However, FramesDirect has shown me firsthand how insane the markups on glasses are.

I recently purchased a pair of glasses using the Amalfi frame from 39dollarglasses.com. When I got the frame, inside the temple arm were the words Zimco Retro#23. I ran that frame on FrameDirect and found the frame alone before lenses was $94.90! If I wanted to get them with polycarbonate lenses, it would cost me $173.65 from them, and that is without AR coating.

If I were to buy a pair from 39dollarglasses.com using polycarbonate lenses(included in the price) without AR coating using that same frame, the cost would be $39.00 before shipping.

I don't want to even think what a brick/mortar optical shop would charge me for this. Something just isn't right here, and it's great someone like Ira is around to point this out to us.

Keep up the good work.

 

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