I got an email a couple of weeks ago asking how "Project Dean" ended up. It has been awhile, and my first thought was to pass along the link in the previous sentence to all of the articles -- and then I realized that I had never finished the series. I stubbed in the title for this piece and it got buried under dozens of other posts.

More importantly, it's been four months of daily wear and they're still pristine. Proof that you can have success with progressive lenses online.

It's now been well over five days and I've still not heard back from Goggles4U regarding their ability to do a prism. They had their shot, now it's time to move on to the second and final option, of the Big5, 39DollarGlasses.

To reiterate, Dean is looking for Photochromic Progressives. His distance prescription is pretty weak, but he likes to have his glasses on and available for reading. He needs a large frame.

The first thing you'll notice in comparing 39DollarGlasses to Optical4Less, is that the frame prices seem high in comparison -- if you happen to click the "Progressive Lenses" link under "> SHOP EYEGLASSES". The high prices shown here scared me a bit, until I realized that they included the price of the basic polycarb progressive lenses. This is an odd way to list these frames.

I was still able to glean the costs of the progressive lenses from the price list, subtracting the typical single-vision cost of the same frames.

Lens costs and options:

• Clear Polycarbonate Sola® 1.59 progressive lenses - $50 (included in "Progressive" price)
• CR-39 Transitions® Sola® 1.50 progressive lenses - $109.95
• Polycarbonate Transitions® Sola® 1.59 progressive lenses - $148.90
• CR-39 Transitions® Varilux® 1.50 progressive lenses - $148.95
• Polycarbonate Transitions® Varilux ® 1.59 progressive lenses - $187.90

We strike the first (again), due to the fact that he wants Photochromic (I only include it at all to compare the non-Photochromic lens price).

That leaves four options, and with the very necessary AR coating going for an extra $25, I'd argue that the Sola might be the way to go. The fact that he's not going to be playing rugby in these, or riding a motorcycle, coupled with his very weak prescription, makes the CR-39 the logical choice.

39DollarGlasses charges $19.99 flat-rate for prism correction. That ends up about $14 more than Optical4Less for that service. Unlike, Optical4Less, 39DollarGlasses, charges for anti-reflective coating ($24.95), but includes UV and anti-scratch in the price.

So for a full-featured set of these with AR and prism correction, we're looking at $154.89 on top of the non-Progressive frame price (or $104.89 more than the "Progressive" frame price). Confused yet?

Frames?
39DollarGlasses has more frames that closely match the size of Dean's existing frames. Not a lot more, but more none the less (and yes, they've got the Aviator as well). That said, I'm only going to look at two frames as they both possess the 145mm temple that Dean needs.

First up, is the Moscow. It is an awful lot like Dean's current frame. Size-wise, it's very close, and it's available in Gunmetal, which makes it a bit more desirable. If Dean isn't looking for a change, this is a good option, especially with the hard-to-find 145mm temples.

Again, he's tough on glasses and prone to falling asleep in them, so titanium is appealing for durability as well as weight (especially with these large lenses). The creatively-named "Bendable Titanium 8" has the features and the stats to work for Dean (again with the 145mm temple size).



No gunmetal here, however. The Antique Bronze and Antique Gold aren't too bad looking though. A solid contender.

There is a $50 difference between the standard alloy and the titanium frames, and then there is the color difference. 39DollarGlasses' offerings boil down to this:

Feature	Moscow	Titanium 8
Frame	$39.00	$89.00
Anti-Reflective	$24.95	$24.95
Lenses	$109.95	$109.95
Prism Correction	$19.99	$19.99
Total	$193.89	$243.89

Next up? We compare the two places and look at next steps. Dean? We're getting closer.

It's been over forty-eight hours and I've not heard back from Goggles4U on my query, so we'll approach this as a two-candidate race between Optical4Less and 39DollarGlasses for the time being. (Note to self: Another communication breakdown.)

We'll start with Optical4Less' offerings.

As mentioned in part one of this series, Dean is looking for Photochromic Progressives, and the frames are going to need to be on the large side.

Lens costs and options:

• High index 1.56 Multi-focal Progressive Lens (non-Photochromic) - $98
• High Index 1.56 photochromic progressive lenses - $187 (Grey Only)
• PRECISION ® customized 1.56 photochromic progressive lenses - $198
• PRECISION ® customized 1.67 photochromic progressive lenses - $398
  

We strike the first, due to the fact that he wants Photochromic (I only include it at all to compare the non-Photochromic lens price). The last one is struck for two reasons, he doesn't need Hi-Index with his prescription and the nearly $400 price tag is cost-prohibitive.

That leaves two options and I think for the extra $11 you probably buy the hype ("The ultimate-quality progressive lenses!"), to the point that they're probably better than the $187 option.

Optical4Less charges $3 per degree of prism correction, per lens. So that tacks on $6 to the order. They include anti-reflective, UV and anti-scratch coatings in the price.

These decked-out lenses will come to $193.

Frames?
I dug into the site with the existing sizes of Dean's frames in front of me -- and I ran into trouble. Really, there was only one frame that came close to matching up with the numbers...

The much-maligned Aviator. I won't debate the merits of this frame in this piece, but suffice it to say, I think this is a tough frame to pull-off, especially in it's non-sunglasses form.

There were a couple of pair that are close, but are they "close enough?".

Next up, I saw this titanium pair which will likely hold up to the stresses of being slept in.

Only one problem. They're only available in gold. I'm not a big fan of gold, and I don't think Dean is either. I think he'd rather stick to the more subdued, gunmetal or even silver, but I can't really speak for him. I like these, but the sizes, in particular the temple length, scares me a bit. It's not like spending $15 or even $40 on glasses, this is a bigger investment (and risk).

Another bigger frame in an aluminum and alloy is the MA080. The lenses are 55mm by 39mm, so we're in the same ballpark at least. The width is 145mm, but the temple length of 140mm might be a bit short for ol' Dean. Regardless, this is still an option.

It's available in Bronze, Gunmetal and Black and the $34.00 frame price makes this ensemble price out at $238 (+ shipping).

Next up -- probably Sunday -- we'll look at what 39DollarGlasses has to offer. I'll be out of town for the weekend, so email responses might suffer for a couple of days. I'll try to get online at least once a day, but I have no broadband (or even cell reception) when I'm in the hinterland. Have a great weekend.

[ED. NOTE.: This is part one in a 5-part series culminating in the receipt of the glasses.]

My wife is patient. She needs to be with me. Round-about Christmas, we visited her uncle who lives in the little town in the middle of Minnesota. This uncle (let's call him Dean, as that is his name) had a pair of broken glasses. He's one of our favorite people. Living on a fixed-income, the idea that he could get a pair of glasses for less than the $400+ he's been paying seemed quite attractive -- especially with the success I've had with my purchases and the successful purchases in the forums.

I've been particularly busy professionally and personally, and frankly with his glasses "fixed" (with a section of thick clear tubing to help fuse the break in the temple), it slipped on my priority list. I mean, if he's not an anchor on the evening news each night, who's going to notice? Oh, and I kept forgetting.

So today, I sat down to write in an unusually quiet house and there staring me in the face was "the prescription."



I'd also jotted down the details on his existing frame to aid in the search -- again, over 3 months ago. His "broken" pair are a Van Heusen "Benjamin" frame in Gunmetal Grey.

• Frame width is 150mm
• Lens height is about 41mm
• Lens width is about 58mm
• Bridge width 19mm
• Temple length 145mm

His distance PD came in at 66mm.

Dean is very interested in Transitions, or photochromic lenses. He's a voracious reader who's prone to falling asleep with his glasses on, so sturdiness and utility are weighed more heavily than trendiness, which refreshingly carries little weight in small town Minnesota.

The Qwest Begins
Right off the bat, or rather after twelve minutes on hold, Zenni was no longer in the running. A polite "no, we don't" to my query regarding a slight prism and we were down to four options.

A few moments later at a much better laid-out site with an actual F.A.Q., EyeBuyDirect, I was able to pare down the contenders to three.

I knew Optical4Less could accommodate a prism prescription as they're the only online retailer in the group that allows you to enter a prism in the online prescription form.


Checking with Goggles4U was going to take some time. There is no mention of being able to deliver prescriptions with a prism on their site and the "Live Chat" feature was in "Leave a Message" mode. I left a message on Wednesday morning at about 10:30AM CDT. I'm curious how long it will be until I get a response.

My last stop was 39DollarGlasses and their F.A.Q. mentioned nothing about prism. Popping into their "Live Chat" brought up a window and Melanie was able to answer my question almost immediately to the affirmative, if not requiring me to jump through an extra hoop:

I wish I hadn't highlighted the thing before taking the screen shot

So we're down to two (and possibly three) of the retailers to fill this prescription. I'm not surprised at the choices as they seem to be two of the more "hands-on" or "in-house" places in the "Big5".

Next step will be to look for frames of a type I haven't had to consider for myself. It's a daunting prospect, but the next couple of installments will narrow down the options in "Project Dean."