Guess which is the more expensive pair
I'm of the opinion that spending hundreds of dollars for a tiny little bit of metal - glasses - is outrageous, even if I can claim a large part of the cost back through insurance. Thus, when acquiring a new pair of glasses shortly before my travels earlier this year, I also put in an order for a second pair at Goggles4u.com, a company based out of Pakistan.
Just by looking can you tell which is the more expensive pair? (Yes, I'm not the most photogenic of individuals).
The online-purchased pair has slightly thinner lenses than the store-bought pair I think, with me having purchased the highest-index lenses that they offered. Yet even with that the cost of the online pair (+ lenses) was about $50 including shipping, compared to over $400 for the store-bought version.
The online version showed up bent a bit out of shape. The shipping materials seemed quite adequate to the task of protecting the glasses in transit, so I'm guessing that that was the way that they were in the factory. It looked like someone had nicked one of the earpieces with a knife though, presumably when installing the lenses.
The online pair feels a bit tight around the head, although that could be due to me having gotten used to a somewhat unusual type of arms on my store-bought glasses. The store-bought frames bend outwards quite a bit with a different ear piece, and as a result don't fit in normal glass cases. Even if I where to find a wider pair of glasses the two online-purchased pairs in total would only cost 20% of the store-bought pair.
Another criticism of the online pair of glasses would be their weight - they're probably 2-3x as heavy as the store-version. (Goggles4u may have pairs with lighter weight but their search engine doesn't allow you to search by that, even though they do provide some information as to the weight of the glasses).
(The answer, by the way, to my earlier question is that the mail-order glasses are the ones on the left).
Comments
Darren
Thu, 2008-06-26 13:02
Permalink
Style
Well, you can tell which ones are newer (and, it turns out, cheaper) just by the style. But speaking of style, and photogenic, where are the pictures of Dave from his Egypt trip? For everyone else, yes, I've seen them, and that is all I can reveal at this time.
David
Thu, 2008-06-26 17:31
Permalink
I'm pruning down the shots to
I'm pruning down the shots to a more manageable number now... the first few days are online (if you know where to look) but without comments. I'll probably do a post-per-day-of-travel thing which will start in the next few days.
David
Thu, 2008-06-26 20:31
Permalink
How does the style tell you
How does the style tell you which is cheap?
Darren
Fri, 2008-06-27 09:04
Permalink
Phrasing
The way you phrased the question it implied that the new pair was FAR cheaper than the old...and the old round lens style has been out of date for a long time now. Therefore, the newer style is the cheaper pair!
Darren
http://www.darrenboes.com
David
Fri, 2008-06-27 13:05
Permalink
Both pairs date from pretty
Both pairs date from pretty much the same time. And, you can find frames like this at the same site.
Darren
Fri, 2008-06-27 16:22
Permalink
nerd special
Ahh...the nerd special! And I should know, as an ex-nerd (up to debate amoungst some) *cough* Ryan *cough*
David
Fri, 2008-06-27 18:27
Permalink
Something like that. Also
Something like that. Also provides slightly better peripheral vision.
David
Fri, 2008-06-27 19:14
Permalink
BTW, if you're interested in
BTW, if you're interested in trying something like this I found a web page comparing a bunch of these operations (price, reviews, better business bureau ratings) and it even includes coupons. You can find that here.