This is Part 1 of a 5-part review. Jump to Part 2: Glasses.com, Part 3: Warby Parker, Part 4: DB Vision, or Part 5: Summary and Conclusion.
If you wear eyeglasses, then you know that a trip to your optician can be costly. And if you need
high-index lenses (like myself), then you know that buying a pair of glasses isn't as simple as walking into an optician, choosing a fashionable frame and asking for the cheapest lenses they have. High index lenses are thinner and lighter alternatives to traditional plastic or polycarbonate lenses and are a necessity for stronger prescriptions (usually +/- 4.00). The weight and thickness of the lens is considerably reduced (by stages, with each level thinner costing more), making them ideal for people who would otherwise be sporting coke-bottle glasses. Thinned high-index lenses, equipped with necessary add-ons like antiglare and anti-scratch coatings, typically cost upwards of $300 at minimum. For my prescription, I have been quoted up to $600 for standard high-index polycarbonate and up to $900 for “digital lenses”. (I'll address digital lenses in a later part of this multipart review).
I haven't bought new glasses in years, so I'm looking to purchase two pairs (one for a spare), and I'm doing it on a post-PhD budget. Retail prices are simply not going to cut it.
The plight of high-index lens wearers knows no bounds. Those Buy-1-Get-1-Free offers that you see at all of the major optical chains? Read the fine print, and you'll notice that they exclude prescriptions stronger than +/-4.00. If you have comprehensive vision insurance at 80-100% of the full cost of eyewear, then you're the 1% when it comes to eyewear(!), so buying discount glasses off the internet - the subject of this post - is probably not for you. But if you, like myself, are amongst the ranks of the perennially uninsured in the United States (remember,
we're the greatest country in the world), then read on.
