How much for glasses!!????

Whoa!

More than I'd like, not that much.

My insurance covers some of it but not all. I think I paid $100 some when all was said and done.

I got these a few years ago and have been using my yearly insurance allotment for contacts since then. I think I can eke a couple more years out of these, if there are no disasters (knock on wood). I wear contacts maybe 20% of the time, so a "year's supply" is really like 10 weeks' supply.

boomer :

so you didn't ask for a quote first ?
prices seem to vary widely . i just needed new bifocals and was quoted from about $ 180 to about $ 400 .
i took the $ 180 + $ 40 extra for scratch-resistant , slight tint and two-year warranty ( that's canadian price - probably less in the u.S. ) .

i'm sure you look sharp with your new glasses .
( get an old pair of plastic glasses for the dog to chew on )

For what you are describing, Boomer, I would say that sounds like the going rate. I can't figure out why the empty frames are so much money (cheapest pair my optomitrist had was $135) when all they are is plastic and a little metal. I've heard of people buying from places on-line and being very happy with the cost and products, but I don't remember any specific sites. My MIL recently had a complicated pair of glasses made by her private eye doctor that cost close to what you paid. She then went to Walmart and bought a pair of frames for $45 and had them duplicate the prescription for a total cost of $225. She uses them as a backup pair. She feels the medical services at the big box are inferior, but the glasses can be just as good. I personally have a hard time giving Walmart any of my pennies, but I can understand why people go there if they can't afford anything else.

Next time go to Costco or Walmart for the exam, and then order your glasses online. You can browse the selection at a retail place to figure out what looks good on you, and then find something like it online. Prob would have cut $200-$300 off your price. Some people have a problem with this on ethical grounds, using a brick and mortar store without the possibility of them getting your business, but right now on a lot a goods they are so much above internet pricing that we consumers need to consider it. Also, Internet is still mostly tax free, though if the collective was smart we would end tax free internet sales.

My insurance doesn't cover glasses or an eye exam. The exam was $130.00.

Are you the artist previously known as "hamburger"? If so, where the heck have you been? So nice to see you again. If not, welcome to my thread.

I did have her total stuff up. I had a pair of super cool old frames that I wanted to have made into sunglasses but that would have bumped my total up to almost $1,000. I had to pass. I had the Transition option added in instead for an extra $80.00.

I know my perscription is not only strong, but very tricky. The mall places I'd been to in the past, where they're supposed to make your glasses in one hour, always had to send mine out to be made.

I was prepared to spend some money. I had $500 in my pocket expressly for glasses. I don't spend a lot of money on clothes, jewelry, etc but I wear my glasses every day from the time I wake up til the time I go to sleep. I knew I'd pick out frames that ran a couple of hundred bucks.

Still, I thought I'd budgeted well and that I'd have a little change left over.

Silly me.

I can't wear contacts. My eyes are too goofy.

So, how do you determine the frame size? Is that part of the prescription?

hi , boomer !
yes , i was formerly known as hamburger - still looking in here sometimes .
some topics/posters have just gotten too hot for me - and old-age is creeping up ... ...
thanks for noticing me !
still "hbg"

ps, as a senior i get a free annual eye-examination under canada's/ontario's "socialized" insurance system

and my insurance refunded me $ 200 - i am a socialist when required

Thanks Green Witch. I don't feel quite so astounded anymore. Maybe I'll try that duplicate thing with my old frames and a lesser store.

I will NEVER have glasses made at Costco again. I tried that once and it was a disaster. Although I'm semi-retired now I made my living as a photographer, if my vision isn't perfect, and I mean spot on perfect, I'm wrecked. I need better glasses than Costco could dream of making for me.

Oregon doesn't have sales tax. Yeah!!!!

Yup, it's expensive alright! That sounds like in the ballpark.

I've paid in the past around $500 for eyeglasses, not including a comprehensive exam.

I think that the size you refer to is decided by the PD size, which is not normally on you prescription but which you can ask for at your exam. I know that at Costco the exam is done by a person who has a contract with Costco but who is otherwise a full independent. I suspect that they would have no prob doing this for you. If you must you can do it yourself
http://www.eyebuydirect.com/extra_measuring_pupils.php

I have not done this before so I could be wrong, but I do know that online eyeglass sales are exploding so people do find a way to get the size correct. Going through the racks at places like Walmart is part of the process of getting a good result from online I think.

It's lovely to see you again, hamburgerboy! I hope all is well for you and yours.

You're absolutely right, roger, about the frames and it's interaction with the prescription. That's one of the things I really did like about the place I went to today. I picked out several frames I liked and based on my prescription they told me which frames would work best. (I have to have a frame that sits high and close to my eyes. They ordered a size down from the display size too, knowing that the fit would be better.) When you have complicated vision the frame can make a very, very big difference.

My glasses are always serious business. A while back I needed a temporary pair before my next eye surgery, after which insurance should pay for the one pair after that. People suggested Walmart. I hate Walmart. I shut myself up and took myself to Walmart, where my glasses were too complicated, but they had a guy they referred me to. Curmudgeonly old guy (I can relate) in a truly ugly building. But, I liked him. Turns out he didn't mind if I used my old frames (yack, but ok). So, for trifocals, not the very thinest polymer (or whatever you call it), non scratch, uv protection, it came to something like $140., the lowest I've paid in years.

My idea of eyeglass heaven, which I visited once, some years ago, was a good pair of prescription sunglasses. Ms. Picky likes a kind of brown red tint, which is said to be good for people with rp. I have to be careful, as sunglasses can make things too dark for me in some situations, and then I need the glass to be crystal clear and bright. (Driving through high intensity light with dark shadows, oh, say, a redwood forest in summer..., some times of day even in New Mexico). Prescription sunglasses, a big luxury I'd like to have.

Next time, I'm going to go for bifocals (vision changes), but with a bigger part of the lens doing the work. I forget the name for that - but I like widescreen, much as I can get it. My favorite glasses years ago were a then trendy pair by Liz Claiborne - huge with black frames. Made me look like a younger female George Burns, or maybe better, a chubby old 'n wrinkly Audrey Hepburn - but really helpful vision wise.

Assuming insurance pays for my next ones as part of the surgery, big assumption, I'll do some looking around for the ophthalmalogically best place in town. Otherwise, back to the nice curmudgeon..

I forgot about Costco - as a company I prefer them to Walmart, but I haven't been a costco member since maybe 2006. Too damned tempting for some of the products, but possibly reasonable to take out a membership just for glasses, and perhaps drug prescriptions only. Still, I figure they would have had trouble with my trifocal complexity too. Online, probably swell for others. With my mishugas I need a human.

I'd like to find me a crumudgen. Perscription sunglasses are the best thing ever. I haven't had a pair since my mom retired.

And thanks, Reyn, for letting me know I'm not that far from the ballpark. Is your prescription complicated?

I think for most people eye correction is pretty easy. When your vision gets complicated things get a little nutty.

I have high interoccular pressure, always have, but I don't have any of the eye disease it usually indicates. There isn't anything they can do about it but I always allow the additional testing to make sure my eyes are healthy. I don't want to go blind. That probably drives the cost of my exam up.

Roger, your frame may say the size in little itty bitty print on the 'stem'. On mine I can't see that even with a magnifying glass, but my glasses stems are thin, thus the print strikingly tiny. Or, call your last optometrist. Or go into a shop and try on glasses, find out the size, then say you'll think about it..

I still like humans to deal with, and most optometrists do try to work with you. One did get a little too excited about my eye problems, wanting to look at my eyes with special instruments so he could see what rp looks like. He meant well, but no thanks.

Helpful ideas on frame sizes.

For the benefit of whoever might drop in, Medicare and most private insurance will cover an exam (with opthomogist) if you have diabetes.

I hate that non-glare crapola . . . i let the guy talk me into the last time (recently), but never again. The lenses smudge so easily, and i have enough vision problems as it is--i'd rather have the glare and do without lenses that seem to smudge if i cross my eyes while wearing them.

Cheapest i could find that i was willing to wear, including the cost of the stupid no-glare option and it came out to just under $300.

lasik boom, lasik

I've never regretted it for a minute.

boomer,

I've paid that much for just the glasses not counting the exam. I'm like you- powerful prescription, progressive bifocals. It sucks to be blind.