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I was in the market for a backup pair of glasses the other day and I thought I would give one of the lesser-known but reputable online retailers a shot to see how the overall service and quality of their eyewear was.

39DollarGlasses was born 20 years ago by a couple of eye doctors that believed that quality eyewear should be available to all and not hinder your life because of financial difficulties or lack of insurance.

They carry a large selection of in-house designed frames with many different colors and designs to choose from. All of their frames are at a very affordable price, and one of the reasons I picked them to purchase my back up pair of glasses from. The one downside to 39DollarGlasses.com is that they don’t carry any designer brands what so ever so if you are looking for designer brands you will have to look elsewhere, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker for me since I just needed back up glasses.

39DollarGlasses Review

I have been following 39DollarGlasses.com for some years and their website has improved quite nicely over the years. When you arrive on the homepage you can easily navigate to what you are looking for on the top whether you are looking for eyeglasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses.

Ordering your glasses

They have frames available for the entire family with frames for you and your children. I was looking for glasses for myself so I navigated to the men’s section of the eyeglasses to take a look at what they had.

Choose your frames

Remember 30DollarGlasses.com has a large selection of frames which can be quite overwhelming to looking through every single one, so you might want to use the filters to select specific things you are looking for to help narrow down the selection a bit. Things that you can narrow your selection down to include the frame material, shape, color, width, length, and type.

For example with me, I need frames that have a slightly wider fit because my head is a bit large so I always select the wider frame width filters. There is no point in me looking at frames that are narrow since they don’t fit. Just like if you didn’t like a certain color then why would you want to see them. 

This is one of the benefits of purchasing eyewear online if you want to look for specific things it is easier then looking through the walls and walls of frames at your local optical shop since you can select your preferences and boom! All of the frames with your preferences are right in front of you to look through.

For me, I just wanted simple black frames that are wide enough so after applying my filters and looking through the frames I ended up settling on the Jericho frames. They were a simple, black, and rectangle plastic frame that was wide enough to fit comfortably.

After you choose your frame and you are ready to move on you click on the “Select Lens Type” button to continue.

Pick your lenses

At 39DollarGlasses.com they offer three different types of lenses that you are able to get. Which lens you decide to go with will be based on your prescription and of course your preference. The lens options include:

• Single Vision – These are lenses that have one power throughout the entire lens, therefore you can either use them to see far or up close but not both powers combined into one. This is what most people get if you are under 40 years old, individuals who are over 40 that need reading glasses could get single-vision reading glasses as well.

• Regular Bifocal – These are lenses that have two different powers that you could use to be able to see far as well as up close. These lenses have a distinct line for the area in which you would use for reading.

• Progressive Bifocal – This lens is also known as the no-line bifocal, or blended bifocal. These lenses have three different power ranges that you are able to look out of. It starts with your distance power on the top and slowly blends down to your reading power. The appearance of the lenses looks like how single vision lenses look, no one would ever know you are wearing bifocals.

I only need single vision lenses for my glasses to be able to see far so I selected single-vision. One of the perks about purchasing your glasses from 39DollarGlasses.com is the fact that they provide you with polycarbonate lenses with a scratch-resistant coating free of charge for single-vision. Polycarbonate lenses are an upgrade from plastic lenses and is 10 times more impact resistant than plastic and glass.

Lens upgrades

At 39DollarGlasses.com there are a number of lens upgrades that are available if you choose to get better lenses. Why might you want to upgrade your lenses? Your doctor may recommend you to get certain coatings such as the anti-reflective coating if you have astigmatism to help reduce the glare you may see. Take a look below for more details.

• Premium Anti-Glare Coating – Also known as the anti-reflective coating, this coating helps enhance your vision by allowing more light through the lens into your eyes. Since there is no material that lets 100% light through, this lens helps more light get through to provide you with clearer and sharper vision.

• Seiko Super Thin Lenses – This lens is the ultra-thin 1.67 high-index lens upgrade option if you have a stronger prescription and want your lenses to be as thin as possible. Usually recommended for individuals who have a prescription stronger than +/- 3.50. The high-index lens upgrade also provides you with a lens that is more scratch-resistant than polycarbonate.

• Tinted Sunglass Lenses – If you are looking to get sunglass lenses this is one of your options. These lenses are tinted lenses with UV protection treatment. These lenses will provide your eyes with 100% protection from harmful UV rays.

• NuPolar Polarized Lenses. – This is an upgrade to the tinted sunglass lenses, and will not only provide you with protection from the harmful UV rays but will also provide more comfort by reducing reflecting glare. Polarized lenses are also great for anyone who likes to spend time doing water sports or around snow. The glare reflecting off of large bodies of water or snow could cause a condition called photokeratitis.

• Transitions – Also known as photochromic lenses or light adaptive lenses, they are lenses are sensitive to UV rays and they transition into sunglasses when exposed to UV rays. These lenses are great if your someone that spends a good amount of time outdoors and do not want to carry multiple pairs of glasses around.

• Blue495 – This is an anti-reflective coating that also blocks High-Energy Visible (HEV) blue light that is emitted by digital devices and article light sources such as fluorescent lights and LED lights. Studies have shown that exposure to HEV blue light over time can be toxic for your eyes can accelerate age-related macular degeneration.

For this particular pair I was ordering I didn’t want to purchase any add-ons or upgrades so I left them exactly the way they are advertised $39.

Arrival

The glasses didn’t take very long to come in, from the day that I placed my order it was at my house within a week. It arrived in a large white padded envelop packaging with 39DollarGlasses’ logo on the front.

The content inside was well protected and there wasn’t anything that was damaged. Inside I found an eyeglass case (I would assume my glasses are in there), a cleaning cloth, a packing slip, and a postcard style thank you card.

The glasses are assembled in their lab located in Long Island, New York, and the little postcard does give it a  nice little touch. But I didn’t place an order for a thank you card I ordered glasses.

The Glasses

Before doing anything with the glasses I checked the prescription on the lenses of the glasses to make sure that the prescription on these lenses is made correctly according to my prescription I submitted.

Prescription eyewear do not have to be made 100% accurate to the prescription. But there are a set of limits that are set by The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in which a prescription can be wrong. When I checked the pair I received from 39DollarGlasses.com the prescription on my glasses was within ANSI standards and is good to go.

My first impression of this frame though is that it feels a slight bit flimsy. It doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal, especially if your someone like myself who is planning on using this pair as a backup pair of glasses.

One thing I did regret not getting on this pair of glasses is the anti-reflective coating. It is pretty annoying to try and take a photo with the flash on and the flash is reflecting off the lenses of your glasses. I also can’t use glasses with a computer without anti-reflective coating because the glare gives me a headache. These were only intended to be as a backup pair anyways so they are perfectly fine.

39DollarGlasses Refund Policy

Another thing you always want to take note of when you are looking for online retailers is to check their return policy. Occasionally you might find one that doesn’t even give you a shipping label for return shipping and you have to get it yourself. This isn’t the case with 39DollarGlasses.com, they offer a 30-day full refund policy, and a 90-day full exchange or store credit policy.

Final Thoughts

Would I recommend 39DollarGlasses.com? Absolutely, they are a reputable American online retailer that provides high-quality eyewear at great prices. The fact that they have a great processing and shipping time is always an added bonus, we all want our glasses as soon as possible.

Have you used 39DollarGlasses.com before? How was your experience? I would love to hear from you! Drop me a comment below!

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