What do you do with really old, discontinued frames?

[DrNeyecare]

I recently purchased an office, and I found boxes of really old, maybe 20 year old discontinued. They are unused frames. What do you usually do with these? Is there a place to donate them or sell them to?

[Uni-Clip]

If they are well known brand names, I would suggest to keep them and sooner or later, they'll became antique items. People here in Hong Kong are going back to Wayfarers and particularly those real gunuine old Wayfarers made in the early 80's. They could worth something......

Lak Cheong
www.acuityeyewear.com

[Snitgirl]

DrNeyecare,

I was once in the same situation about 2 years ago. What I did was make a window display out of them since the ones that I had were considered "retro" and to my amazement I ended up selling 3/4 of them. A lot of them were made into Plano Sunglasses. Even though they were old in style, the quality was pretty darn good. It really depends on the styles that you have and your location. I was very close to the beach..

I recently purchased an office, and I found boxes of really old, maybe 20 year old discontinued. They are unused frames. What do you usually do with these? Is there a place to donate them or sell them to?

[cocoisland58]

Insurance board, ready made plano suns, sell them to a resale or boutique eye shoppe in a college area. I live near Ann Arbor. If I had a box of retro frames I could unload them on a street corner pretty quick.

[harry888]

They are a great source of screws, nosepads and other parts.

Or put plano sun lenses in some (even just as demo lenses to show what they would look like as sunglasses), surprising how they might move.

Harry

[chip anderson]

Offer free (with lenses at full price) as a 2nd pair (telling patient the are new unused but parts are unavailable). Tell patient the are ideal for: Golf glasess, working on the car glasses, painting the house glasses, etc.
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
If you don't want to do this quote me a price in a P.M.

Chip

[Chris Ryser]

..................Is there a place to donate them or sell them to?

Keep the old ******s. If I would not have thrown out a few thousands of rimless gold filled frames in the late 1960's I could have made a fortune over tha last few years. They are paid, ad only eat dust and are happy to sit in a corner.

[MarcE]

What about frames that haven't sold for a few years that are not such high quality as the gold-filled rimless or Wayfarers? Of course the Aviators always sell, no matter how old. But what about the others? We all have a few (dozen? hundred?) of those.

[C-10]

Put them on ebay

[HarryChiling]

Put them on ebay

List it as a lot (50 frames, 100 frames) they'll move.

[cocoisland58]

What about frames that haven't sold for a few years that are not such high quality as the gold-filled rimless or Wayfarers? Of course the Aviators always sell, no matter how old. But what about the others? We all have a few (dozen? hundred?) of those.

Why did you keep discontinued frames? I inherited a hundred or so from an inventory buy-out. Marked them cheap or put them on the insurance board. Sold 90 percent of them in two years and gave the rest to charity.

[DrNeyecare]

Hey thanks for the opinions guys.

From your comments, I have two more questions:

1) If I sell discontinued frames at a significantly lower cost, wouldn't problems arise when I need to replace a part of the frame that broke, ie a temple?

2) If I display the frames at a marked down price, what's to stop a patient from buying these nice bargain frames versus spending double on a more recent current frame?

[GOS_Queen]

Hey thanks for the opinions guys.

From your comments, I have two more questions:

1) If I sell discontinued frames at a significantly lower cost, wouldn't problems arise when I need to replace a part of the frame that broke, ie a temple?

2) If I display the frames at a marked down price, what's to stop a patient from buying these nice bargain frames versus spending double on a more recent current frame?

1) Sell them "as is", no warranty

2) Our offices keep them easily available but not directly on the selling floor. The frames are used for price conscious people, second pair packages etc.

[GOS_Queen]

List it as a lot (50 frames, 100 frames) they'll move.

Good idea!

[GOS_Queen]

I recently purchased an office, and I found boxes of really old, maybe 20 year old discontinued. They are unused frames. What do you usually do with these? Is there a place to donate them or sell them to?

Do you get Lions clubs referrals for patients needing exam/glasses?

Or is there a clinic at one of the optometry schools (maybe they help low income people??)

[Andrew Weiss]

Our offices keep them easily available but not directly on the selling floor. The frames are used for price conscious people, second pair packages etc.

Ideally I put them in frame display trays and keep them in back, bring them out when I need to. If I have no frame display trays, I keep them in boxes. I also make sure to tell them that there are no warrantees and spare parts may not be available, and I write on their order, "Frame discontinued, no warrantees" in big letters while I'm sitting in front of the patient.

[Johns]

When you consider how much time and energy goes into trying to peddle/salvage all the garbage you have laying around, it's actually a relief when you hear the "thunk" of them hitting the bottom of the dumpster.

If I have 100 frames that are downright dogs, I save 10 of them for parts, toss the rest, and wait on another customer.


Life's to short to hang on to junk...

[DrNeyecare]

good ideas guys! Keep them coming!

[JERRY HUANG]

I usually modify old frames to different finishes or look...:D ! If they end up to look good then i sell them 3 times higher.....or trash them if i don't like it.