Does anyone currently sell used eyeglasses in their stores and advertise them as Pre-owned or Used ?
Does anyone currently sell used eyeglasses in their stores and advertise them as Pre-owned or Used ?
Any special reason to sell used eyeglasses these days? Will patients accept to purchase used spectacles?
Discussions!
Hey lets just throw used hearing aids in with those. And dont forget the dentures.
Retro pairs...absolutely! Zero warranty. It's a very tiny portion of our inventory, but we have enough people looking and buying those that we keep them.
A man went to an eye specialist to get his eyes tested and asked, "Doctor, will I be able to read after wearing glasses?"
"Yes, of course," said the doctor, "why not!"
"Oh! How nice it would be," said the patient with joy, "I have been illiterate for so long."
Consider partnering with a funeral home or coroners office. They have access to tons of used stuff. In addition to the afore mentioned eyewear, hearing aids and dentures there is probably a good market for prosthetics and colostomy supplies. You just might strike it rich and hit upon an iron lung or pacemaker.
retro frames are a big niche market now, we (at both places I work) get people coming in with old/antique frames wanting new lenses. I would not devote a ton of space, but.........
Originally Posted by rbaker
Yea, but the undertaker gets all the gold fillings....
There's funeral homes Bidding for this guys business!
The best place to find used gum is under the seats of benches. In the winter, it's really difficult to peel off, and once you do, you really have to chew hard to get it going.
My brother bet me $1 once that I couldn't chew the wrinkles out of a piece of gum. I said I would take the bet, but he had to watch me do it. He got tired of watching me chew (mouth WIDE open of course) after a 1/2 hour, and rather than miss his basketball practice, he paid me the dollar.
What does any of this have to do with used eyeglasses? Not a damn thing, but it makes about as much sense...
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Don't you need a second hand license to sell used preowned merchandise!?!?!??
I thought federal law prohibits the sale of used appliances such as glasses...and that's why much of it winds up in other countries.
Are you talking about complete pairs of glasses? Lenses and all? Or just frames? Even if there were a market for it (Which I'm sure there is in some places) I can't even imagine the logistics of trying to sell complete pairs of used glasses. You'd have to have a LOT of inventory to get a good range of RXs, have to catalog them all, try to match to the patients script etc etc... Is that even legal? I can't see it being so. If you're talking about frames, I don't think there'd be an issue with it. There are a lot of low income people out there who would be happy to get a decent looking used frame on the cheap. Nevermind all the antique/retro stuff people have already mentioned.
There IS a market for it, just look on EBay under Vintage glasses or Vintage Sunglasses. Not that's we'd do it, but there are buyers out there.
Do the posters in this thread really not see a difference between a medical device that simultaneously functions as an article of clothing and does not insert into a bodily orifice? Have none of you ever bought a shirt at a garage sale?
For all of the whining about online taking away business... with vintage frames fetching in the triple digits, and people willingly dishing out that money with no insurance applied to it... why not?
If that were the case, pretty much every antique store in the country would be shut down. It's nigh impossible to go into one and not find at least one pair of antique spectacles.
I buy used clothing all the time and I think it is a great deal. However, people have glasses on for up to 16 hours a day and I think we all know how often they get cleaned. I just think it is kind of gross.
I am no expert here, but from my time as a Lion and as a Gift of Sight team member, I don't believe there are any laws governing or preventing the sale of used eyewear. However, the ethics of such sales are, in my mind, suspect. If you are bound by regulation, as we are in VA, to abide by current ANSI standards as to the accuracy and safety of prescription eyewear dispensed, then trying to match a patients parameters is nearly impossible.
When I travelled with a GOS mission to Kenya in 1993, we brought 20,000 pair of recycled eyeglasses and were hard pressed to hit every rx, PD and proper size for the more than 3,000 patients we worked with.
Johns, just to expound on your comment on the gum, as a teenager I worked at a drive-in restuarant. An older guy taught me a trick in coin recovery when coins are at the bottom of a grate. Chew gum, then stick it to top of broom handle and stick the handle through the grate and viola!
I sell vintage frames only.
Wait! Wait! Hold it! What is the question?
I sell a lot of vintage glasses, but I don't sell used. I will put lenses into almost any old piece of dog scrap glasses someone bring in to me, but I sure don't carry them.
Vintage does not equal used.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Vintage does not equal used (absolute statement)
BUT
a Vintage item can be used....
Im not talking about the resale of vintage frames for collector value or reglazing into useable glasses. I'm talking about distributing piles of used glasses to Americans as medical devices.
LOL, well, put THHHAAATT way, that is just gross. I personally meant frames from 60's and earlier, "refurbished" if you will, WITHOUT lenses. If they want it, who am I to tell them no? We always have some beautiful ones on display (as part of a display) and occassionally have a request from someone to purchase them...I am more than willing to oblige.
A man went to an eye specialist to get his eyes tested and asked, "Doctor, will I be able to read after wearing glasses?"
"Yes, of course," said the doctor, "why not!"
"Oh! How nice it would be," said the patient with joy, "I have been illiterate for so long."
Continuing to collect old, used eyeglasses is an outmoded concept.nand disgusting.
A $7.95 pair from Zenni is cheaper and so, so much better.
B
Yes, but Barry.....millions of Lions members are working collecting such eyewear. Are you sayin that their time and money is better spent buying some shady chinese produced new inventory to donate to the 3rd world and the needy?
Eyes wide open
I only inventory "used" display and sample frames for sale..............., or special "restored" jewelry items. They are noted as such to the purchaser. It means they have been gently "abused by consumers".... to try on.
We always supply fresh untouched inventory for fabrication, with the exception of back-orders, where need for delivery is paramount. The sample frames are then archived for parts, or returned(to distributor), or sold as abused.
Eyes wide open
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