I needed reading glasses fast. My close-up vision was getting blurry. I saw those cool-looking Elbru Anti Blue Light Reading Glasses online. They looked cheap and stylish. I thought, "Perfect!"
Big mistake. I made five dumb errors buying my first pair of presbyopia glasses. I wasted money and ended up with headaches. Learn from me so you don't have to.
I get it, we all want to save money. But when you buy glasses for almost nothing, you get almost nothing in return. I went for the absolute lowest price on a set of reading glasses.
The result? The frame felt like thin candy wrapper plastic. If you dropped them once, they were done. The hinges were squeaky from day one.
The cheapest option always uses the cheapest parts. They will snap, scratch, or fall apart right when you need them most. Don't make my error.
The product description for the Elbru glasses promised "Anti Blue Light." I focused only on that feature. I didn't stop to think about the quality of the lens material itself.
Cheap lenses often have thin coatings. This means the anti-blue light feature might rub off quickly. Worse, the cheap plastic lenses scratch if you just look at them wrong.
Look at what the frames are made of. Good quality frames often use TR90 plastic, which bends instead of breaking. If they don't list the material, assume it’s low quality.
I bought my typical diopter strength, +2.0. I trusted the seller. But online reading glasses can be made poorly. The listed strength might not be the actual strength.
If your lenses are weaker than advertised, you strain your eyes trying to focus. If they are stronger, you get dizzy and sick.
This is where real buyer feedback matters. Scroll past the flashy 5-star reviews. Read the 2-star and 3-star reviews. These reviews often tell you if the strength is wrong, the tint is weird, or the fit is off.