I kinda-sorta agonized over this purchase off ebay.

I finally found the pair of sunglasses I had been searching for — it had been over 10 years since I bought my pair of silver Ray-Ban Orbs (W2178)… and nearly 8 years since I knocked them off a table and *shattered* one of the lenses. But I never replaced them because they were too expensive to replace.

I loved these glasses.

Why?

Because they fit and they looked good on me (well, at least I think they look good on me).

You see, I have always had a difficult time buying glasses – corrective or protective — because of 3 characteristics of my face… other than the fact that my face is goofy-looking ;-P

1. i have a wide face.
2. i have high cheekbones.
3. i have a small/flat bridge to my nose.

A co-worker of mine, when I was at AOL, had a pair, and I asked to try them on (I asked a lot of folks if I could try their glasses on to see if any thing fit). These sunglasses addressed all my issues… plus they were comfortable and stylish!

I think I had purchased these for about $120 from some online discount store — I believe they retailed somewhere close to $200(?). At the time, I jumped at the chance to buy them precisely because they fit and seemed to work for me stylistically.

But since busting them, I semi-resigned myself to the fact that I’d never be able to justify buying any pair of sunglasses over $25. Cheap, generic, plastic-lensed, disposable-ish sunglasses were the way to go.  But, over years since, whenever I’d complain about or consider buying sunglasses, I’d always think on the Ray-Bans I busted. And, as the years went on, I began to forget what kind of glasses I had.  Where they Ray-Bans? Oakleys? Loops? What were they called again?

Last week, for some odd reason, I decided I would search for them and figure out what kind of glasses I had. It took a few days to find out the name of the now discontinued “vintage” Ray-Ban Orbs. There isn’t a whole lot of info on them — lots and lots of Wayfarer and Aviator info, though!  And upon further searching, I can buy plenty of GOLD Orbs anywhere from $70 to $170. But gold is not my color… I’m more of a silver, platinum, titanium type. Conversely, there was only 1 listing in the US that was for a SILVER pair on ebay for $75 + $8 shipping.

By George, I FOUND IT!!!!

But now, I had to decide if I could justify $83 or more for a pair of sunglasses. There were no bids made yet and there was still a day and a half until close on the ebay listing…… hmmmm… should I?

After some deliberation and discussion with my wife, I decided to bid for them… but in keeping with the “auction game,” I’ll wait until the bidding is about to close to make sure I can “win” the auction for as cheap as possible if it turned into a bidding war. In the meantime, I had emailed the seller to find out if he’d be willing to eat the $7 shipping cost considering there was an option for me to buy a gold pair for $70 w/ free shipping.

He wrote back and said “yes” and would work out the shipping after I won. Cool!

I FORGOT TO GO BACK AN BID ON IT. I realized I had missed the auction’s end 20 minutes too late. DOH!

I quickly emailed dude back and asked if he still had it, and if so, would he mind re-listing as “buy now” w/ free shipping so I could get my hands on these sunglasses. I felt like such a heel asking him to lower the price only to miss the bid and then ask him to post it all over again. (FYI — I wanted him to post via ebay again so I could be make sure I had some buyer protection).

Dude was gracious enough to reply and repost. I do the “buy now” option… zing him the money… and violà!  He sends out the glasses via USPS on Saturday and I get it in the mail on Monday — sweet!

I opened up the package and pulled the sunglasses out of the case… put them on………… nice. I look goooooood!

OK. Now let’s inspect them. Sure the original sunglass case is a little messed up, but the important thing is the condition of these glasses. Dude’s listing said “mint condition” so I shouldn’t see anything major…

There are visible scratches on BOTH lenses. Not horrible… I can deal… but I’m a little miffed because I was set up w/ the expectation that while these glasses were used, they’re in “excellent” condition. These glasses are not as advertised:

RAY-BAN ORBS g15 MAT SILVER ORIG CASE MINT CONDITION
You are bidding on stunning looking, gently used pair of VINTAGE B&L RAY BAN USA MATTE SILVER WRAP G15 ORBS SUNGLASSES w/CASE in excellent condition. Lenses are engraved with small BL logo. The color of lens are grey in excellent/shiny/crisp condition, absolutely nothing major to report…

I emailed dude back to thank him for accommodating me earlier, and for sending them out promptly… and then I let him know my disappointment. I explained… I made my argument… and then I asked him to consider refunding me a portion of the money even though I didn’t have any recourse to make him give me anything back.

His response in a nutshell… “No.”

I emailed back back with an appeal to reason and countered w/ his own words. I also gave a bit of an emotional plea and asked him to play the part of the buyer and see how it might feel if he bought “mint condition” but then received “fair condition.” I suggested refunding $15 or $10.

He is going to refund me $10.  cha-ching!

I feel good about that… like it’s a fair compromise.

And I get the “perfect” sunglasses for me for $65.  And I still think I look good in them.  ;-)

………………

Do you have a favorite pair of sunglasses?  How much would you pay for them?  How much is too much to pay for sunglasses?