Glasses & contact lenses with international shipping

Buying glasses over the internet requires having measurements taken by your optometrist or ophthalmologist, in addition to having your exact prescription. Once you’ve done that, it’s mostly a matter of choosing what frames suit you and ordering. I’ve found it very practical to have extra pairs of glasses around, especially for kids – and if you can get them so inexpensively, it’s really worthwhile.

Optical4less has glasses starting at $15/pair. International shipping for a single pair is $8, but if you order 2 or more pairs, the shipping is free. They do charge an additional $59 if your cylinder is lower than -2.75 or higher than +2.75 and $3 for each degree of prism correction on each lens. Of course, they’ve also got other options that can make the glasses more expensive, but you can actually get away with 2 pairs for $30, including free international shipping, if you go for a no-frills look... Optical4less also sells Acuvue, Bausch&Lomb SofLens & FreshLook Colorblends contact lenses starting at $16.25 a box (although, interestingly, the links from this page take you to 1800contacts – which also ships internationally...

Goggles4u also sells prescription glasses and sunglasses. It seems like their search is easier to use (you can plug in the width, height, bridge & other measurements & it lets you know what frames meet your needs). The glasses I needed ended up being $29.99, including free shipping.

Zennioptical offers a complete pair of prescription eyeglasses starting at $8. This includes frames & lenses with full UV protection, anti scratch coating,;a glasses case & microfiber lens cleaning cloth. International shipping is $5 no matter how many pairs you buy! Having your glasses tinted costs under $5 and they’ve got pure titanium frames starting at $39.95.

Know of any others? Let me know!

Gadgets with free international shipping

In addition to Deal Extreme, which I've ordered from several times (and highly recommend), I recently got an email about FocalPrice. The email was from PayPal, which makes me think they're probably totally legit... They've got more USB fans than I knew existed & a selection of inexpensive watches like this one on the right. It runs $3.70 if you buy one, but just $3.41 if you buy three or four. The price continues to go down if you buy 5 or more. These sites are great if you’re looking for watch batteries, cell phone batteries, or any of those little batteries for car alarms, digital scales, etc. (I just got a 10-pack of the kind I needed from DealExtreme for $2.14.) They’ve also got a crazy selection of computer and other gadgets; ipod, nds & psp accessories – including chargers, carrying cases, etc. The stock is always growing, so it’s worth checking out the “New Arrivals” section every few days.

How can you resist this adorable 5” bear for $3.33 (including free international shipping) – and only $3.05 if you buy 3 or 4…

1freeaday is another one to check out. They offer one free item per day with $3.49 flat shipping. The other items on the site include free international delivery on every item. They’ve got a wide selection of items – from baby products and clothing to laptop keyboards, various cables, usb hubs and lingerie (yeah, I’m not quite sure how these fit together either). This picture (on the right) gave me a laugh, but the item itself looks pretty nice – a hood you can wear as a scarf when you go inside -it’s $8.27 including worldwide free shipping.

And what girl wouldn’t love this pink tutu that costs just $10.07, including shipping anywhere in the world? (Currently only available in 3-4yr size).