For many years I labored under the delusion that when doing my normal outdoor activities such as fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and skiing polarized glasses were neat and everything, but not worth the price that some people pay for them. So I did what a lot of people do. I feel into the routine of buying inexpensive, or should I say cheap, polarized glasses. I mean, I simply wasn’t going to spend like $100 on a pair of sun glasses, and that was that.
So I did what I normally did, and bought a new pair of polarized glasses every year, and never spending more than $20 for them. And why did I buy a new pair every year? Because they never seemed to work right, and they would invariably end up scratched, and/or I would simply lose them. This cycle went on for quite a few years, until one day when I was looking for a new pair of polarized glasses, a friend of mine told me to use his for a couple of days instead. I took him up on the offer and had an epiphany of sorts.
I used these borrowed glasses for a week or so in which time I went both mountain bilking and fishing. I was totally amazed at these borrowed polarized glasses. The clarity and comfort they provided was almost unbelievable. I truly couldn’t believe it. When I returned the glasses, I asked him how much they cost him? He said it was a couple of years ago, but something like $150. I almost had a heart attack! But he said, “Dude, you get what you pay for”. I went on my way to buy yet another $20 pair of polarized sun glasses, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was so impressed with my friend’s glasses that I did it.
I bit my tongue and spent $150 on a pair just like he had. That was 7 years ago! I still have the same polarized glasses! I found out that if I spent that much money on them, I took great care of them, who would have thought? I was thinking about it the other day and realized something. If I amortize the cost of my glasses, they only cost me about $22 a year. That’s less than I used to pay for the cheap ones! I was amazed by this. I guess sometimes just because the cost seems steep upfront, in the long run, it’s actually a better deal.
In the case of polarized glasses, not only do the quality ones end up being a better deal, the functionality is so much better, it really can’t be explained in words. Until I got my quality polarized glasses, I really didn’t have a clue what polarized glasses were actually like and how much better they really are.