Men's Sunglasses
Buy and sell men’s sunglasses in Costa Rica.
Under a sun that sits almost overhead all year, and bites harder again on the slopes of Irazú or the climb over Cerro de la Muerte, a man’s sunglasses do real work here. Metal aviators, wayfarer-style acetate frames and Oakley wraparounds sit beside polarized fishing glasses and prescription sun lenses, new and pre-owned. The lens is what you are paying for: its tint, whether it blocks UV and whether it has been scratched. A frame can look perfect while the lens in it has been wiped on a T-shirt for years.
Aviators, wayfarers and wraparound sports frames:
the shape decides the fit and how much light gets in at the sides. A metal aviator, the Ray-Ban teardrop being the one everybody knows, is light and rests on adjustable nose pads. Wayfarer-style acetate frames are heavier and sit on a fixed bridge that has to fit you, because acetate cannot be bent to rescue it. Wraparounds such as Oakley’s curve round to the temple, stay put on a bike or a boat and block glare from the side, though they look odd with a shirt and tie. An aviator’s metal is easy to match to a steel or gold men’s watch, and a tall frame can catch the brim of a cap: see men’s hats and caps. Lenses are glass or plastic. Glass, still fitted to some classic Ray-Ban models, is very clear and hard to scratch, but heavier and it can crack. Polycarbonate is lighter and takes a knock, which is why sports frames use it, but it scratches sooner.
Dark lenses, UV400 and the sun at altitude:
tint is comfort; the UV400 marking is what says the lens blocks ultraviolet, and a dark lens without it is shade and nothing more. UV gets stronger with height, by roughly a tenth for every kilometre, so a morning at the Irazú crater asks more of a lens than the same hour in the Central Valley. The road over Cerro de la Muerte to Pérez Zeledón swings from hard sun to cloud within minutes, which suits a mid-dark lens better than the darkest. Photochromic lenses barely darken behind a windscreen. Polarized lenses, the speciality of fishing brands such as Costa Del Mar, take the glare off water and wet tarmac.
A Ray-Ban or Oakley pair against an unbranded one:
a genuine Ray-Ban or Oakley runs from about ₡100,000 to ₡150,000 new. An unbranded pair costs a fraction of that and gives up lens quality. Second-hand, the lens sets the price more than the frame does. A branded pair with clean lenses, its case and the receipt holds a good share of its value, because the buyer is paying for proof that it is genuine as much as for the glasses. One scratch across the middle of a lens takes most of that away, since new branded lenses cost a large slice of what the whole pair did.
Scratches, crazing and loose hinges on used sunglasses:
hold each lens up to the light and tilt it. Fine scratches in the centre sit right where you look; marks at the edge matter less. A web of tiny cracks in the coating, called crazing, comes from heat, often from a pair left in a parked car, and it does not polish out. Look through each lens at a door frame and move it slowly: if the straight line bends or ripples, the lens is poor or a copy. Check that the frame sits level on a table and the hinges have no play. Yellowed nose pads and sticky rubber on Oakley arms can be replaced, so they count for less than the lens. Copies of Ray-Ban and Oakley come with a box, a case and a cloth, so none of those proves anything, and the model printed inside the arm should match the box label. A UV400 sticker is only a sticker: an optician can measure the UV block in seconds, and a seller who is sure of a pair will not mind.
A pair of sunglasses for sale, photographed against the light:
take one shot with the lenses held up to a bright window so scratches show, and others of the hinges, the nose pads and the print inside the arm. Say whether the lens is glass or plastic, polarized or photochromic, original or a replacement. Lenses ground to your prescription are no use to anyone else, so sell that pair as a frame and say so. Then meet in daylight: a dark lens can only be judged in the sun, and a buyer who has come in from Puntarenas or Alajuela will want to step outside with them on before deciding.