Quality is determined in eye of the beholder

It's important to remember that price can be connected to quality.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Whether your sunglasses cost as much as a fast-food lunch or a living room sofa, the prices of shades cover the spending spectrum.
And they can be found in almost any place.
Prices at drug stores, gas stations and discount chains run $5, $10, $15.
More costly versions at $30, $300 or even $1,300 are sold at department stores, optical outlets and exclusive boutiques.
What's important to remember is that price can be connected to quality.
"A lot of times the expensive sunglasses are the best quality ... the inexpensive are disposable," said Donald Borsand, president of Henry Ford Optimeyes.
That doesn't mean inexpensive, high-quality sunglasses don't exist.
Thanks to technological improvements in sunglass manufacturing, the quality-price gap has narrowed, said Henry Lane, chairman of market research for the Sunglass Association of America and president of Dioptics, a sunglass-maker in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
"The quality of all sunglasses continues to get substantially better," Lane said.
Great protection
The greatest improvement was manufacturers' decision to coat nearly all sunglass lenses in order to protect the eyes from ultraviolet rays, he said.
"You now have a very consistent offering of 100-percent protection. That's a big change from 10 years ago, when some sunglasses had very questionable UV protection," Lane said.
"But from that point on, quality is in the eye of the beholder."
Ophthalmologists say they commonly hear people complain about headaches and dizziness after they've worn low-quality glasses.
Cheaper lenses often aren't ground and therefore distort the vision, Borsand said. Also, the lenses often don't fit the frames well, and that affects the way things are seen, he said.
Options can be costly
Like a new car, the price of nonprescription sunglasses goes up with the number of options.
The popular polarized lens that blocks light reflected off roads, sand and snow, costs extra, as do designer names, lightweight titanium frames and scratch-resistant and antiglare coatings.
About 95.3 million pairs of nonprescription, or plano, sunglasses were sold in 15 major markets surveyed by the Sunglass Association in 2002.
Of those, 89 percent cost under $30. The remaining 11 percent, however, made up 55 percent of the $2.1 billion in sales, Lane said.
"People who want to have the highest fashion, the coolest looking glasses are willing to pay a significant cost for those even though a majority of Americans will buy a cheaper sunglass for their everyday needs," Lane said.