The insane price is mainly in special lens features and well designed frames. If you can get by with more ordinary looking frames there are several companies that do frames for $100 or less. As for the lenses if you can deal with plastic vs glass, non scratch resistant vs scratch resistent, non anti glare vs anti glare, non transition vs transition (the kind the automatically become like sunglasses in bright light) then lenses can become more reasonable. Most of those high prices are for the bells and whistles that make more sense when your lens prescription stays the same for year after year after year. As you get into your senior years though, where there is a good chance you'll need your prescription updated every 2 years all those fancy features make less sense especially if you've become more house bound.Be prepared for sticker shock. I just lost a 3 month old pair. The identical replacement was $100 more than the already insane price . . .