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In my local sunglass store iI can buy genuine Wayfarers for a bit more than 100$ so I guess Luxotica’s margin is even higher than expected…

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Luxottica cannibalized and cheapened Ray-Bans a long time ago; see my comment above.

You can definitely go to a mall and get ray bans with solid barrel hinges

You can't. They were only available on the original Ray-Bans before they sold out to Luxottica.

Aren't these what you mean?

https://www.ray-ban.com/eu/sunglasses/RB2140%20UNISEX%20orig...

Thanks! I wasn't aware of that model; they must be new. Looks like they were introduced back in March of this year. Good to see the barrel hinges. But a couple of questions:

Are the lenses glass? (It says they're G-15, which is supposed to be mineral glass, but I don't know if RB has changed the definition somewhere along the line and replaced them with plastic).

Are these only available in EU, or in the US as well?

G-15 is just the tint color (the gray/green). It’s not the material. I’m pretty sure that only way you’re getting glass lenses from Ray-Ban is if you get the high index prescription lenses.

They sell them for like 20 times what they cost to make, according to https://seekingalpha.com/article/4472420-essilorluxotticas-m...

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