Men's Sunglasses
Buy and sell men’s sunglasses in Panama.
The pair you drive to work in is rarely the pair you take on the boat, and men’s sunglasses run from metal aviators and acetate Wayfarer shapes to polarized wraparounds built for a day offshore, plus prescription sun lenses made up by an optician. New and pre-owned pairs both turn up, from Ray-Ban, Oakley and Costa to an optician’s own unbranded frames. Ask the seller for a photo of the lenses against a bright window before you arrange to see them.
Aviators, wraps and prescription sun lenses:
the frame shape is mostly taste, and the lens is what you pay for. A fashion pair, a metal aviator or an acetate Wayfarer shape, usually carries a plain gray or green lens that keeps colors true behind the wheel. Sport and fishing pairs wrap around the face, grip with rubber nose pads and are almost always polarized. Prescription sunglasses carry one man’s lens power, so to anyone else they are only a frame. The cap that keeps sweat off the lenses is under men’s hats and caps, and the dive watch for the same boat trip under men’s watches.
Polarized lenses and the water you fish in Panama:
polarizing cuts the glare off water and wet roads, which is why anyone who fishes wants it, though it can black out a phone or a fishfinder screen when you tilt your head. Lens color depends on where you fish. Offshore in the Gulf of Chiriquí or around Coiba, in hard sun over deep water, a blue mirror on a gray base is the standard. On the flats and reefs of Bocas del Toro, a green mirror on a copper base lifts a fish off sand and coral, and copper or green does the same for peacock bass on Lake Gatún. Glass scratches less but is heavier and can chip; polycarbonate is lighter and scratches sooner. The filter category is printed inside the arm: 3 is the normal dark lens, and 4 is marked as unsuitable for driving. Polarized is not the same as UV protection, so look for a UV400 mark as well.
A Ray-Ban against an optician’s own pair:
an optician’s own-brand pair with a tinted UV lens is around $75 to $95, and polarizing adds about $50. Ray-Ban and Oakley start near $180 and pass $250 polarized, with Costa at that level or above. Used, the value sits in the lenses. Frames barely wear, so a branded pair with clean lenses and its case keeps a good share of its price, while scratched or crazed lenses leave it worth the frame minus new lenses. A prescription pair is the hardest sell, since the next owner replaces the lenses anyway.
Crazing, peeling mirrors and fake etchings on a used pair:
hold each lens to a bright window. A fine web of cracks in the coating, or a mirror flaking at the edges, usually means months on a hot dashboard, and it does not polish out. Check the center of each lens for scratches, work both hinges, and tilt your head at your phone: a genuinely polarized lens darkens the screen. Fakes show in the small marks. A real Ray-Ban has a tiny RB etched near the edge of the left lens and clean printing inside the arms. On a non-prescription Oakley, an O etched on the lens marks a fake; real Prizm lenses are etched Prizm or Polarized, and the frame color runs through the material, so chipped paint inside a hinge is a bad sign.
Arm stamps and lens photos for a pair you are listing:
the printing inside the arms gives the model, lens category and the three sizes for lens, bridge and arm, so photograph both arms in sharp light, then each lens against white and the case if you have it. State glass or polycarbonate, the mirror color and every scratch. If the lenses carry your prescription, say so in the first line. Most used pairs come from men who moved to prescription sun lenses or were given a frame that never sat right, and whoever comes to see yours will want to try them on and check the glare off a windscreen, so meet in daylight.