Monday, May 26, 2008

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Friday, December 28, 2007

Oakley Cube for Sale

I know no one reads this BUT, here is a video of an Oakley display Cube that I have for sale. E-mail me at OsmosisJones14@hotmail.com if you are interested and an offer. Thanks!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Oakley Hijinx Review

I have owned at least one pair of Oakley Hijinx since late September. About a month ago I picked up two more pairs extremely cheap. I currently own the Art Chantry Hijinx, the Splatter Hijinx and the matte black/grey polarized Hijinx. After giving myself enough time to break them in and find out all there is to know about them, I will now write a proper review.

(My Personal pair of AC's)

Looks:
At first I was not wild about the shape of the lens or the earstems. The lenses are huge and the stems are rather plain. After wearing them for a while, the styling has grown on me. The top of the frame is not nearly as thick as the Eyepatch, which is my main complaint for that frame. The rounded corners also make the frame look less like the driving glasses that 60-year old women use.

Functionality:
Without unobtanium I thought this frame would fit very loosely on my face. I turned out to be wrong. They have not once slipped down my nose or off my ear. Whatever the problem was with the Fives 3.0 and them slipping without unobtanium they fixed on the Hijinx.
The large lenses provide excellent coverage and even eliminate the perihpheral problems found in Gascans. Unfortunately, the lenses are so large that when leaving one temperature extreme and going to another causes the lenses to fog up. This does not happen on many other frames. Since the lenses are so large it takes an even longer amount of time to for them to clear up that normal as well. Maybe a hydrophobic coating could help this.

Price Point:
Starting at $90 and only going to $160 for the premium colorways menas this is a great price point. Starting these lower than most other Oakley frames, these stand to become the next big hit like the Gascan was.

Major Positives:
Price point, stylings, coverage

Major Drawbacks:
Lenses fogging up

Overall Rating:
Overall I would rate these a 7 out of 10. They aren't as aggressively stlyed as Oakley usual runs, and they lack of unobtanium still makes me weary. Also the available colorways are lacking. If Oakley added hydrophobic lenses, more colorways, and unobtanium on the earstems then these would easily score a 9.

And there you have it, my Hijinx review. See you next post.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you all the good news. I sold my +Red Radars for $350 to a fellow Oakley fanatic in Singapore.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The +Red/Metallic Red Radar Path Story

According to Oakley.com, this is what a Metallic Red/+Red Iridium Radar Path is supposed to look like:
And these are pictures I have taken myself of the same frame and lens in multiple lighting conditions:

There is obviously a big difference between the two sources, but that is how Oakley takes their pictures, and there is a huge problem with that with Oakley fans, but I will save that post for later.

Anyways, you may or may not know this, but Oakley has discontinued this specific color-way. After about a week of being released, Oakley began getting an unusual amount of returns/warranty claims regarding this specific pair of sunglasses. The problem was the same every time; the bottom of the lens was constantly flaking off, leaving them without any iridium coating. As +Red is one of the most sought after lens colors that Oakley has to offer, this became a huge problem.

Oakley did some investigating and found that the storage case provided with ever pair of Radars was the root of all of the problems. For some reason or another, the soft felt interior of the cases caused the iridium coating to flake off. This wasn't only a problem for +Red lenses, but it occurred the most with them due to their fragile nature.

To avoid any further returns/warranty claims, Oakley pulled all of the +Red/Metallic Red Radar's off the market. They even changed the material inside of the cases to avoid this with other lens colors as well.

It is now 6 months later and the +Red lens is still not available on the Radar. With all of these problems and the color-way being pulled off the market so fast, the amount of these circulating is extremely low. This has caused the market value of them to skyrocket. Check out this recent pair that has ended on ebay for $426!

And there you have it, the +Red Radar story.



*Update, I have decided to sell my +Red/Metallic Red Radar Path's on ebay. Check them out here.*

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Oakley and eBay


I have found through my two years at the O-Review and also through people that I have met and talked with about Oakley, that a good deal of Oakley enthusiasts use eBay as a way to buy their Oakley gear.

I personally find most of my gear through eBay. I have come across some great deals but at the same time I've seen a lot of people get ripped-off. For this post, I have decided to create a mini tutorial on buying Oakley gear off of eBay.

Rule 1: Never believe that an item is "rare" based upon the description.
Everyone and their brother state that the Oakley item they are selling is rare. I've seen someone call a stock white Gascan rare. If the item is rare, then why are there 50 like it up on eBay right now? The word is overused and has almost lost all meaning when it comes to Oakley items. You'll know an item is rare when you see that the price the item is selling for is a good deal above retail value.

Rule 2: If the sunglasses have a sticker on them, THEY ARE FAKE!
Oakley has never and will never put a sticker on the lenses of their sunglasses. It goes against everything they are. Oakley prides themselves on having the best optical clarity of any sunglasses-maker, so why would they distort that by popping a sticker up in the middle of the lens? Rule 3: If you are not sure of the authenticity of the item, do your homework.
The O-Review catalog is available for anyone to use. The watches and sunglasses sections are nearly if not totally complete. Colorways and pictures are even available for almost every frame. If the item someone is trying to sell you is not in the catalog, then they are most likely fake. Also, if you are a member of the O-Review, then you can post the item's picture in the "Fakes on eBay" thread and allow members to tell you if they are fake or real. Your default action if you are not 100% sure if the item is real or not should be to assume it's fake and move on.

Rule 4: Be wary of auctions that do not hide your I.D. if the item is selling for a large sum of money.
People are always trying to scam you, so be careful. If your I.D. is visible on an auction that is selling for over $200, you will most likely receive a "second offer" e-mail from various scammers. They all tend to run along the same lines of "Oh, the winner of the auction didn't pay so I am offering it up to you for the highest price you bid up to." DON'T DO IT! Unless you recieved the same exact message and offer from the same user I.D. as the owner of the item IN YOUR EBAY ACCOUNT INBOX on eBay.com, then it is a scam and you need to ignore them.

Rule 5: If you spot a fake, report it immediately so that others don't get ripped off and to maintain the integrity of the Oakley brand.
This can easily be done through the Oakley website link designated to report fakes immediately. This is a link to that section.


Thanks and hopefully this helps with any questions you may have regarding eBay and Oakley.