I am not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt: but you cannot visually check whether it blocks ultra-violet or infrared. So, this visual inspection seems bogus to me, since you cannot be sure whether all wavelengths are blocked.

Be careful!

This is correct. Visual inspection can't verify glasses, but it can identify clearly fake ones. Being able to see a house light through these glasses is a bad sign IMO.

This has happened for 2 brands of glasses I've ordered, 1 from Amazon & 1 from manufacturer directly.

Guess I won't be looking at the sun :)

Heh, when I was a kid I remember our "eclipse viewing equipment" was a piece of glass blackened over a gas hob or a lighter. If someone's dad had access to welding equipment then welder's mask worked just as well.

I don't mean to say that people shouldn't take safety seriously - just saying that it's interesting how we used homemade solution to this and don't have any (obvious) sight problems.

Welder's mask (specifically a number 14 filter) is one of the recommended ways to safely watch an eclipse :)

Shade 14 is key, as common welding Masks are only Shade 5 and still cause eye damage if used

to be clear gas welding masks are 5, its more like wearing sunglasses.

arc welding gear is generally around 10-11.

many newer electronic helmets go up to 13/14 which is enough, you have to remember to turn up the sensitivity on the sensors so that its always dark. otherwise it will stay open at around 3-4

Amazon should do a sampling of inventory and check whether they pass or not.

And it may happen to be that blocking the visual with the counterfeits also blocks the invisible wavelengths. Or it may not.

There should be some statistical evidence provided.

I did read from one of the recommended manufacturers that they tried to warn Amazon about this for months. They also tested them and they appeared safe in the tests they ran even though they were not legitimate.

But only Amazon knows what they have actually sold.

If yours also claim to be manufactured by American Paper Optics, as the pair in the parent comment claim to be, the (real) manufacturer has some information to help determine if they're counterfeit:

https://www.eclipseglasses.com/pages/safety

See the photo at the very bottom of the page for an illustration of the (very minor) differences.

Hey, I got some from APO directly -- I can still see my new, high wattage kitchen light thru them. This shouldn't be possible, right?

The sun still hurts my eyes if I look close to it so.. looks like I'm out of luck.

It looks like a lot of crazy people are going to trust their eyesight to a cheap piece of plastic from some company they've never heard of. Hope for the best.

No they are trusting Amazon.

*They are not understanding how Amazon resellers works

Which is very much the way Amazon set it up to work.

Hell, I understand Amazon extremely well, yet still got confused when a Prime item that wasn't FBA never showed tracking information (stuck in Preparing for Shipment), had wife email Jeff Bezos and not more than 10 minutes later the damned thing arrived. The whole time I was thinking "WTF, Amazon?" wondering why it was taking so long to fulfill the order, all because I didn't notice the absence of three words on the product page.

So yeah, point of the anecdote: even veteran Amazon shoppers can forget how the site works.

Prime item that wasnt FBA = MF Prime. Appears there was an error from the seller uploading tracking info. If that occurs frequently (more than 2%..? of orders) the seller will no longer be able to offer MF Prime.

Your email to Jeff had no effect whatsoever.

I assume your understanding of Amazon is from a consumer perspective only?

> Your email to Jeff had no effect whatsoever.

You're right, though I did get a $30 credit out of it.

> I assume your understanding of Amazon is from a consumer perspective only?

Yes, but I'm generally aware of how Amazon works behind the scenes as well. I know the difference between FBA and MF Prime, but even so I had managed to overlook it until the item arrived and my wife had already sent the email.

>some company they've never heard of

A company I've never heard of, but one that NASA specifically recommended as safe, and that Amazon was supposed to verify as the real manufacturer.

I think it's normal that you would be able to see the filament, no?