Proof that LoCO got suckered too.

As you may have heard, there’s gonna be a badass eclipse of the sun that will carve its way across the continental United States one week from today. We here in Humboldt County aren’t going to get the full-on experience — you’ll have to head up to Oregon to see the moon completely blot out the sun — but we’re gonna get a pretty good partial eclipse. It’ll start at about 9 a.m. here, peak at around 10:15, and will end at about 11:30 a.m. We’ll see about 90 percent of our sun swallowed by darkness, at peak.

You’ve probably heard about this, and if you have there’s a good chance you rushed out to e-purchase your special cool eclipse glasses, which — you thought — would allow you and your offspring to gaze up at the astronomical wonder without doing long-term damage to your retinae. Your Lost Coast Outpost did that very thing, purchasing a 12-pack of CE-brand solar eclipse glasses from Amazon.com for $12.95, shipping included for Prime members.

Then we, like everyone else, got the email notice from Amazon over the weekend, that whoops! Maybe those eclipse glasses aren’t so safe after all! Amazon told its customers that it couldn’t verify certain key details about the glasses, and so had recalled them and refunded purchases rather than run the risk of lawsuits from millions of parents of freshly blinded children.

You, too, may be in possession of glasses from this particular supply chain, whether you bought them from Amazon directly or not. Booklegger, the wonderful book shop run by wonderful people in Old Town, apparently bought up some Amazon glasses in bulk in order to resell to their customers, and are now trying to get the word out to anyone who may have bought them there: Do not use.

Are there other retailers out there in the same position? Unknown, but we wouldn’t be surprised. Again: The suspect glasses mentioned in Amazon’s recall are “CE” brand.  [CORRECTION: As a commenter has pointed out, the “CE” on these glasses are not a brand at all — rather, they are a certification marking used in the European Union. The glasses in LoCO’s possession appear to be of no brand at all, then.]

If you bought suspect glasses from Amazon, you should have gotten an email from the company. You don’t have to do anything for your refund — your account should be credited. 

If you got your glasses from Booklegger, here’s what they want you to do:

On August 12th, Amazon notified Booklegger, a bookstore in Old Town Eureka, that a particular lot of glasses purchased by them should not be used for viewing the eclipse. The lot is described as: Solar Eclipse Glasses - Eclipse Viewing Glasses 2017 CE and ISO Certified Safe Shades for Direct Sun Viewing.  

Although the glasses were advertised as being ISO Certified, and this certification was printed on the glasses, Amazon stated that it has been unable to confirm from its supplier that the glasses were purchased from a recommended manufacturer. Amazon has urged people to not use these glasses to view the eclipse. Booklegger immediately pulled all eclipse glasses from their shelf.

Eleven sets of eclipse glasses were sold at Booklegger between July 31 and August 11. Booklegger requests that anyone who purchased eclipse glasses from them to please return them for a full refund.  Booklegger deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to its customers.
Booklegger is located at 402 Second Street, corner of E Street in Old Town. Hours are 10 a.m. -5:30 p.m. Mon-Sat, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.  Phone 707-445-1344.