This saved me a few hundred dollars recently

Yes, even for the special effect ones. If you see someone on the street selling "theater" contacts without asking for a valid perscripton, run away unless you're looking for pink eye. It was because of the horrible mishandling of contacts and the resulting infections that this law was passed. You wouldn't buy perscripton heart pills from some stranger off the street, would you?

Its also so people don't diagnose themselves incorrectly. Even if you are just refilling the same contacts you've been using, you never know if somethings changed in your vision or eyes that an optometrist would notice. Such as the contacts not letting your eyes breathe enough, which can cause extremely serious issues if left uncorrected.