Ivan Leathercraft

[Spyros]

So I started shopping from these guys a few months ago mostly out of curiosity, and gradually they have pretty much taken all of my business.  Which I never thought it would happen, but it did.  

The way I understand it this is a Taiwanese business that has been around 42 years, started with making their own tools and hardware and over time expanded to trade some big name products like Fiebings, Horween, Fenice, Craftools, plus a whole lot of leather. I started finding their tools in local shops in Melbourne, I bought a strap cutter and a couple of punches, and although not high-end or fancy they were actually very good value for the price, so I thought I'd check out their website to see what else they got.  And now I have ended up buying pretty much everything from them, I only shop elsewhere if I want something very specific like Sedgwick bridle or something like that.  Why?  Well a couple of things, first of all after a certain value (USD$100 I think) they ship with Fedex for free, which is a big deal for me because I live in Australia and shipping can easily be another USD$100.  Fedex out of Taiwan has been fast and reliable, I typically receive my orders in 4-5 days (and that's calendar days because they deliver on weekends too).  Second they have no problems shipping liquids overseas, which most other shops don't.  They take paypal, they have an easy website with good photos and descriptions, I get a tracking number usually the same day, generally everything is fast and easy with them.  Third they actually have the cheapest Horween leather I've found anywhere, and generally very good prices for leather, some of which pretty high-end including some hard to find Italian stuff.  4th they have decent hardware and good variety of all other bits and bobs I sometimes need like bag stiffeners, liners and webbing so I can do all my shopping in one place and easily go over the threshold for free shipping.  And all of it is actually pretty good stuff, especially their webbing.  Oh and they have zipper sets so you can get matching slider/top/bottom stops without have to click around for everything (learn from that Buckleguy).

 

I'm not associated with this shop in any way shape or form, just a shout out from a happy customer.  

Edited June 1, 2022 by Spyros

[Handstitched]

3 hours ago, Spyros said:

they ship with Fedex for free, which is a big deal for me because I live in Australia and shipping can easily be another USD$100. 

Thats handy to know. But what about exchange rate ?  its not very healthy atm, it keeps hovering around the high 60's and low 70's . 

Theres a heap of stuff I want get from the US , but the Oz $$  is so low, making it a bit unviable. 

HS

[Klara]

I have quite a few things from Ivan as well, but bought locally in a brick and mortar shop. After all, unlless you live in the U.S. there is little point in buying from the U.S, unless it's things you can't get elsewhere. And I'd have to look at my globe waterball, but I believe for Australia Taiwan is about as local as it gets... 

[toxo]

I was only saying yesterday that I thought Ivan was pretty good. After trying a cheap wooden strap cutter that bit me a few times because of the exposed blade I bought an Ivan and it was like chalk and cheese and the blade is enclosed. I bought a very nice Ivan crew punch on Monday and as well as looking good it was sharp from the get go.

[Spyros]

2 hours ago, Handstitched said:

Thats handy to know. But what about exchange rate ?  its not very healthy atm, it keeps hovering around the high 60's and low 70's . 

Theres a heap of stuff I want get from the US , but the Oz $$  is so low, making it a bit unviable. 

HS

What about it?  A Fiebings edge kote 4oz bottle from the only place I can find it in AU is AUD$12.10, that's USD$8.70 at the current rate.  Plus whatever shipping is.

At Ivan it's USD $7.99 so 8% cheaper, with free shipping.   

Thats generally how it goes, anything is better than Australian prices.  Maybe you think it's cheaper to shop locally because you're probably not comparing like with like.  It's not cheaper.  And even if it was I don't care, I'd still shop from overseas even if the price was double just for the fact that they have websites from this century, not the last one.  I have zero interest in shops that have 3 things on their website and another 10 that are not and I have to ring them to describe them to me.  Plus the overall variety of products of course, and I'm not even gonna get into customer service, reliability, or the crazy fact that I actually receive stuff faster from friggin Taiwan or Buckleguy in Boston than I do from various places in Australia.

Edited June 1, 2022 by Spyros

[fredk]

Most, if not all, the tools sold by Le Prevo are 'Ivan'

[MtlBiker]

I've bought a few things from Ivan and have been pleased, but of note to fellow Canadians, two things: First they charge in US dollars, and we get dinged more than the official exchange rate by the credit card companies, and they use Dicom when shipping to Canada.  Dicom always charges a brokerage fee (reasonable) and often there is also DUTY charged, and they also collect our two levels of sales taxes on the Canadian amount.  When other Asian companies ship to Canada, often if they use the regular postal service (even with tracking) the items arrive here without any brokerage charges, duty or taxes.  This needs to be figured into deciding if the price of Ivan products is worth it or not.  I haven't found their leather prices to be worth buying.  I've bought knives and punches from them and been satisfied.

[Sheilajeanne]

I bought a large lot of stamps from a pawn shop a couple of years ago. Many of the tools were Ivan, and included stamps that Tandy used to make, but stopped producing a number of years ago. They are definitely not top-notch tools, but the do at least as good a job as most of the Tandy stamps.

[Handstitched]

16 hours ago, Spyros said:

Plus the overall variety of products of course, and I'm not even gonna get into customer service, reliability, or the crazy fact that I actually receive stuff faster from friggin Taiwan or Buckleguy in Boston than I do from various places in Australia.

Hear Hear !!  ' Australia Pigeon Post'    I ordered a large amount of stock from Pennsylvania  quite a long time  ago , it arrived within 7 days.  That was a record. Takes 2 weeks to get stuff from NSW. 

HS

[fredk]

'Ivan' is based in Taiwan

All the hardware eg stamps,  that I've bought from Tandy has been made in Taiwan

Is Ivan/Taiwan actually Tandy? Is Tandy hardware made by Ivan and just relabelled?

I get emails from both companies and when they are promoting something quite often its the same item using the same photo of it but prices are slightly different

[Sheilajeanne]

Like I said, Fred, Ivan now makes stamps Tandy has discontinued, like acorns and holly leaves. But - good question. Maybe there is some connection. If not, Ivan is definitely trying to compete with Tandy.

[fredk]

43 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Like I said, Fred, Ivan now makes stamps Tandy has discontinued, like acorns and holly leaves. But - good question. Maybe there is some connection. If not, Ivan is definitely trying to compete with Tandy.

No, I'm referring back over 22 years; Ivan = Tandy = Ivan, both had the same items in their 'catalogue' at the same time, but at different prices

I think Ivan was for the Far Eastern & Europe markets before Tandy put outlets there. Before Tandy had shops in England Ivan was the name for working hardware such as stamps and alphabet letter/number sets

[Sheilajeanne]

Hmmm...okay, I have no way of knowing just how old these stamps are, as I bought them from a pawn shop. Given there were quite a number of older Tandy stamps in the lot, they could easily date back that far.

Have never bought new stamps from Ivan.

[fredk]

About 4 years ago I got a windfall of much ££. I decided to spend some of it by buying a load of stamps. Le Prevo had nearly all what I wanted, made by Ivan. Tandy had the same ones plus the others Le Prevo didn't have. [not discontinued, just oos ]  Le Prevo's price was about £6 each, Tandy was about £10 each. I bought about 35 stamps from Le Prevo and about 10 from Tandy. The packaging was exactly the same just the name on the front of the label and on the rear label by the barcode was different

I think also Ivan are happy to supply other outlets wholesale but Tandy is not. I used to buy some odd Tandy conchos from an ebay seller in England but he stopped selling them. He told me that Tandy was no longer supplying him as he wasn't a 'Tandy shop'

[TonySFLDLTHR]

On 6/2/2022 at 10:25 AM, fredk said:

'Ivan' is based in Taiwan

All the hardware eg stamps,  that I've bought from Tandy has been made in Taiwan

Is Ivan/Taiwan actually Tandy? Is Tandy hardware made by Ivan and just relabelled?

I get emails from both companies and when they are promoting something quite often its the same item using the same photo of it but prices are slightly different

Just wanted to weigh in on a post from more than a year ago. LOL

Ivan used to produce almost all the tools for Tandy. When the new CEO came in for Tandy, there was a shift and low and behold Ivan was now able to distribute his tools through other outlets. 

I don't think Tandy owned Ivan in the way that they were a parent company. I believe it to be that it was that Tandy got so much from them that it was don't sell to anyone else or we won't use you.