Weaver Now Has A Retail Site - No Business License Needed

[SeattleLeather]

Hello! So perhaps my first useful, actually giving something back, post ever!

I was just talking to Weaver on the phone about some questions I had, and in explaining why their minimum "First order" for a new customer just went from $250 to $500 dollars the woman said it's mainly because they just launched a RETAIL WEBSITE.

http://www.weaverleathersupply.com/

I searched and didn't see any threads mentioning this, so I figured I'd pass it along. A lot of people have discussed wanting to order this that and the other from them, but couldn't because they didn't have a tax id/business license. Now they can! They just kind of "did it" without any big notification as best as I can tell, so not too many people have probably noticed yet. She did say at some point in the not too distant future they will be implementing a Wholesale ordering site too, but they wanna square away the retail site first.

So after looking through my catalog, and looking at the website, there is definitely a pretty good price jump. For instance 1 Master Tools punch I was looking at went from $51.60 to $80.00. Another tool went from $26.95 to $41.50. So it looks like it's about a 54-55% jump over their wholesale catalog. Sides seemed almost exactly the same jump. I only spot checked a couple items, so there MAY be some stuff that's a smaller increase. For the time being they have a 15% discount promo code on the website, so that helps.

That said, most of the other brands of tools they carry there are comparable-ish to some of the other "main line" leather supply companies regular pricing. With those companies discount clubs taken into account, or just hunting around on Google, you can certainly beat their retail site prices. But their wholesale still seems pretty darn untouchable for a lot of stuff.

More importantly than all the common stuff I guess would be getting some of the weird odds and ends they have others don't have. Such as their Master Tools line, which sounds pretty awesome. It'll cost ya more, but perhaps worth it for some of their items.

Anyway, enough rambling. Check it out!

[biglew]

wow sucks that they upped it to 500 dollars

[SeattleLeather]

Yea I know. I want to place an order, but 500 right off is a good chunk for my first purchase as someone new to this all. I guess they only started a few weeks back, and if you signed up before that date and haven't placed an initial order you're still "grandfathered" in at $250. On the plus side she did say they still have no minimum order after the initial order, so at least it's no 500 bucks every time or something.

Still seems kind of like a bad move. IMO having a 100 or 200 dollar minimum every time would do a lot more towards not having to do "small time" orders at the awesome wholesale rates than having such a big one up front.

I guess I'll just have to toss a whole side in there or something to make it work, because I've really become sold on their Master Tools punches after reading such glowing reviews on here. Plus they really do have about the best pricing I've seen on a lot of the other tools I want as well... I didn't want to spring for as much stuff right off, but I guess it's worth it.

[PappyUSA]

$275.00 for HO side??

http://www.weaverlea...tailId=84&NSM=Y

They gota be kidding.

I just got an HO grade A side from

http://www.goligerle...m/saddlery.html

for $230.something after shipping. I don't think I gave them my tax id#

And Weaver dosen't even sell grade A, they sell mostly the "Do you feel lucky" grade.

Edited September 3, 2013 by PappyUSA

[SeattleLeather]

Yea, the lady basically made it sound like they'd just tossed the site up and that they were going to be changing/adjusting things a lot.

Since everything seemed to magically be 55% higher than their wholesale catalog, I think they basically just bumped everything up by that as default. I would think they'll go back through and adjust pricing where needed. In all honesty on SOME things on there, even at current prices they're not super out of line. Some of the tools and odds and ends are within the normal "range" you see them sold for.

Some other things like hides where there seems to rarely be much price variation (I'm guessing they're a low margin item with price control mostly coming from the tannery) it seems way out of line. I'm sure they'll be "manually" tweaking and changing pricing a ton as they actually get the thing going... Hopefully! They do seem to have a lot of weird items that other places don't, so it would be nice for people who can't order wholesale.

[PappyUSA]

I like Weaver and do a lot of biz with them but I have a tax id on file with them so I don't pay full price for stuff.

I'm looking forward to them getting a wholesale site so I place orders at night when I normally like to.