New Partnership for Tandy

[drzeller]

I just saw this video today - after seeing several of his recent videos mentioning Tandy.  I had thought "that's odd" on the earlier videos.  Then I understood why.

I am hoping this partnership leads to more how-to videos.  As others have noted, he has moved away from those over time, and I watch him less now.  I think he is personable, and wish him well.  Just leave off some of the family stuff; not all of it, though, as it is still part of his charm and who he is.

[Handstitched]

Tandy  Australia  are shutting shop in March  and will  ship from the US.

I received a "specials" email from them ....the first in about 2 months, .... but it was " in-store only specials" ,  

Um....they're in the east....about 4000k's away . 

Yeah.... good one , needless to say I deleted the email. 

 All the printed catalogues have stopped altogether now . 

On 12/23/2018 at 2:41 AM, Caesar said:

Anything that you can get at Tandy can be found elsewhere on the web at better quality and prices.

I have to agree.I now  have 3 main suppliers that sell the same thing as Tandy, but cheaper...and  do wholesale  without joining a club. 

 Tandy never existed when I started leather work 14 years ago, never even heard of them ( with exception of the electronics retailer....and they went years ago ). And now, its almost  like they don't exist again.Back then,   I found all my tools, supplies etc.   in a pokey little shop run by a little ol' lady  in Perth   by going through the yellow pages ( pre internet) . Ditto for my sides of leather, found a supplier in Bayswater ( Perth),  in the yellow pages  and asking that lil' ol' lady a lot of questions . All my ' how to ' stuff came courtesy of books , and word of mouth, asking questions etc. and simply by working stuff out for myself .  I didn't discover ' youtube'  until many years later. 

HS 

Edited January 18, 2019 by Handstitched

[stockandbarrel]

On 12/22/2018 at 9:42 PM, Stetson912 said:

Yeah, like Caesar said, more interested in people making things. Nothing against them or their business model or whatever. But I don't watch many of their videos any more. Seems more talk and less leatherwork. The latter being the reason I started watching. 

And it may seem silly, but I think his hat is too darn small for him and he kinda wears it funny. That bothers me for some silly reason. 

But that aside, as it doesn't really matter, I started with tandy products. I don't get much from them now but every once in a while. Tandy I think serves as a beginner get your feet wet type place. Which is a great thing. It seems in recent years a pickup in leatherwork but I still feel it's an art that is fading. So if tandy gets people seriously interested in the craft I'm all for it. 

It's not the hat, it's that my head is too big  

[Danne]

I have seen that Tandy now sell some better quality tools, but they certainly loose a lot of customers with their cheap "entry level" products. For example you can't sell a hole punch set that is impossible to make holes with. I bought it around three years ago, and they still sell it. Or a set for punching stitching holes with painted prongs that is so far from sharp you can get (you almost need a sledge hammer to punch it through your leather and it leaves holes three times larger than needed even for a thick thread. I would say most customer who buy a product like that, do it one time and then never go back to that store again.

I have talked about this before. Here are the example. 

0.3mm "cutting edge" 

And sure it works after reshaping and sharpening, but a beginner should be able to use the tools "out of the box"

And here is the stitching hole punch set compared to Seiwa and very cheap Chinese hole punches from Aliexpress.

 

I understand that there is a big market for entry level tools, not all people want to spend thousands of euros for their beginner tools. But if someone asked me for recommendations of cheap beginner tools, I would choose give them recommendations from Aliexpress instead of Tandy. They would get better tools for a lower price. So my input here is Tandy need to try if their tools really work before they sell them.

Edited April 30, 2020 by Danne

[Handstitched]

I still get emails from Tandy, but not from Oz, I could ' unsubscribe' I guess. . Haven't ordered from Tandy since they shut up shop last year . It obviously didn't work .

The postal system here in Oz  is messed up atm due to the virus. What once took 10-14 days for stuff to arrive from the east, now takes up to a month. So I can guess that what ever I order from Tandy ( US) would take nearly twice that . 

HS

[Bert51]

HS, sadly it will take a lot longer, I brought some screws from a member here and they have been sitting in Sydney since the 18-04-2020 and I got some other parts from China been in Sydney since March, Australia Post running in circles.

Bert.