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Built to last.
Because it's the world we live in, I got a virtual consultation on my wallet today. There's an assortment of leather repair shops in New York City, and they now offer the option of having someone check out a piece through video conferencing rather than legging it out to Midtown. My wallet's been getting fairly ragged for a while, so I figured it was time to look into seeing if it could be fixed. It turns out, not so much. The guy took one look at it and said that it probably wasn't possible, given the overall wear and weathering and and rips at the seams, and even fixing up the seams would be difficult. He gave a timetable of several days, if not weeks, and a price point of a few hundred dollars.
The thing about this wallet that's got me considering that price and timetable is that this is my wallet. To be clear, this is my only wallet. To be even more precise, this is still my first wallet. It's the wallet my parents bought for me when I'd have been five or six, old enough to be trusted with one. To illustrate how long I've had it, it's got the address and phone number of the house I grew up in. My hometown changed its area codes in 1997, and the number in my wallet has the old area code. When I told the leather guy I'd had it for at least 30 years, I wasn't exaggerating.
Besides the sheer emotional attachment to this thing, it's also a good wallet. It's got a clear slot for emergency contact information, it's got an ID pocket, it's got six thin credit card sleeves and a larger pocket for a few more, it's got a lot of room for bills, and it's got a coin purse. A coin purse! With a clasp! A coin purse with two pockets, one I use for pennies and one I use for all the other coins to make exact change that much easier to manage. That's not a feature on most modern wallets. It's barely a feature on vintage wallets, at least going by what's being offered on eBay.
A few hundred dollars to fix this would still be getting my money's worth out of this wallet. I'm also thinking that given I've had this over thirty years, it might be time to buy a second wallet for a good deal less than a few hundred dollars. Provided, that is, I can find one that's also capable of doing what this one does. Hopefully with all the same features, ideally for at least another thirty years.
The thing about this wallet that's got me considering that price and timetable is that this is my wallet. To be clear, this is my only wallet. To be even more precise, this is still my first wallet. It's the wallet my parents bought for me when I'd have been five or six, old enough to be trusted with one. To illustrate how long I've had it, it's got the address and phone number of the house I grew up in. My hometown changed its area codes in 1997, and the number in my wallet has the old area code. When I told the leather guy I'd had it for at least 30 years, I wasn't exaggerating.
Besides the sheer emotional attachment to this thing, it's also a good wallet. It's got a clear slot for emergency contact information, it's got an ID pocket, it's got six thin credit card sleeves and a larger pocket for a few more, it's got a lot of room for bills, and it's got a coin purse. A coin purse! With a clasp! A coin purse with two pockets, one I use for pennies and one I use for all the other coins to make exact change that much easier to manage. That's not a feature on most modern wallets. It's barely a feature on vintage wallets, at least going by what's being offered on eBay.
A few hundred dollars to fix this would still be getting my money's worth out of this wallet. I'm also thinking that given I've had this over thirty years, it might be time to buy a second wallet for a good deal less than a few hundred dollars. Provided, that is, I can find one that's also capable of doing what this one does. Hopefully with all the same features, ideally for at least another thirty years.
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Crazy thought: The leather repair shop -- would they take a commission of re-creating this wallet in its form? It might be truly cost-prohibitive, but... honestly, it's lasted this long... you might never need another one?
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