Most of you who regularly read my blog know I work on a farm…that means roughly 90% of my work, especially during the warmer months, takes place outdoors. I sweat and when I’m not sweating, I’m often being rained on or getting soaked using a power washer or a hose. Normally I carry a “magic wallet” which is smaller and more convenient to carry than a standard leather wallet and tends to cause me less discomfort when driving or operating heavy machinery at work. The only drawback to this is that the contents of my wallet end up getting wet or crushed into the leather and before too long, cards get bent or worn out, papers end up faded and unreadable, and so on.

While grocery shopping tonight I came across something interesting… it was called the Aluma Wallet. It’s main advertising perk was that it protects against RFID theft (where a thief has an RFID reader that can steal the info right off the magnetic strip of your credit cards simply by being near you). While I’m really not all that concerned with RFID theft, I liked that it was an aluminum case (read: durable) and being a case, it would protect the contents of my wallet from the elements much better than my current wallet. It sure wasn’t cheap with a price tag of $10 however…but I’m willing to pay for something that’ll get the job done the way I want it to. Sooooo…I sprung for it.

A few minutes ago I decided to clean out my wallet… first I removed all the old business cards and other papers that were faded from the elements and no longer readable. I threw away probably 30 business cards and a bunch of papers with info written on them…such as driving directions to places near where I frequently visit and things of that nature. I then replaced a few of my cards that were in rough shape… cards advertising my reptile and amphibian forums. I threw away about 10 due to fading and grabbed 6 new ones out of my dresser. I also had about 10 cards advertising my mechanic buddy’s business. I pulled 5 out and set the rest aside.

I then worked on loading up the new Aluma Wallet. I opened it up to find the latch was quite cheap (just your basic plastic latch) and the case wasn’t actually aluminum…it’s a cheap plastic box with aluminum covers on each side. But it functioned well so I shrugged it off. I loaded all my cards in…probably about 20 business cards total split up in 3 different pockets. I put my CCW and my driver’s license into their own pocket, my credit card and debit card in their own pocket, my boss’ credit card in a separate pocket and then all my cash (a whole $7–a $5 bill and two $1 bills) into a pocket. With all this stuff loaded into my magic wallet…the thing was nearly empty. Loaded into my Aluma Wallet, I barely got it to close. “You’ll be surprised at how much it holds!” my ass…

But it gets better! Upon closing it and getting it to latch…I hear the familiar sound of tape peeling. My aluminum casing was starting to separate from the plastic on one side. At this point I’ve come to realize I just paid $10 for the biggest piece of “Made in China” shit ever. So what do I do when I realize I just wasted my money? I sure ain’t gonna throw away my functional wallet and try to use this one…so I dissected it and now I’m going to post the pictures so you can see for yourself why you shouldn’t waste your money on this product either!

The aluminum sides were held on by two pieces of double-sided tape…well, let me rephrase that. They are held on in two locations by five pieces of double-sided tape. Yes, you’re reading that correctly. In one location, one piece of tape was placed on top of another piece of tape. And in the other location, three pieces of double-sided tape were placed on top of each other. What did this accomplish? Not a damn thing.

To make things even better yet…I pulled the pockets out of it. The pockets were made of a plastic material which appeared to be pretty strong until I found it ripped about as easy as paper at the creases. They were attached to each lid by what appeared to be a single strip of double-sided scotch tape which took ZERO effort whatsoever to pull off.

Yep…that’s what I got for $10…

Funny thing is their website claims the wallet is made of solid aluminum and that it’s “nearly indestructible!”…HAHAHAHAHAH….right.

One more thing I must add…since writing this blog, I found my brand of magic wallet online and if you want to get away from the traditional bulky wallet and try something new, check these out. They’re now only $10 (used to cost around $20 last time my dad and I bought them–yep, he uses one too, or at least he was still using one last I checked) and they’ll last you for a couple years easily before the elastic starts to lose it’s elasticity. Even mine has lasted a few years now and like I’ve mentioned, I work outdoors so it takes a LOT of abuse. Wilson’s Leather – Magic Wallet — I just bought two of them.