Babu Pro Wallet by Ari Phillips at Grum Leather Craft Review

BABU Wallet Pro!
Introducing the BABU Wallet Pro.
Part of the new BABU range of magicians wallets.
This is a minimalist style card wallet for the modern magician .
This Pro version holds several cards: 7 cards including a window pocket for your ID, drivers license or business card.
This wallet is slimline and allows for a signed card to wallet and ring to pouch to envelope just like the sell out BABU nest of wallets!
This larger pro version has extra space for additional cards such as a gag card like " your card" in it; with an additional secure pocket to add some cash, polaroid, prediction or your extreme burn. This pocket is also ideal for holding the babu pouch (comes complete with the wallet) when your using the id pouch or a card to sealed envelope routine.
You can perform:
Card to wallet
Card to envelope* inside wallet
Mercury card to babu pouch in wallet
Card to ID sleeve to wallet
Ring to envelope inside wallet
Ring to babu pouch to envelope inside your wallet
Use coins, notes, predicitons and other small items too!
•Works with medium Bonsalopes
All Pro Wallets come in Black Saffiano Calf Leather with a unique embossed red babu pouch.
The wallet works with the clever unique BABU™ loading system.
Simple to load, simple to reset, simple to do.
Available here:
www.grumleathe...

[@guest3997]

Hi Chris, it is great to have you back!!! Excellent review: thorough, thoughtful, informative, candid and enjoyable! Thank you so much for all you do! Your friend, David

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Thank you so much David!! :)

[@brucet53]

Another excellent review. Thank you. Ari is making superb quality products that are all practical in the real world.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Thank you!! My pleasure :) yes I agree, Ari does great work.

[@time_machine7013]

Nice review

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Thank you my friend! :)

[@funjuror]

I agree that the best load is JOL, but this wallet seems to have been inspired by the Climax wallet load system, which is also one of the easiest. I love this wallet. It's on my list.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

I’ve actually always really liked the climax wallet myself. If I had to compare this wallet to another in terms of style and what not it would be the into wallet. It’s identical in size dimensions but I didn’t realize that for comparison until this morning, AFTER posting the review haha.

[@restitutororbis666]

Love seeing you pop up. How is life treating you?

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Thank you so much my friend! Life’s been pretty good. Busy! But pretty good. How about you?

[@corinelliott3596]

Looks interesting. The leatherwork/stitching looks really nice on all their products. I'm considering buying one (or two!) of their card holsters to free up a bit of pocket space. As far as the wallet is concerned, I just received an infinity and ordered the orphic+ so I'll be taking a break from wallet purchases for a while.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Awesome! Yeah that’s fair with the wallets.. it can get out of hand for sure haha.

[@donpepe9947]

Thank you Chris. Available through their website I assume. Haven't seen it everywhere yet.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

You’re welcome! Yes there is a link in the description. But available through the GRUM website :)

[@jakesp16]

Yessssss! Thanks for posting this. A couple of questions initially: 1.) You mentioned the size of the JOL Small. This Babu Pro is just slightly shorter, but not by much correct? 2.) I love the load of the JOL Small like you mentioned - smoothest of all wallets I own, apart from FPS as I love that too. My question is which wallet, Babu Pro or JOL Small, loads smoothest overall? In terms of hitting the load area every single time (your finger finding the correct edge/are), AND the card not catching on anything when it makes contact with the wallet and goes in smoothly?

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Heyy, you’re welcome! So to your first question, my babu pro comes in at just under 5 and a half inches long, and my Jol plus small comes in at just over 6 inches. Like more than a half inch difference. That doesn’t seem like much but the Babu feels like a much smaller wallet, even if in dimension comparison it isn’t. It may be because the JOL plus small is a tri-fold, so it’s big overall, in length, width thickness. As far as loading goes, I don’t think there will ever be a design that beats the load of a JOL plus, but it must say I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to still load the babu pro, when I’ve been used to the JOL for the last year and a half or so.

[@idiotcoin7183]

Great work, Chris. I'm not a fan of the snap on the wallet. Is it integral to the card to wallet? Could one be made without a snap?

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Thank you! Oh I’m sure Ari could make it without the snap for you! The snap has nothing to do with any of the magic features and will function perfectly without. I thinks it’s here more so for security if you want to out some things in there without the risk of them falling out. But with that said, I’ve had business cards and what not in there and they never moved.

[@idiotcoin7183]

@@ChrisEdwardsMagic Thank you. Keep up the superb work.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

@idiotcoin7183 you’re welcome! And thank you so much :)

[@jbmuberreti8914]

I may be wrong but I kinda feel that you are less enthousiast about this wallet than you were about the Babu (nest of wallets). I don't own the Babu wallet pro but I find it too expansive for what you get. 200 pounds for just a CTW or ring to wallet, come on ! The leather quality and the stiching look top notch. However this idea of a new modern minimalistic style wallet is not new. Actually, I use the Into Wallet made by TCC (genuine leather model) and it allows the same effects + 3 peeks + the loading is much better hidden. And if you combine the FPS coin pouch with the Into Wallet, you obtain exactly the same results for less than 100 bucks.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Hey! It’s not that I was less enthusiastic about this wallet over the Babu nest of wallets, but it may have appeared that way because I was filming for a dozen reviews yesterday haha. Canada post went on strike back in October/November for a few months which delayed and backlogged everything I had coming. Yesterday was the first day I had some time to actually sit down and film some content.. so, it was a long, long day. I get where you are coming from. It’s not a cheap wallet. I think a large portion of what you are paying is due to the quality of materials used, along with each item being handcrafted, whereas most wallets on the market as mass produced by machine and manufactured by the thousands. It kind of goes back to the thought of someone having to put extensive time and work into something, when most often, the other options out there are done in minutes, sometimes seconds, by machine. I have the into wallet, and I do like it. I don’t feel the loading system is better, as I much prefer the load on this wallet; but that all comes down to personal preference so there really is no wrong answer or opinion there. You are correct in that this wallet on its own does not do a peek, but I do like that because Ari is continuously adding new products to the babu line, you will be able to mix and match features to accommodate what you want to do in different settings, environments and magic/mentalism genres. With all of that said, this will not be a wallet for everyone. I hesitated for a while due to the cost. But, I was extremely busy with extra side work over the holidays and had the money to make the purchase without it affecting other areas in my life. I do not feel buyers remorse and I can honestly say, this purchase was well worth the price for me. But again, everyone is unique in how they feel about specific products. With the Mullicarry add on, I have my signed card to envelope, nest of wallets, peek, prediction loading, nail writing, secret/double writing surface and load for close up confabulation, so by adding that, this wallet now does everything I usually needed 3 pockets for, with one tool, in one pocket.. and that to me, was worth the cost as well. I also love having a custom wallet that was made to my preference. I have a ton of wallets, and there are many that I love, in terms of function and use.. But none of them have sentimental value to me because all I had to do was hit “add to cart”. I didn’t have options aside from maybe one or two wallets that come in black OR brown. Getting to make this wallet my own made me care about this wallet more than any other wallet I own; and in return, it makes me want to use it for everything it is. For years I wore a suit jacket from Walmart.. and I felt like it was fine (and it IS), but I wore it when I had to, and I would have preferred not having to wait it at all. I recently purchased a custom fit suit jacket. Now, I WANT to wear it whenever I can. I care about it, and it has more than just material value to me. The reason I compare the wallet to the suit, is that having something made FOR me, made a huge different TO me. It’s also nice to be able to support independent creators who do 100% of the work rather than supporting the big name companies who let the creators do the majority of the work and then distribute the product and take 90% of the money in return. Sorry for the extremely long reply haha, I’m not trying to counter your points because they are valid for sure; but I wanted to share my thoughts, reason and experience too :)

[@jbmuberreti8914]

@ChrisEdwardsMagic Thank you for your answer and your reviews in general.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

@jbmuberreti8914 anytime my friend! My pleasure :)

[@Sprogster]

That is one ugly wallet. Looks like something my great grandpa might have used back in the 20's.

[@ChrisEdwardsMagic]

Cool opinion. Which wallet is your favourite? Personally, I’ve never in my life bought a wallet based on appearance. Why would I care about something that is going to sit in my back pocket where no one will ever see it other than the few times I bring it out? I purchase items based on function and use. I don’t think this wallet is ugly at all, but even if I did.. definitely not something I would concern myself with if it gets the job done properly. Just my thoughts, but my opinion doesn’t make yours any less valid and vice versa so it’s all good.