Frequently Asked Questions

Custom Made Ring Organizer Collection

This Collection is hand-made to order. If you would like to change the lay-out or get a Custom Size, or even a hand-sketched dream planner, you can always email us about it.

Touch Me Ring Organizer Collection
This Collection is hand-made and ready-made so ready to ship! The additional options you can add to it are a flyleaf, zippercase, embossing, and the possibility to have gold instead of silver rings.

VDS Codex
This is our Custom Made 'slide-in' insert Cover Collection, for inserts like Hobonichi and Stalogy. You can add additional options to it like a Big Back Pocket, embossing, a gusseted zippercase, and so on.

A5 Manager - Available in Custom Made and 'Touch Me ' designs with either 35mm or 25mm rings, the same ring spacing as Filofax A5.

B6 - Available in 'Custom Made'.

Standard - The same size and ring spacing as Filofax Personal, they come with either 30mm or 25mm  rings. Also available in the 'Touch Me' range with 30mm rings 25mm size options.

Senior - Ring spacing common to Mulberry Agenda and it has different spacing compared to Standard, therefore Standard (Personal) pages will not fit a Senior. The basic 'Custom Made' Senior is un-widened, but in the additional options you can choose to widen it to A6. It comes in three ring sizes: 20mm, 25mm, and 30mm.

A6 models in 'Touch Me' for A6 inserts with side tabs, they are available with 20mm, 25mm, and 30mm rings. 

Junior - Page size is the same as Filofax Pocket size and the same ring spacing as Filofax Pocket. In 'Custom Made' it comes in three ring sizes: 25mm,  20mm and 16mm . The 'Touch Me ' model comes with 20mm and 25mm size rings.

Mini - Available in Custom Made with 13mm and 16mm rings. It is compatible with Filofax mini page inserts.

- VDS Mini will fit on to A5, and Personal (Standard) so in fact it is quite a useful size as a 'satellite' planner that you can tuck in your pocket and may be leave your Standard in your bag.

The sizes of these VDS Organizers are equal to the Filofax sizes as mentioned in this list.

VDS Codex Collection:

Codex A6 fits Hobonichi Techo planners ( 105 x 148 x 14mm = +/- 4.13 x 5.83 x 0.6 inches) as well as A6 Stalogy planners.

Codex Standard fits Hobonichi Weeks inserts 186x96x8mm (+/- 7.4x3.75x0.4 inches)

Codex Standard Mega fits Hobonichi MEGA Weeks inserts 186x96x13mm (+/- 7.4x3.75x0.5 inches)

Codex B6 fits the B6 Stalogy: 182x128x14mm (+/- 7.2 x 5.0 x 0.6 inches)

Codex A5 fits Hobonichi Cousin planners and other A5 size notebooks (210 x 148 x 18 mm = +/- 8.27 x 5.83 x 0.7 inches).

VDS Nomad Collection:

Nomad Junior fits 140x90mm notebooks (Field Notes and Moleskine Pocket).

Nomad Standard fits Midori TN cover 210 x 110 size inserts.

VDS paper sizes and ring distance (the distance between each set of rings) for all our Custom Made Ring Organizers:

Mini
Paper size: 70 x 108 mm (+/- 2.76 x 4.25 inches)
Ring distance: 19 - 19 - 19 - 19 mm

Junior
Paper size: 77 x 127 mm (+/- 3.03 x 5 inches)
Ring distance: 19 - 19 - 19 - 19 - 19 mm

Senior
Paper size: 95 x 152 mm (+/- 3.74 x 5.98 inches)
Ring distance: 19 - 19 - 38 - 19 - 19 mm

Standard
Paper size: 95 x 171 mm (+/- 3.74 x 6.73 inches)
Ring distance: 19 - 19 - 51 - 19 - 19 mm

All the leathers we use are full grain leather, top quality! We do not treat our leathers. If you aren’t sure yet which leathers to choose for your VDS Planner, you can always order our leather samples first.

Here you can see all the different types of leathers we have in stock and what their characteristics are. You can select all leathers for our Custom Made Products.

For our ready-made 'Touch Me' Collection, we currently offer the following colour choices: TM Noir, TM Tabac, TM Parme, TM Poussierre, TM Perle.

Waiting list leathers are leathers that we do not have in stock, but we can order them 1 hide at a time if enough people would like to buy a product with that leather. To be added to a waiting list, you can sign up here.

This is the waiting list leather procedure:

* We need 6 people on the list for TM leathers and 8 people for Croco print leathers before we can order the hide.

* When starting a new waiting list we immediately promote this leather via our social media channels to inform people about it.

* If after 2 months we don’t have enough people on the waiting list for a certain leather we will promote it one more time and give people 1 more week to sign up for it. If at that time we still don’t have enough people on the list we will inform you that unfortunately that waiting list is cancelled.

Here you can see all the different waiting list leathers that we currently offer and you can sign up for each leather on that page. If you would like to get a good look and feel of the leather before deciding, some of these waiting leathers are available as leather samples on our webshop (check the bottom of the leather options to see the waiting list leathers). The samples will be sent to you right away, no waiting time.

If there is another kind of leather that you like you can always send us an email with a picture of it so we can check whether our leather suppliers have a similar leather colour & structure and whether it is possible to make a waiting list for it.

Here you can the process and pricing for:

* Real Croco

* Real Ostrich

You can order leather samples of Real Ostrich here and you can see our current stock of 'Less Quill' pieces and reserve a specific piece of it here.

When you order your custom made binder you can choose the option of adding stiffener 'YES or NO'.

If you choose YES it means the binder will be stiffer in the covers and having more body than without stiffener. When you choose YES we will always use a carton inside.

If you like a supple organizer you should choose NO stiffener.

When you choose NO we will use two different stiffeners, it will depend on the leather you choose. ?If you choose a soft leather like the nappa leather we will use Texon inside which gives it a bit of body. ?If you choose a leather that is more stiff, like the JL, undyed, prints or Italian we will only use a Texon frame inside.

Watch THIS MOVIE to see what stiffener does.

At VDS we want to make all your planner dreams come true. If you would like to create your own planner or product from scratch, please send us a sketch/images and information about what you want to hello@vdsshop.com. We will then let you know whether it is possible and what the cost would be. 

The same goes for any additional options (that are not on our webshop) you would like to add to your planner. Here you can see the most requested special additional options and their prices.

In this post we go through all additional options that you can add to our basic Custom Made lay-out.

Yes, you can. We can make (almost ;) anything.

For Special Additional Options please email us via hello@vdsshop.com to let us know what you would like to include and we will send you a price outline for it. Pictures (and measurements) are very helpful.

Also, here you can see an overview of the most requested 'special' additional options and their prices.

If you ever want to change your ring mechanism, for example from Silver to Gold or vice versa, here is a video by our planner guru and friend Steve Morton.

Please keep in mind that you can only change rings made for the same type and size of organizer. Here you can find all the information about our ring sizes and which rings are compatible for changing.

For our Touch Me and Custom Made organizers you can change your rings from silver to gold and vice versa in the same ring size.
PS. For Touch Me organizers the popper is always silver, also if you pick gold rings for it.

Yes you can. Here you can find all our Krause Rings sizes.

* 16mm Junior is sold out in Krause™ so you will receive unbranded.

Excluding backplates! If you need the backplates as well, please leave a comment about it in the order notes and we will include them.

Prices shown are for single orders. We offer the ring mechanisms separately for the convenience of our customers. We do not accept ring mechanism orders of more than 10 items.

Worldwide Shipping Prices

Our shipping prices depend on the country of delivery, and the weight of the product.

Here is an overview of prices:

Shipping Prices for all Organizers (+additional options):

The Netherlands         € 7,50

Europe (EU)               € 17,50

USA & Canada           € 21,50

Europe (non-EU)       € 29,50

Rest of the World      € 29,50

For Samples, the shipping prices are:

The Netherlands    €2,50 (€ 5,00 for 10+ samples)

Rest of the World   €5,00 ( € 10,00 for 10+ samples)

Please note that to keep the shipping cost of leather samples down, we send them by envelope, without a tracking code. It may therefore take a little longer for you to receive them. If you haven't received them after 3 weeks, please contact us via hello@vdsshop.com with your order number. At check-out you can also opt for track&trace sending for the normal sending costs and normal sending time.

Delivery Times

Production time of Custom Made items is currently 10 weeks.
The Touch Me collection is shipped in 1 workday!

The delivery time for all items depends on the country we are shipping to.
To get an estimation:
· Europe - around 2 workdays
· United States, Canada, and UK - around 3 workdays
· Rest of the World - around 5 workdays

When we email you the invoice of your order you will also receive a link and a tracking code with which you can follow your order all the way through. You can track your order with the FedEx tracking system: https://www.fedex.com/apps/fedextrack/

We ship worldwide. Please note that at the moment we cannot deliver packages to Russia, since Russia has blocked all package deliveries to private people. We tried with several different couriers over the last months but the packages keep coming back for this reason. We will keep looking for a solution.

Production Time for Custom Made items is currently 11 weeks. You will automatically receive a Fedex email with a track&trace link once your order is shipped.

• You will receive an email from us once your order is in pre-production. This means that the leather pieces for it have been cut. At this moment you can no longer cancel your order.
• You will receive a second email from us once your order is in production.

Orders for Touch Me items, as well as leather samples and ring mechanisms will be sent to you within 5 workdays.

• For Touch Me and Ring Mechanism orders you will receive an email from Fedex with a track&trace link once your order has been sent. If you haven't received a Fedex shipping notification 7 days after your ordering date, you can email me at hello@vdsshop.com to check the status of your order.
  
• Leather samples, Flyleafs and Zipper Compartments that are ordered separately are seen as 'light packages' that are sent by envelope in order to offer you lower sending costs. Shipping time for these items might take 2-3 weeks (if you haven't received your items 4 weeks after the time of ordering, please email me via hello@vdshop.com). At the moment of ordering you also have the option to select 'track&trace' shipping for the normal sending costs. Shipping time will then be the same as for track&trace orders.
  

Please take note of the following conditions:

Van der Spek reserves the right to vary the conditions of the warranty in the future if required. Current details will always be posted on the website.

The company will be the judge of the acceptability of any fault entitling the item for repair.

Original proof of purchase may be asked for when claiming the warranty.

Items that are replaced at the decision of the company can not be guaranteed to be identical in color or in texture of the leather to the original item since every item varies to some degree and it will also depend on the availability of the leather used on your item.

Repairs of parts that are attached before assembly (pockets, strap) will always entail taking some planner parts apart and re-assembling them. Our people will work as neatly and aesthetically as possible, but keep in mind that the warranty does not cover returning the item back to its 'as new' condition - the product will be repaired as perfectly as possible, but there might be visible differences when compared to a completely new product.

This policy does not apply to products that have been damaged by misuse, accidents, modifications, unauthorized repair, or purchased new from any third party seller that is not an authorized Van der Spek dealer.

What is covered?

Every production error is covered by our lifetime warranty.

Van der Spek products have been designed to last you a lifetime. When choosing the materials (leathers, rings, zippers, stitching etc.) and when producing our products, we set extremely high standards in quality and durability to ensure you receive a perfectly made item.

What is not covered?

Damage to the product when it is 'in use', whether accidental or deliberate, is not covered by the warranty. This means e.g. water stains, ink spots, scratches and so on.

The development of a natural patina on the leather (the colour becoming darker, richer, and more shiny) is inherent to the natural way all leathers are tanned, and is thus not covered by our warranty.

The warranty also excludes all other forms of normal day to day wear and tear.

Conditions - returning products for repair or replacement

· Replacements and repairs are only accepted if there are fabrication errors in the product or if the product doesn’t match the item that was ordered. We have to be notified about this on the day the product was received.
· We do not accept returns based on damage due to the customer’s own treatment of the product (polish, scratching due to use, water damage etc).

· We accept ‘Touch Me’ organizer exchanges and returns based on personal preferences on the condition that the sending costs (both ways) are fully paid by the customer. The product has to be unused and in its original packaging and we have to be notified on the day the product was received.

Leather is a unique and diverse product which means that no two hides are the same. You can request which kind of hide you like (pebbly / smooth) and we will find the best piece for you, it is however impossible to guarantee a 100% match with a leather you have seen somewhere before.

Leather suppliers maintain a 10% variability margin within which they can operate with regards to the print and color of the leather. This means that there is a possibility for each hide to differ slightly in those aspects. We do not accept returns based on differences? within those margins.

Sending a product back for repair or replacement

1. Return address:

Van der Spek Lederwaren
Laning 2
3297 TB Puttershoek
Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 78 676 4777

2. Sending procedure

Mark the product as a ‘repair’ and if asked for an estimated value of the product put € 20,- ( $ 25,-). This is to avoid having to pay import duties over our own products.

3. Refund of sending costs

You can select the mail transportation company of your choice. We provide a refund of sending costs up to € 35,- ( $ 40,-). If you choose a courier that is more expensive the difference in price will be at your own expense. Please email us a copy of your sending receipt. We will refund you the sending costs when we receive your receipt and will let you know when we receive the planner.