Foley-Belsaw Order Form

[Jacob Morgan]

So the technology that Foley Belsaw was teaching was so old that they couldn't find even
one company that wanted to buy them out?

Right now have no idea what will become of their copyrighted material, but it would appear that no one is interested right now in buying out the company and continuing operations.

It could be that correspondence courses are just not as popular as the used to be. They are not enrolling into any of their courses right now. Maybe people are not as interested in going into business for themselves these days. Maybe word is out that the courses are not that great as residential has somewhat gone do-it-yourself, lockouts have gone to scammers, and the course was very light on commercial. Maybe new technology disrupted their business (for example, kokomolock has a pretty nice, and free, set of intro videos to locksmithing https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6FAA070778F1219E) and lots of info on sites like this one. Gordon's step-by-step color-photo impressioning tutorial http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=62259 beat what was in the Foley-Belsaw binder I bought off eBay. It could be that inflation set in on the cost side while consumers did not want to spend more than ~$700 on the course so it had to be cheapened year after year. Foley-Belsaw's small engine repair course used to come with a small engine, that was dropped years ago, and at some point you might as well just buy a used book off Amazon, and a few tools off eBay, and save $500.

Never took a course from them, but I will miss the ads that seemed to say that if someone saved just a little money and took some courses at night and then work hard they could be a self-employed member of the middle class. I know or know of four people who took the course and none of them became locksmiths, so maybe taking the course and making a go of it was the very odd exception, but a nice thought.

So where are we hobbyists going to find cheap key machines now?

[GWiens2001]

So the technology that Foley Belsaw was teaching was so old that they couldn't find even
one company that wanted to buy them out?

An old family friend gave me the key machine, blanks, tools and all the coursework that she got when she took the course in the 1970's. Have seen the stuff they put out in 2015. There was not a single difference except for who they were advertising to sell blanks.

Gordon

[Eazy123]

I check back once a year on the FB site to see if prices have gone down...they're still in business, not sure what happened since I read here and elsewhere they went out of business. It appears they've updated their course as well, and changed their pricing structure. $400 for the course, and then $150, $200 and $550 tiers for supplies - although they claim the $150 tier is all that's needed to complete the course. They've also switched from the FB key machine to a HPC Mini Speedex.

No reviews of the "new" course yet, so I'm hesitant.

[Eazy123]

Just noticed someone said you no longer mail in your work and there's no hands-on stuff with FB. Shame.

There's a locksmithing school about 35 miles from me but the course requires 9 full days over 2 weeks and I work full time. Wish there was some way I could get certification although I'm not in a rush.