Well. There you go.....

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/05/investing/sears-sells-craftsman-stanley-black-decker/

An estimated $900 million

As long as their hand tools are warrantied I'm OK. Most of it is made in China now anyway.

Wonder who will end up with Diehard Batteries?

Maybe the new owner will resurrect it.

For $900,000,000 I could have built a brand from scratch.

The Craftsman brand was bled dry.

Sears was bought for it's real estate portfolio and gutted.

We used to go to Sears every couple of weeks, now they are gone around here. I'll probably never go in another one.

When i was a kid our Christmas was from sears.

This.

When I was a kid the toilet paper came from Sears.

This is a tragedy for blue collar tradition. That said, I hope Stanley restores quality to pre-80's levels. I have some Stanley wrenches, and like them.

I don't know, but someone had to manufacture the Diehard line.

I have a Diehard Gold that came with my truck when I bought it in 2000 and as long as I keep the cells topped off, it kicks the engine over just like new even at -40* F.

Going up in the Sears Tower is kinda depressing.

They were a good example of what innovation, hard work, and American made could represent.

Now they just suck.




Dave

When I was a youngster, we would await the new Sears catalog with great expectations for the bra section.

This area was settled starting about 1905. There are a lot of Sears kit houses here. They came in by rail and were hauled to the building sites with horses & wagons.

Same here. Between Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, as a boy I would spend endless hours laying on the living room floor with their big thick catalogs and dream about all the hunting and fishing gear within. The trouble is that we were so poor, if I got ANYTHING I was lucky.

The Die Hard batteries are probably just made by Deka or Johnson Controls like most batteries in the US. There really aren't that many battery 'manufacturers'.

Sears is circling the drain. It won't be long now.

The internet is the new "catalog" and Amazon is the new Sears.

Sears is almost finished and a real problem exists for those employees that worked for them for 30 years. Those guys have a retirement program and it will no longer be funded.

Company held retirement accounts are usually the 1st source of cash for companies in trouble. You're far better off with your retirement held outside the company where they can't get at it. I've seen a number of companies get in trouble and that's happened every time. 401K's aren't the best retirement funds out there but at least they're safer than company held funds.
I worked for a large trucking company for nearly 20 years. It went down in the late 80's. My retirement was through the union and I'm drawing it now. All the management people lost theirs since the company drained it immediately when things got tough.

So here's a question for folks.

I have a nephew, some here have met him at one of the TN pig hunts, who is graduating high school here in a few months and will be heading to Purdue next year for Mechanical Engineering. When I graduated High School my Dad's gift to me was a several hundred piece Craftsman tool set. Here it is 35 years later and it's rare that a couple days don't go by that I don't still use that gift which makes it a great gift in my mind.

I would really prefer to buy something made in USA, or at least not China. Looked at Snap On. Um, no. $1600 for a 3/4" ratchet set. Who makes a decent set? Typical stuff, multiple ratchet sets, open end wrenches, screwdrivers etc for less than a grand? If not Chicom will go with pretty much anyplace else.

I am a big fan of SK Tools. I think most of their stuff is still made in the USA. Could be wrong about that. All of mine is USA made, but I have had it for several years.

It's hard to get away from China without breaking the bank. Home Depot's Husky tools are made in China but they do have a lifetime warranty and a reasonable price plus a big company behind them. I have a wrench and socket set that I won in a grand opening drawing years ago that have been very good.

Thanks. I'll take a look. Still made in USA it looks like

http://www.skhandtool.com/products/catalog/skhtml/files/assets/basic-html/index.html#2

The 172 piece Master Mech set is good but comes in at $2K so I might have to just handpick some tools.

As mentioned, SK is good. Can find some decent prices for sets on ebay.

Snap On is good stuff, but the prices are simply outrageous....

My grand dad gave me a set of SK Wayne sockets for confirmation back in the 60's. He's been gone for 35 years but I think of him every time I reach for the green box. And no, they don't get lent out. Lol

Another fan of SK tools here.

Stanley bought out Mac tools a few years ago , so be patient and I think you will see craftsmen quality come back . I have been a auto tech for many years and 90% of my tools are Mac . Snap on tools are very very over priced .

The CEO has been bleeding the company for years, his profit and all others peril. Saw this earlier today in the news and my thoughts I shared with others today:

It is ashame the SEC will stop 2 large companies from merging and forming a monopoly, but not stop a guy destroying a company, once ranked 17th in 1997, now 71 in the fortune 100. 178,000 employees remaining, and as long as this guy is CEO, the company will continue to be driven into the ground and out of business. For years, Many many people have talked about how the CEO has no interest other than lining his pocket, as he liquidates the company. He continues to close Sears and kMart stores and selling off pieces of the company year after year. NO interest in turning the company around, as he's profiting all the way till they go under. How can this Not be Criminal? I digress.......

Sears sells Craftsman brand and closing another 150 stores. Marking the final death knell of this once American Icon brand. Sears will be closing shop in the not so distant future. A reader comment below re: the CEO (who has a hedge fund and real estate investment trust) who's actions and results over the years have proven he has had zero interest in revitalizing Sears. One mans Greed - thousands of jobs lost.

"Little Eddie Lambert is transferring Sears assets to his personal accounts. He has loaned Sears $800m + at 8% interest with the Sears properties as collateral so when Sears closes their last store the remaining assets will be owed to his hedge fund. He will have walked away with all of Sears' assets."

I periodically take an automotive course over at the community college.... Snap ON, and a batch of the other tool companies give students 50 and 60%discounts on about everything...

If someone owned an automotive repair shop.... it would pay to take a course once a semester, for a couple of hours a week, and then buy an entire boatload of tools you'd need, at the discounts they offer...

there was one lesbian chick over there one semester, on an Obama Job Retraining Program....The Feds ended up spending just under $50K on tools for her, because they were needed for her new profession... she completed the course and then never went to work....

she just sold all of those tax payer bought tools.. as she had intended from day one...



and back on topic...

Yeah most of my clothes growing up came from Sears...

My granddad actually mail ordered one of those Henry J from Sears.... cousin of mine ended up with it and drove it thru college...then just junked it.. think the junk yard gave him $10 for it... with the engine still running and the trans etc in fine shape...

seems no one was overly impressed with a 20 something year old Henry J...

There is an excellent forum to buy tools and such. It is www.garagejournal.com

Be forewarned. Visiting that forum is as big a time eater as 24HR.

Made in Milwaukee by Johnson Industries maker of Interstate batteries and probably 90% of all other brand automotive batteries.

Craftsman used to be good

I got most of my Dad's Craftsman tools from the 50's - great quality. I have filled in the holes over the 70's to 90's. However, once they stated being made in China that was the end.

I look for Snap-On at every estate sale I go to and every so often there is a Snap-On tool in a whole box of crap tools.

Craftsman isn't worth the trip anymore. Soft, loose fits, poorer finish. The Stanley and B&D is not what I remember from when I was young either. I have some S&K, seems the square is slightly different sized. I bought a lot of Home Depot ratchets, they have a good finish, tight click, and good feel. Getting away from chinese is hard to do.

We had looked at washers/driers at Sears among other places, they raised the prices for Balck Friday. Don't know if we want to spend the extra money for their "required" fittings, higher priced warranty, and then find them clear gone. Used to be you went to Wards or Sears, now HD. Lowes, and a lot of places sell appliances. We also used to replace what ever quit, never worrying about matching style, or even color.

I own a Sears kit house that was built in 1923.

The previous owner said that it came on a couple of big trucks. Everything was on the trucks, lumber, nails, plumbing, wiring, all electrical outlets and switches, flooring, drywall, windows, doors, shingles, and insulation.

As to the OP, I have a lot of Craftsman tools that will be passed down to my kids and grandkids. I hope Stanley does right by the brand.

Ed

The place to buy American tools.

http://www.harryepstein.com

In 30 + years I never went into Sears to buy clothes, shoes ... etc.
First, I was going to buy a tool and then I may also buy a shirt or
something. Without GOOD tools I will never go to Sears.

Craftsman usa ebay

Nice start

You are absolutely right. Every time ol' Eddie makes another $200 million loan to Sears, the media acts like he believes in the company. All he is really doing is stringing folks along, and making himself a SECURED creditor, so he'll be first in line to get his money back.

Look good for media? Check. Make money on interest payments?? Check. Make yourself a secured creditor, so you get it all back? Check.

Eddie isn't going to lend a dime more than he can get from the asset sell off.

And YES, my grandad worked for Sears for 45 years. Damn shame...

They don't just suck now, they've been sucking for at least the past 20 years.

Thanks for that link Kingston! I'll be visiting that site often.

I'm pretty much set.

Thanks!!

Bought 1200.00 lawnmower for 600.00

You're evil. Thought you'd like to know.

Hahaha!