... limit ONE PER YEAR on any peep from Puttsylvania

Hey now my son was using one last night when we shut the Genny down for oil and gas worth every penny of FREE! With Coupon that is. What ya think we the Beverly Hillbillies here with Swimming Pools and Movie Stars

Yep, a rip-off at .99. I've got a dozen of the free ones at home.

The free-with-coupon promos seem to be gone. I'm not thrilled with the new HF marketing strategy and would guess that I'm not alone. Hope they'll bring back the freebies!

The HF store in out town seems to get very little traffic. We have a Menards here and they get pretty close to HF prices, and sometimes beat them. Even the local farm store can get close to and beat some HF prices.

I've probably been in this HF store a dozen times, and usually walk out empty handed, or just buying little stuff. I check the prices at the other places before I go to HF, so I know how the prices compare. It seems almost all hand tools are made in china these days, so the price or who owns the local store becomes more important to me, if the prices are nearly the same, I will support the local stores, even though they are franchised. Our local HF is owned by HF corporate. .

You could set up on a street corner here at 10 bucks each and be sold out of a 1000 In a day and on ya way back home in no time.....

I have no idea how many of those things my SIL has. 50-60? I think he uses one till it dies and tosses it instead of putting it batteries.
On a side note, the HF stores around here seem to have slowed way down since they stopped offering 20% off and/or free items.


Tim

The nearest HF in Bismarck seems to have a steady stream of people patronizing it. Which is good. I remember how it was prior to them coming to town and I don't want to go back to that.

Is it just me or do their prices seem to be increasing as well ?

i have noticed that as well.

The from Coder sure is sharp tOdAy !

But Hobo is offering a cheapy screwdriver set for like 450 today ... I need a skinny shortly Phillips for a door lock adjustment on the motor homey!

you need to adjust your motor homey like the road kill boys did on the 440 mh engine episode............just RiP it off and be done with it !

I called the local Hobo... no mo blue lites !

...rumor has it that a TRAIN LOAD of them was hijacked around the puttzBurgher area !

A better long term value imho
is the Ryobi/Milwaukee light with the 3 watt Cree LED and the 1 amp USB charging port that automatically turns off the USB after 4 hours.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-O...ith-USB-Charger-Tool-Only-P781/300225308

These lights have official listings for how long they will stay lit with specific amp-hr Lithium batteries
like 71 hours 0n low setting with a Ryobi 9 amp hour battery
and therefore these LED lights/ cell phone chargers
are also valuable “battery capacity testers”
even for less expensive “knock off” batteries not made by Ryobi/Milwaukee/Dewalt/Bosch etc
if “jumper wires”are used.

Ryobi and Milwaukee are both divisions of former Hong Kong Company TTI
but sadly legal freedoms of Hong Kong businesses now crushed” by mainland police actions.

The Harbor Freight 2600 ma-hour NiMH rechargeable batteries do test out as 2600
but how many cycles they can be charged is unknown to me,
whereas Eneloop NiMH batteries go many many cycles of charge.

Just had a discussion this morning about leaving on dim lights in houses where the electricity is down to deter looters,
and the value of battery powered fans to more quickly dry flooded studs in walls after stripping away drywall,
using UV-C lights to disinfect mold, etc.

$1000 of battery powered tools could save $10,000 in certain circumstances.

Yes. How terrible it was before Harbor Freight came to the United States. Thank God they saved us.

I don't want to get into a peeing contest over this but I remember what it was like decades ago. You had top of the line tools like Proto, Snap-On, and others. Then you had the real garbage from others like JC Whitney. Other than Craftsman, there were few choice in the middle of the road.

If you are a professional mechanic that use tools every day, constantly, you need the best. But for hobbyist like me, sometimes mediocre is good enough. You then throw in the little miscellaneous stuff that the chains at that time, primarily Napa, never had on hand but could order, it's nice to go to somewhere where you can touch, taste, feel, and smell something before you buy.

I would be the last to agree Harbor Freight "saved" anything (yes I can recognize sarcasm when I read it) but they have given the public another option. If you don't like that option, then don't buy there, simple as that.

Agreed. For the occasional, hobbyist use, Harbor Freight does have some economic offerings. I wouldn't seriously consider them for things I needed to make a living with, but for the once in a while use, they aren't so bad.

It seems to be a trade off as some items seem to work well but others are crap. I come to the conclusion that it is best for me to stop buying from and not use them as a tool testing place. Easier for me just to get the better tools the first time around.

their aluminum floor jacks are a life saver for me ! well, more like a back and hip saver.
they are a bunch easier to maneuver than my 3 ton sears and 2.5 ton hein-warner.
and if you put them side by side to a snap on jack, they are almost identical.
i have both the 1.5 ton "racing" jack [actually, i bought one new, then bought one that was almost new at a swap meet for $20] and the 3 ton, and have used them a bunch over the 5-6 years i have had them. my old steel framed floor jacks just sit around now, but i won't toss them, just in case the hobo fright aluminum jacks take a dump.