doctordirt
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- May 15, 2014
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I use the kiosk, I have multiple order pop up and I have to select which ones I am picking up. One, two or three, etcetera.
Sears.com hot deals and clearance thread
- Thread starter Spn1025
- Start date
Yeah, if I only have 1 item to pick up, the kiosk automatically skips the checkbox page as soon as it knows who I am, but with multiple items I get the chance to checkmark which ones I want to pick up. I'm pretty sure you get the checkbox page even if the items were in the same order, but do one item per order if you want to be sure.
Miscellaneous news/rumors about the status of the company:
- The exact percent varies by which numbers you compare, but Sears/Kmart have now closed over 90% of the number of stores they had a decade ago. Kmart's peak was back in 1994 at 2,486 stores, though they were down to around 1,300 by 2010; and Sears had around the mid-800s in full-line stores for a number of years in the 90s-2000s, but inflated the number some articles used by adding in the 'specialty' stores (counting auto centers separately from the main store they're attached to, plus all the Hometown franchises, etc). Now there are 60 Kmarts (2.4% of the peak, ~4.6% of a decade ago); and 120 full-line Sears (~14% of a decade ago). With Kmarts and Sears combined, it's about 5.5% of the total a decade ago.
- Another distribution center is on its way out, in Delano, CA. Going down to a skeleton crew in Jan 2020, complete shutdown by Mar 2020.
- To deal with the far-flung remaining store locations, Sears/Kmart may be sending shipments less often than they used to - instead of a truck with portions of its trailer allocated to multiple stores along a route, a store might get a full truckload from the distribution center only once they've sold enough to justify that much in a single shipment, so a month or two between restocks. It sounded like this was speculation about the future, but from what I've seen at my Sears (before it went into closing status), I think this might already be a reality.
- Some stores have apparently been letting their inventory become so inaccurate that store pickup orders are having 'similar' items substituted more often. I haven't had this happen yet, but I'm sure some stores have more problems with it than others.
- Hometowns are still having a lot of trouble getting inventory. (The speculation earlier this year was that Eddie was 'starving' them till the merger, but that was final 6 weeks ago and still no improvement.) And what they can get is priced much higher than full-line stores and Sears.com, but Hometowns aren't supposed to price-match. (And as we were talking about here recently, the ability to order online at Sears.com prices for in-store pickup at a Hometown seems to be shrinking a lot lately.)
- Once full-line stores go into liquidation, they are receiving a lot more inventory than usual, both from the distribution centers and even from other not-yet-closing stores (even the toys). This starves the stores that are supposedly trying to stay open, leaving customers walking out empty-handed.
- Sears seems to have completely burned all their bridges with lawnmower/tractor manufacturers, severely hurting the remaining stores' spring sales revenue.
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Haven't seen any reports from someone trying it yet, but these kinds of coupons have never worked at Hometowns before, so don't go too far out of your way to try it.
This set had been at $26.94 blowout sale pricing.
Craftsman 8-Piece Ratcheting Fixed-Blade Screwdriver Set
https://www.sears.com/craftsman-8pc-ratcheting-fixed-blade-screwdriver-set/p-A029057319
$22.49 sale, $47.99 regularly
Craftsman 8-Piece Ratcheting Fixed-Blade Screwdriver Set
https://www.sears.com/craftsman-8pc-ratcheting-fixed-blade-screwdriver-set/p-A029057319
$22.49 sale, $47.99 regularly
They were $16.94 in Sept. I had been trying to get that set for almost a year because I hate the thick shaft of the ratcheting bit drivers. I could have ordered them on eBay or paid shipping but the object was to try and get them free. They kept cancelling ship to store pickup orders because I don’t think they ever had them in this area. This is when they had another Sears and a Kmart too. Eventually the further away local store got them then the closer local one. I ordered for pickup from the closer store, they sold out before they picked the order, so I convinced them to send me a set with free shipping which they ended up sending from the second store saving me the drive I thought it was kind of ironic. Since I live in the outskirts it’s like 40 min to the one and 20-25 to the other depending on if I am lucky. I really didn’t feel like the longer drive unless they had something else I needed.
Attachments
Ah, I wasn't paying attention to them at that point in the blowout, apparently. Definitely more worthwhile at the $16.94 price, but if any of you have $100-back installments showing up now, the current price is still more than 50% off.
I think this might be getting near to the last chance to get any of the Craftsman hammers Made In USA by Vaughan, if you haven't already. They ran out in most stores about a year ago (when Sears stopped paying Vaughan's invoices), but apparently there's still a few stragglers hanging around. There used to be around a couple dozen different models; I managed to get about half of them.
still available for home shipping, and possibly a small number of stores somewhere:
$4.99 sale, $9.99 regularly https://www.sears.com/craftsman-16-oz-curved-claw-hammer/p-00938124000P (Craftsman 16 oz. Curved Claw Hammer - beige fiberglass handle)
$8.99 sale, $15.99 regularly https://www.sears.com/craftsman-12-oz-plastic-tip-hammer/p-00938292000P (Craftsman 12 oz. Plastic-Tip Hammer - wood handle)
$15.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-4-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938461000P (Craftsman 4 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
only still possibly available in a small number of stores somewhere in the country:
$17.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-12-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938464000P (Craftsman 12 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
$18.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-16-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938465000P (Craftsman 16 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
$23.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-32-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938467000P (Craftsman 32 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
$20.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-16-oz-curved-claw-hammer/p-00938126000P (Craftsman 16 oz. Curved Claw Hammer - red fiberglass handle - I had thought it was steel since it cost so much more than the beige one, but then noticed it says fiberglass in the specifications)
$14.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-6-oz-plastic-tip-hammer/p-00938298000P (Craftsman 6 oz. Plastic-Tip Hammer - wood handle)
$24.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-24-oz-rubber-mallet/p-00938304000P (Craftsman 24 oz. Rubber Mallet - wood handle)
These prybars were also made by Vaughan and are only in some small number of stores now:
$14.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-13.5-flat-pry-bar/p-00937342000P (red Craftsman 13.5" Flat Pry Bar)
still available for home shipping, and possibly a small number of stores somewhere:
$4.99 sale, $9.99 regularly https://www.sears.com/craftsman-16-oz-curved-claw-hammer/p-00938124000P (Craftsman 16 oz. Curved Claw Hammer - beige fiberglass handle)
$8.99 sale, $15.99 regularly https://www.sears.com/craftsman-12-oz-plastic-tip-hammer/p-00938292000P (Craftsman 12 oz. Plastic-Tip Hammer - wood handle)
$15.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-4-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938461000P (Craftsman 4 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
only still possibly available in a small number of stores somewhere in the country:
$17.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-12-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938464000P (Craftsman 12 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
$18.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-16-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938465000P (Craftsman 16 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
$23.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-32-oz-ball-pein-hammer/p-00938467000P (Craftsman 32 oz. Ball Pein Hammer - wood handle)
$20.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-16-oz-curved-claw-hammer/p-00938126000P (Craftsman 16 oz. Curved Claw Hammer - red fiberglass handle - I had thought it was steel since it cost so much more than the beige one, but then noticed it says fiberglass in the specifications)
$14.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-6-oz-plastic-tip-hammer/p-00938298000P (Craftsman 6 oz. Plastic-Tip Hammer - wood handle)
$24.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-24-oz-rubber-mallet/p-00938304000P (Craftsman 24 oz. Rubber Mallet - wood handle)
These prybars were also made by Vaughan and are only in some small number of stores now:
$14.99 https://www.sears.com/craftsman-13.5-flat-pry-bar/p-00937342000P (red Craftsman 13.5" Flat Pry Bar)
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The Ball Peen hammers might still be available in some areas, maybe transitioning to a hometown item as all are available at the closest hometown. I actually got one not too long ago as a filler for an order. The rubber mallet is still in a few mechanics sets so far as I know.
The $4.99 will probably be gone soon. I got like 3 of those as order fillers over the summer, you used to be able to ship them to stores but not anymore.
I think you're just lucky that one Hometown still has that many shelf-sitting, because there's a couple of Hometowns in my radius, and neither have any of these (orderable or even "call store for availability") anymore.
Vaughan stopped shipping to Sears Holdings last fall and filed a couple bankruptcy court claims over $100,000 each for piles of unpaid invoices. Though they potentially might have continued selling directly to SHOS for longer, I know most of SHOS's supply chain never got to the point of being able to stand on its own without going through Sears Holdings. And now there is no SHOS anymore due to the merger, so it alllll has to go through Sears Holdings' successor Transformco, and unfortunately they don't seem to have had much success in convincing the burned vendors to come back.
I used to see the $4.99 one available for ship-to-store too, but the Sears warehouse must have finally run out of them... the reason I decided to make that post last night is I was checking on the ship-to-store items remaining on my wish list, and found that one had become unshippable except to home (meaning it would be sent by one of the stores that still has a few).
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I found some more info to add to my Craftsman manufacturers list by going through some of the invoices submitted in the bankruptcy filings. Added:
- Allway Tools (and it turns out the stainless putty knives came from Allway Tools rather than Titan Tools, and the Titan that makes hand tools is actually an Asian importer, unrelated to the Titan that makes drill bits and taps/dies in the US; I haven't found anything confirming a relationship of Sears with either Titan, so I've taken Titan Tools off the list),
- Ajax Tools,
- General Tools (in addition to selling some tools under their own name through Sears, they made certain Craftsman screwdrivers),
- more tools & storage products from Olympia Tools,
- Organic Tool Co.,
- more from Ridgid/Emerson,
- Ronan Tools,
- & more from Vaughan.
Also recently added the mower manufacturers, and a little more info about the Bahco saws.
And we already knew Vessel made the 2pc impact screwdriver set, but I found something interesting in their invoices... Sears was paying Vessel $12.75 per set. So even without considering all the SYW stuff, the blowout sale price of $11.94 is below the wholesale cost!
They're down to very few left now (one Hometown in my area has "call for availability", nothing anywhere else near me, and not shippable), but if you don't already own these and you can still get ahold of them, don't miss out!
- Allway Tools (and it turns out the stainless putty knives came from Allway Tools rather than Titan Tools, and the Titan that makes hand tools is actually an Asian importer, unrelated to the Titan that makes drill bits and taps/dies in the US; I haven't found anything confirming a relationship of Sears with either Titan, so I've taken Titan Tools off the list),
- Ajax Tools,
- General Tools (in addition to selling some tools under their own name through Sears, they made certain Craftsman screwdrivers),
- more tools & storage products from Olympia Tools,
- Organic Tool Co.,
- more from Ridgid/Emerson,
- Ronan Tools,
- & more from Vaughan.
Also recently added the mower manufacturers, and a little more info about the Bahco saws.
And we already knew Vessel made the 2pc impact screwdriver set, but I found something interesting in their invoices... Sears was paying Vessel $12.75 per set. So even without considering all the SYW stuff, the blowout sale price of $11.94 is below the wholesale cost!
They're down to very few left now (one Hometown in my area has "call for availability", nothing anywhere else near me, and not shippable), but if you don't already own these and you can still get ahold of them, don't miss out!A couple of those hammers are at my Hometown stores, but I can no longer buy from Hometown stores online, on most items. I did find these little gems at an Ace Hardware store.
Neat, I never saw those individually at my Sears, but I bought a 3pk of them a couple years ago.
I found that those Finger Bit Drivers are made in the USA by Cal-Van Tools.Jeepster04
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- Jun 25, 2013
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- 3,097
Was able to buy the 12oz padded hammer and a claw hammer. I already had the red shaft craftsman hammer. Also got another set of the impact screw drivers.. May give them to my dad..
Bought several other things that I didnt need... Sigh...
Bought several other things that I didnt need... Sigh...
Somebody on SD pointed out a free Audible audiobook about what Sears was like back in the 1970s-1980s: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Big-Store-Audiobook/B07LCR75PN
It's long, but I added it to my library to get around to eventually. Not sure if it's free all the time or just temporarily.
It's long, but I added it to my library to get around to eventually. Not sure if it's free all the time or just temporarily.
The finger bit drivers used to be available on the hardware desk of our Sears but ran out sometime early in spring of 2018 and never returned.
Interesting Sears was paying $12.75 for the impact screwdrivers. They were only like $19.99 when they came out which wasn’t exactly expensive. But factor in those $5 off $20 coupons they had back then there was only $2.25 profit. Factor in warehousing and transportation there was almost nothing to be had if they sold for less than $20. Perhaps they should have brought them in at $24.99 or something.
Sometimes I wonder about the other gimmicky tools they carry, that 3D Transformer tool they have for $59.99 (this is actually a good price for these, I got both the metric and SAE sets for only somewhat less than this using points down from $79.99) used to sell for like $99.99-149.99. It’s some patented design from a Taiwanese company they most certainly are below cost on these at $59.99. Now if you bought the SAE and Metric sets and got the $100 back in points? No wonders they’re losing so much money,
Interesting Sears was paying $12.75 for the impact screwdrivers. They were only like $19.99 when they came out which wasn’t exactly expensive. But factor in those $5 off $20 coupons they had back then there was only $2.25 profit. Factor in warehousing and transportation there was almost nothing to be had if they sold for less than $20. Perhaps they should have brought them in at $24.99 or something.
Sometimes I wonder about the other gimmicky tools they carry, that 3D Transformer tool they have for $59.99 (this is actually a good price for these, I got both the metric and SAE sets for only somewhat less than this using points down from $79.99) used to sell for like $99.99-149.99. It’s some patented design from a Taiwanese company they most certainly are below cost on these at $59.99. Now if you bought the SAE and Metric sets and got the $100 back in points? No wonders they’re losing so much money,
The impact drivers were listed as $29.99 regular price when I got mine a couple years ago, but had frequent sales that brought them down to $19.99, which I thought was a great deal at the time.
At this point it seems like they're just trying to get rid of stuff quickly so Eddie can have more empty square footage to play real estate games with.
It probably helps that the bankruptcy let them end up with a lot of merchandise either for free or heavily discounted.It's certainly liquidate mode at this point.
They can't be making money on the spend $100/ get $100. Not on tools anyway.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using The Garage Journal mobile app
They can't be making money on the spend $100/ get $100. Not on tools anyway.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using The Garage Journal mobile app
bds1984
Well-known member
The impact drivers were listed as $29.99 regular price when I got mine a couple years ago, but had frequent sales that brought them down to $19.99, which I thought was a great deal at the time.
At this point it seems like they're just trying to get rid of stuff quickly so Eddie can have more empty square footage to play real estate games with.
The only Kmart left in Michigan still has them on the shelf. I just ordered additional sets to give as gifts this Christmas. For the two sets I have now, I paid about $10 for them. As far as screwdrivers go, these are probably the best model that Sears/Kmart has on their shelf; the WF clones aren't bad, I've been using a few sets of them in my shop, they just aren't worth the inflated price.
I took a ride today to a store slated to close today and they the Ultimate Collection metric sets marked up to $260. They have them on the website for $70 or so. They’d have to stick around to nearly 80% off to be the same price.
I think this is just a game. Eddie is using a specific liquidator, not the usual Gordon Brothers Hilco team. He’s probably taking merchandise he paid nothing for, having the liquidation mark it up to full retail they’re probably making a good buck doing this.
Warehouse tags on a lot of this aren’t even old. Though the tool set was produced on the 30th week of 2018. They load the stores up with a bunch of Seasonal stuff, liquidate it, people think they’re getting a good deal, he raises a bunch of money to keep hometown going a while longer.
I should have clarified I was referring to the current online sales.
I just left my Sears that's scheduled to close at the end of the year.
Still full retail with a 10 or 30% off tag on most of the stuff.
$49.99 20 PC gearwrench ratcheting wrenches looked to be about the best deal in the place.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using The Garage Journal mobile app
I just left my Sears that's scheduled to close at the end of the year.
Still full retail with a 10 or 30% off tag on most of the stuff.
$49.99 20 PC gearwrench ratcheting wrenches looked to be about the best deal in the place.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using The Garage Journal mobile app
The spend $100 get $100 is kinda of a trickery game for infrequent Sears shoppers. They have a bunch of items that don’t qualify for free shipping, the points are dispersed bi weekly meaning you have to visit the store or remember to use them. They probably figure you’ll spend over $25. Half the people don’t even know how the stuff works. When I was waiting for a merchandise pickup I told the lady who’d apparently never shopped at Sears just how much free stuff a I’ve gotten with this type of stuff over the years and she balked in amazement.
Anyone in the game long enough knows how to use these and get close to each installment exactly or stacked multiples like me, I have stuff pre saved in my cart for when points hit.
I speculate they’re going to scale back to the few warehouses nearest their concentrations of stores and sell the others off so they’re liquidating warehouse stock.
giants
Banned
Thanks.
Newbie here. I just did the pay $100, get $100 in cash back, paying this past Monday, and redeemed my first $25 today. A few questions:
Do I get my next $25 cash back a week from this coming Monday, the next 2 weeks after that, and so on?
Can I use them at K-Mart? At Sears that are closing and in the process of liquidating inventory?
Any other tips?
Thanks
giants
Banned
I'm not having the luck you're having. My local Sears is scheduled for liquidation this coming Monday, December 2. The signs all over the store boast about 10% off. Tool chests are 25% off.
However, the fine print is that the tool chests are 25% off THE REGULAR PRICE, not giving any better discount than Sears.com's sales.
I scanned tools at the kiosk and there was no 10% off. I know this because I drove directly from one Sears that wasn't closing (other errands and it was down the street) to my local Sears that's closing. There was no price difference; if anything, the Sears not closing down had some attractive sales, eg Gearwrench metric ratcheting wrench set for $49.
Bad Eddie!
At some closing Sears stores, the %-off has been programmed into the registers to come off automatically on most items. Otherwise, they have to do it manually at the register. But at ALL closing stores, the discounts are only based on the regular full price. Yes, this means the still-open stores and website have much better sale prices on many items.
The only times it's worth buying something in a liquidating Sears store *as a knowledgeable customer* are:
- you have an in-store-only coupon,
- or it's an item that's not on sale anywhere else (one of those things that never went on sale except for the 5%/10%-off-everything Friends & Family / Midnight Madness sales),
- or you really want the item and it's no longer available to you online and you either have no other remaining stores close enough to bother going to or the other stores have run out of it,
- or you have points to use up and don't want to deal with either paying for shipping or trying to get free shipping online (which most people outside of a few communities like this don't know is even still possible),
- or it's store fixtures/supplies stuff (that you can't use points on, but may want for other reasons).
Most of the customers who show up during liquidation are not knowledgeable and probably hadn't set foot in Sears for several years prior, if ever. Enough of them will buy enough of the stuff early enough that Sears will not drop the %-offs very much at all. I think by the end for my second-closest store, most tools were still only down to 30% off, and most were gone. If any of those are still left at the end, I think Sears usually pays to ship them off to one of the not-yet-closing stores (where, ironically, unless the receiving store immediately goes into liquidation too, the tools will probably sell for lower prices).
Clothing might be an exception to the worthwhileness, I think they dropped that faster and maxed out at 70% or so.
The only times it's worth buying something in a liquidating Sears store *as a knowledgeable customer* are:
- you have an in-store-only coupon,
- or it's an item that's not on sale anywhere else (one of those things that never went on sale except for the 5%/10%-off-everything Friends & Family / Midnight Madness sales),
- or you really want the item and it's no longer available to you online and you either have no other remaining stores close enough to bother going to or the other stores have run out of it,
- or you have points to use up and don't want to deal with either paying for shipping or trying to get free shipping online (which most people outside of a few communities like this don't know is even still possible),
- or it's store fixtures/supplies stuff (that you can't use points on, but may want for other reasons).
Most of the customers who show up during liquidation are not knowledgeable and probably hadn't set foot in Sears for several years prior, if ever. Enough of them will buy enough of the stuff early enough that Sears will not drop the %-offs very much at all. I think by the end for my second-closest store, most tools were still only down to 30% off, and most were gone. If any of those are still left at the end, I think Sears usually pays to ship them off to one of the not-yet-closing stores (where, ironically, unless the receiving store immediately goes into liquidation too, the tools will probably sell for lower prices).
Clothing might be an exception to the worthwhileness, I think they dropped that faster and maxed out at 70% or so.
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On SYW.com it tells the dates of the points payouts. If you do as many as I did it’s best to mark the things on a calendar.
It should be the day after you buy the item/s in store, the day it ships or the day you pick it up then every two weeks from there. However if you get a store pickup then wait 3 days to pick it up it hits instantly after pickup and goes from the original date of purchase.
You can use the points at Sears, Kmart, or SYW and the websites of each. There are some exclusions on certain consumables at Kmart and others that for whatever reason should be excluded but aren’t.
The points should work during liquidation but as Hexen points out below the deals on the websites are better since they mark things up to the list price and 99% of the time nothing is ever at list price.
You should be able to ship from the website to the closing store for a while but it might be harder to get someone back to pickup, they might not cut staffing too short though at the current batch since it’s Christmas season.
yrly said:
Today is probably the last day before the November-announced closing stores go into full liquidation mode. Based on what I'd heard during earlier closure rounds, I've been expecting that my store would immediately drop out of the online ordering system tomorrow. But if that's not right and it keeps accepting orders longer, I'd have more chances at better selection and better prices.
Does anyone who's been through recent full-line Sears closures remember how far along your store was in the process when it stopped being available as a pickup location on the website?
giants
Banned
On sears.com, can't we just select a store and see if the closing store shows up as a pick-up store?
I am asking for what other people have actually experienced, to find out when it is likely to disappear, BEFORE it disappears, for planning purposes.
giants
Banned
We're on the same page; that's what I meant.
The one Kmart here took a few more days before it dropped out of online ordering when liquidation started so I guess it depends on what they decide to do.
When my last local store in the Nashville, TN area closed it was announced about a week to 10 days before the liquidation sale started last January. The store disappeared as a ship to store option on Sears.com on, or within a day or 2 of, the date the liquidation sale started.
The Sears in Canton, Ohio was one of those that started the liquidation sale with no public announcement in October, 2019. I believe the first local newspaper article came on October 28, when the liquidation sale was already already under way. I noticed it had disappeared as a ship to store option a few days before that.
dodge610
Well-known member
I have heard rumor they were going to make the canton ohio sears a mini store. Dont know how much truth there is to it. Was in there a few weeks ago the store is now a third of the size it was. Seems like tools is pretty much all they carry now.
The fine print on the ongoing $100 back on $100 deal says it runs 11/3-12/7/19, but I just noticed that it is currently programmed in on the website as "Expires on 12/01/2019". Not sure if they will be fixing/extending that date tomorrow, but if they don't, just a heads-up for anyone still thinking about doing that deal, it might end earlier than expected.
This looks like an interesting way to get the $100 back on $100 if you haven't already gotten most of these tools separately:
Craftsman 31 pc. Extreme Grip Tool Set
https://www.sears.com/craftsman-31-pc-extreme-grip-set/p-00942026000P
$100.00 Hot Buy sale, $199.99 regularly
available for free home shipping, and ship-to-store
This looks like an interesting way to get the $100 back on $100 if you haven't already gotten most of these tools separately:
Craftsman 31 pc. Extreme Grip Tool Set
https://www.sears.com/craftsman-31-pc-extreme-grip-set/p-00942026000P
$100.00 Hot Buy sale, $199.99 regularly
available for free home shipping, and ship-to-store