Firebrick43 has it right. It's a mantra on the GJ that techs have no money smarts, buy Snap-on tools and boxes on credit, then skip and sell for low dollar with money still owed on them when they eventually fail. I personally have never seen that or known a tech in that position. The dealer is usually agile enough to reposess or work a deal to buy back before that happens.
It's also a common thought here that as long as a box has a similar number of drawers and is painted a similar color, it is just as good and will work as well for a professional as a Snap-on box, and techs that own Snap-on are just vain and stupid. In reality, although the price may be high, once a professional owns it, they generally are very satisfied and keep it forever, and use it as a second box or take it home when they upgrade or when they retire. Or, trade it in on a bigger/better/newer model. I've never known one who traded a high quality truck box for a cheap one, because they thought it was just as good. I've known a couple that traded because of financial hardship, with the intention of trading back up as soon as they could afford. I've also known a few that deliberately used a less expensive box, purely because they wanted to save money. They made no pretense that it was as good as the better boxes, just said it wasn't worth the money to them to have a better one.
I have bought numerous Snap-on boxes with tools, and most have been from guys that for medical or health reasons took another job and then had no use for the tools and the box. A couple have been from guys that retrained and got a better job and said they'd never touch a wrench again. One was from a guy that went from automotive to milwright and the automotive box and some of the tools weren't suitable for the new work. The guys that leave the industry because it doesn't suit them generally bought their Snap-on stuff at student discount, and are trying to sell for more than they paid, otherwise they'll keep it for their home use.
I see a lot of retired techs trying to sell their box with well worn tools, often mis-matched and redundant sets and obsolete specialty tools, for 50% to 75% of what they had into them over the years. Those just stay for sale or reside in storage until they die and their family liquidates more realistically.
The guys selling a nice box, clean and polished, without tools, for top money are techs that have upgraded and hoping to get a bit more out of the box than the trade-in. If it doesn't sell, they eventually trade it.
