Prices are coming down for at least some of them.
Model 1902413 (Max-Leverage Pliers with PowerSlot, Diagonal Cutting, 8-inch ) is at about $26 on ebay (something must have happened because ebay has been swamped with them in the last days), including free shipping. This is a very decent price in my opinion, but I would expect prices to come down still further. I assume this will end similar to the Knipex pliers at Lowes a year ago - the last ones at Lowes were dirt cheap, as you remember.
Model 1902419 (Long Nose Ergonomic Multi Plier, 8-inch) is currently at 29.98 at my local Lowes. I guess we are going to see some on ebay at even lower prices soon.
These prices are, to my best knowledge, already somewhat lower than what you pay for the original NWS in the US. If you are not in a hurry, I would wait - I expect prices to come down for all other models as well. Maybe someone has some insider information on how these actually sell? At Lowes, they put these NWS models next to China made Irwins which look very similar, with the result that you have a bunch of Irwin pliers at $10-15, and then suddenly two similarly looking pliers at $30-40. I think it would be surprising if this works. It has been a marketing mistake from the beginning, because if Irwin says that these NWS pliers are expensive because they are high quality, then they implicitly say that all their other pliers are ****...But when they don't say anything (like they do right now), people wonder why they should pay 2 or even 3 times more for these pliers that just look as any other Irwin pliers (for most people, I guess). It is somehow sad because I liked the idea that Irwin finally sells higher-quality pliers, but I don't see this persist. If it doesn't work out, Irwin probably is going to say that they tried to sell higher-quality tools, but the public don't want them and prefers cheap China tools, which of course would neglect the flaws in their marketing strategy and communication. Ok, sorry for the long post - just my two cents....
