For home use, or even a new pro starting out, Craftsman's made-in-china 299 pc socket set (every size 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" sae/metric standard/deep socket they currently make) for ~$300 is very hard to beat. Even more so if you are a Shop Your Way member and have some SYW or Freecash points to knock that price down even more to well below $1 per piece.
I paid less than $250 delivered, and on top of that got ~$50-60 in freecash for the purchase which I used a week or two later to get SEA and metric sets of offset wrenches for $0.
I still have pretty much all of the same Craftsman sockets from made-in-USA days gone by, but I've been setting up a new box in the garage and moving my old ones out back to the shop where they're needed a lot less often. The thinking was that way if/when I do break a socket (never have yet though, old or new) it'll more likely be the newer chinesium one same as they would want to replace it with.
I've been putting them to use same as I always have and as far as use I don't notice much of a difference though. I can only recall a few instances where I needed a mid-length socket (Craftsman doesn't make them anymore - Gearwrench does though) or a deep with full depth broaching (new are shallow broached- which is good in many cases but not always).
All in all, made in China or not, they're good sockets. I looked at other comparable quality /guarantee brands, like Gearwrench and Tekton, for example, but for the price of filling out a full set I didn't find anything else even close.
