[Sirrotica]

Mike, they already are real crap, have been for years.

Having turned wrenches most of my life I have spent an extraordinary amount of money on MAC, Snap On, Cornwell, etc. After having went through a divorce I had all my tools stored in a storage facility because I was living in a apartment. Thieves broke in and stole most all of my name brand tools.

At that point in my life I was driving 18 wheelers for a living and wasn't going to spend thousands of dollars to replace all my name brand tools. I looked hard at all the mid priced alternatives, and found that Stanley hand tools are better than most of the other stuff out there. Yes it's mostly made in Taiwan, however Taiwan is known for better quality merchandise than China is.

I'm not sure if you realize it, Stanley makes tools for lots of other brand names. Husky (Home Depot) is one that comes to mind. So if they work fine for myself (someone that made their living with hand tools most of my adult life). I think the Stanley line is head and shoulders over sears crap, lot of yellow tool holders in my toolbox at this point. I believe Stanley will make better tools than whomever is making crapsman stuff at this point

I quit buying Craftsman tools in 1977 over a dispute in store from them not replacing or repairing a breaker bar.

Stanley may be one of the subcontractors that makes some of sears tools even now, but they make them to sears specs, which as can be seen, aren't very high standards.

I've been using quite a bit of Stanley stuff for the last 15 years or so and really have no complaints. Same lifetime warranty as sears too, wally world can supply you with most anything Stanley 24-7. I think Stanley will actually be a better grade of tool than sears is currently selling.

Just my observations and experience.