Amazon recently kicked off their Big Spring Sale, and it looks like there are some good deals to be found.
I should be saying more about the Amazon Spring Tool sale, as there are some good bargains poking through the noise, but I’ve been in a foul mood about tool deals and have been avoiding it.
Here’s why:
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To start off, there’s a lot of products like this.
14 and 1/2 stripes and 15 stars?!
But there’s also the media. Here are some headlines that hit my news feed, most of them in the past day or two and a couple from earlier this year.
Lowest ever prices?? No, they’re not. While correct for some products, such as Dewalt’s 20V Max 2pc tool kit, it’s factually inaccurate for others, such as the miter saw included in the thumbnail image.
But then if you click on the article, it says things like (was $239). No, it wasn’t!
This is by an “executive editor” for the magazine, and it’s not a small magazine – it’s a household name.
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Where’s the fact checking?
This Dewalt cordless drill is NEVER “nearly 50% off.”
Walmart isn’t a Milwaukee dealer. They’re not clearing anything out, all of the “deals” are just tools that resellers bought from Home Depot, Acme Tools, or other dealers during the recent holiday season sales.
How does the staff at huge magazines and media conglomerates not know this?
Or maybe no one cares anymore. See: New Overpriced Mini Maglight LED Light is NOT a Maglite!!! Numerous news and media organizations were heavily promoting this product in late 2022.
How could anyone writing about personal lighting products not see huge red flags about that? Or did no one care as long as they were getting paid?
Again, all of the Milwaukee tools you’re seeing on Amazon are coming from intermediates, typically resellers who shop the deals at Home Depot and elsewhere.
There are also rumors about counterfeits and stolen merchandise.
Have you ever been upset because you wanted to get in on a tool deal but it sold out early? There’s a good chance a lot of the products sold are headed straight to Amazon and Walmart listings.
I bet that’s quality, a “$1,120 metal shed for just $145.”
Oh yeah, a bestselling cordless mini chainsaw for $25 – and that’s for the tool, battery, and case. What could go wrong?
This is a new tactic. “Shoppers say” – that way the media conglomerate isn’t making any claims.
Ooh, a “powerful” drill that is “as good as Dewalt?”
This is the drill. How do you pronounce that name?
Oh, another “comparable to Dewalt” drill?
And this is what they’re talking about.
Can I do better? Absolutely. But when it comes to tool deals, there’s no reach anymore. Every single day, there are countless tool “deals” posts by magazines, mass media sites, media conglomerates, and more. There’s too much noise. Generative AI is making things worse.
Google’s search algorithms have changed. And now there’s also AI overviews to contend with.
The holiday shopping season usually burns out my willingness to provide tool deals coverage for a stretch.
But the way things have been, a lot of holiday season deals stretched from mid-October until the end of February, and some even continued into March. It’s now late March and we’re seeing a lot of the same deals all over again.
It seems that there’s no point to analyses.
The Dewalt DWS780 miter saw is on sale for $499 right now at Amazon and elsewhere. It’s a good price, but it’s been on sale at that price.
So, when I clicked through this headline, here’s one of the recommendations I see:
They also puff it up, such as the phrase “this is like Christmas in a box.”
This particular Dewalt combo kit, DCK940D2, has been around for 9 years and has been on sale for $499 and at least once $549.
Amazon’s Big Spring Sale features the Bosch PS31 12V Max cordless drill kit for $89. That’s a great drill – for a model that first launched almost 15 years ago. There are better ways to spend the same $89.
I feel that there’s no longer any way to reach people that need buying advice or help getting a good deal.
So why sift through all the “BIG SPRING DEAL!!!” noise to create a helpful signal that then gets drowned out by all of the “click our links to make us MONEY!!” articles and posts that are rolling out on a daily basis?
Don’t get me wrong, affiliate commissions help to support ToolGuyd. But it seems that it’s become everyone’s sole mission.
It also seems like retailers don’t care as long as they get your money. Why curate product lists when they can have open marketplaces as long as they get paid?
This is what Lowe’s shows me on social media – random tools from their marketplace.
I’ve started a collection of screen captures showing the strange stuff Lowe’s that brought to my social media feed.
I’m so glad to know that Lowe’s can sell me… this. From the product page:
Enhance your traditional design with contemporary materials and construction methods with the Tactical Tanto Machete from Cold Steel, which combines functionality with captivating aesthetics. Drawing inspiration from the esteemed Warrior Series, known for its exceptional Tantos, Wakizashis, and Katanas, this machete promises to deliver the same level of performance and reliability.
Enhance your traditional design with contemporary materials and construction methods…
Another time, Lowe’s promoted a Cold Steel 73″ spear.
I could really use something to help me cut through the noise, and I say that as a consumer as well as from a ToolGuyd stance.
“Web is dead.” Maybe, but have you checked out other mediums? The situation is similar on YouTube and social media.
If you look to Reddit and other communities, there frequent posts about how someone’s favorite woodworker, maker, or influencer has turned into a product shill.
I truly enjoy sharing about tool deals, and have always tried to be analytic about them. But it has become far too frustrating.
From a business sense, there’s competition. That doesn’t upset me – what upsets me is that there’s no good competition.
I have been feeling that the internet is simply broken, with “tool deals” content being an in-my-face daily frustration.
Here’s more of Amazon’s tool deals selection. It’s a mix of “might be interesting” deals, limited quantity flash sales, and generic stuff.
I don’t want to sort through this. I could, and I might. But, I’m tired of all of the hype, nonsense, and “CLICK OUR LINKS” types of content, and it makes me deeply hesitant. And even if I do go through that process, who is it going to reach, with Google’s search algorithm the way it is?
On top of all of that, some of the “Big Spring Sale” tool deals have been perpetual deals. In the context of all of this, it just doesn’t seem right to feature these deals.
Home Depot has the Milwaukee M12 Fuel hammer drill kit (1 battery) for $99 right now. I’d take this one over say the Bosch $89 drill kit that’s on sale at Amazon. But the M12 kit has been this price for at least 5 months now.
So… yeah, this is why I haven’t been posting very much about tool deals – I am having a difficult time coming to terms with the atmosphere right now. The internet is broken, and not just in the context of tool deals, and I feel that those who have the means to do better are either apathetic or deliberately choosing not to.
That all said, I’m gonna go grab some tools and get my hands dirty.
Jronman
Senix from that sponsored Lowes post is not a no name brand. I know of the brand because they have had a booth at equip expo a number of times. I didn’t know they had impact drivers though.
Stuart
Sorry, that wasn’t the best example. Senix is a YAT USA brand that launched in 2023.
Lowe’s has also promoted Vevor products, and I don’t really consider that to be a legitimate brand.
Eric
I see Vevor as the new Harbor Freight. They got their start the same way. Slapping their name on any cheap white label tool they could get their hands on. And as they grew they started selling better quality stuff and eventually coming out with their own unique designs. They’ve kind of grown out of those really low end offerings, so it makes sense that someone else would come along to take their place. And unlike the 8 capitol letter brands at least Vevor is big enough that they at least have some reasons to try and avoid selling you stuff that’s truly dangerous to operate and might end up with them getting sued.
Big Richard
They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work. Just this week someone posted that $124 DeWalt DCD771C2 kit in the DeWalt subreddit, thinking it was a good deal. And for anyone who does not know the DeWalt lineup, but knows the DeWalt name, they probably would think it was a good deal. Especially the way amazon paints it.
Stuart
That’s not unexpected – there’s lot of consumer naivety, which was the point of discussing deals and putting things into context. There was a time when I fell for common marketing tactics too.
But for reviewers, editors, and self-proclaimed product experts to be churning out bad advice and deceptive information, seemingly to score some extra clicks and affiliate commissions?
They should know that Amazon and Walmart aren’t legitimate sources for Milwaukee or Ryobi tools. Ordering these brands’ products from Amazon or Walmart is really no different than buying off of ebay.
Over the holiday season, a tech site promoted Apple products as being at “the lowest price ever,” despite there being better deal pricing just the week before.
I know they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work, and that’s the worst part. Once a tactic works, it’s adopted by other media giants, and we now have mega media corporations enthusiastically promoting $25 cordless battery powered chainsaw kits and name-brand power tools at the same price as they’ve always been.
When is the last time the Dewalt DCD771 kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ET5VMTU/?tag=toolguyd-20 was NOT $99?
The 2-tool combo kit is priced lower than a few months ago https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCK240C2-Lithium-Driver-Impact/dp/B00IJ0ALYS/?tag=toolguyd-20 , at $124 vs $129. Consumers might not know better, but any magazine or media site that claims this is 48% off from the spurious list price of $239 should not be publishing any tool-related content. In my opinion, if they repeat “was $239,” that either indicates that they aren’t familiar enough with the subject manner to be credible, or they’re lying by omission for some clicks and cash.
I don’t even want to talk about the AI-generated “review” content that I’ve been seeing.
Bonnie
Yep. The goals and intentions haven’t changed. Just the mechanism and the medium.
Stuart
No. National magazines used to be reputable and even role models with respect to media practices and ethics.
The shady drivel that they’ve been pumping out on a daily basis – that’s very new. I can’t tell if it’s a desperate survival tactic, greed, or something else.
Jared
It must be so much easier to make money operating as an advertising agency for Amazon and disguising your actions as “reporting”. I expect that will have long-term impacts on their credibility.
Stuart
I don’t think so. I saw a post yesterday where someone mentioned their Raspberry Pi based ad blocker, and how it makes unreadable websites usable again. If a website’s reading experience is so terrible that you have to use hardware-based ad blocking, stop going to that website!
I’ve come to the realization that a lot of large media sites don’t care if they’re putting out quality; it seems like they’re focusing on quantity, and if it lands them some clicks it’s automatically a win.
Oarman
I’m noticing a LOT of publishers doing this, it’s the exact same AI slop in the same format, and it’s often not even in the theme of the publication (like a ‘car website’ running sale articles on woodworking tools or OLED TVs.)
I assume it’s an attempt to get something, anything bought through an affiliate link.
I wonder who’s marketing this to these websites. If I see that style ‘article’ pop up in my feed it’s a good sign it’s time to block that website entirely.
Stuart
It’s not just AI slop. With that “car website,” check to see if it’s part of a larger media conglomerate.
It seems to be company-wide tactics to both get affiliate commissions, ad clicks, and to game news and discovery feeds to reel in broader audiences.
Acquisitions have also been a blight on the industry, and why tech sites now review mattresses.
Jeffrey
I wanted to find something that I needed, but I didn’t.
Josephus
I spent maybe ten minutes browsing the Amazon “sale” and couldn’t take it seriously. Way too much bullshit and inflated prices. Didn’t even catch any of the weird listings, as when the name is not recognized I move it along.
Are people really that dumb? For anything I’d be serious about buying I’d still check 3dromedaries prior to taking their word on the deal.
Brad
The fact that people obviously buy these scrabble-named, death-trap knockoffs is yet another reason why I’m so incredibly cynical about our species.
Stuart
This survival tool kit seems popular – https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Emergency-Equipment-Birthday-Accessories/dp/B0B7R76M8P/?tag=toolguyd-20
“Birthday accessories?”
This one has more stuff, including a 9-in-1 axe – https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Supplies-Crossbody-Emergency-Camping/dp/B0D4765KKT/?tag=toolguyd-20
I would NEVER buy this – the components look cheap to me, and cheap often means flimsy and dangerous. But people buy it, even when I emphatically discuss why I would not.
Amazon just sued the CPSC, saying they’re not actually a distributor for 3rd party products and thus shouldn’t be responsible for safety recalls. So who is responsible when something goes wrong with these no-name straight-to-Amazon products?
Ben
“Birthday” is just SEO. Seems like a lot of people just search “birthday gifts for men” or something like that on Amazon, and purchase the first thing that pops up.
Stuart
I know. “Gifts for men, women, grads” is common too.
Bonnie
“It also seems like retailers don’t care as long as they get your money. Why curate product lists when they can have open marketplaces as long as they get paid?”
Precisely Stuart. They don’t care and never have. Even pre-internet Sears didn’t give a rats ass about providing you the best tools, they cared about getting your money (the eponymous Sears himself supposedly claimed hyperbolically “THE LOWEST PRICES ON EARTH.” in his very first mailer despite that being an obvious lie), and re-branding or selling someone else’s stuff via an overstuffed catalogue was the best way at the time to do that.
Even the old (and now largely defunct) mom-and-pop stores still existed primarily to separate you from your cash, they just had a little more incentive not to piss off or maim their customers and their marketing dollars only extended as far as some xerox’d fliers in your mailbox or a booth at the town parade. But there’s zero doubt that many of them would be pulling the same BS today.
I don’t really have rose-tinted glasses or nostalgia because fundamentally these things haven’t actually changed that much. Norm Abrams wasn’t shilling Delta power tools because they were the best, but because he was the closest thing to an influencer we had at the time so they paid him to sell them. Even the old magazines with their pseudo-scientific head-to-head testing articles that headlined every issue were often suspect or outright useless. Marc Spagnuolo had a pretty well reasoned criticism of them even back in 2008 (and he himself was an early YouTube influencer with a sponsorship from Powermatic).
Stuart
Even so, I feel that too many lines are being crossed.
Integrity is gone. Those that still have some are being pushed out, crowded out, or steamrolled over. Maybe – hopefully – it’s a phase that will pass. Otherwise, all that will be left is incentivized hype, and you can’t say this is how things always have been.
KC
The constant flow of “deals” into my email and text messages is nothing short of a tragedy. I unsubscribed from several a while back and need to do that again. Returning to my first sentence, this tragedy could breed opportunity, in the form of a quiet little corner of the internet where people go to see what “real deals” are available for purchase from legitimate retailers. A place where people know they can find accurate, valid information after they unsubscribe from all of the other emails and text blasts that they, like me, also receive on a daily basis. I realize that there is some work involved. Probably quite a bit of work. But it might pay off. I personally believe that the time is right for an alternative to the current status quo. I have friends that have voiced similar concerns and unsubscribed from the constant messaging, just like me. I have also unsubscribed from some YouTube channels that used to do woodworking projects and now just promote tools or engage in the shenanigans for clicks model. For change to happen, an alternative has to be there. Remember the Black Friday unrest of a decade ago? The retailers stretched Black Friday out a little longer, and diverted some to Cyber Monday. At this point, they just continue it for most of the year. I, personally, would like to see a return to legitimate sales events.
Kyle
Maybe a little corner like ToolGuyd?
Stuart
Holiday deals went live at the start of November, with doorbuster deals and Cyber Monday a small part of things.
It was during the COVID lockdowns that retailer started heavily promoting “Black Friday all month long” promotions. All they really did – at least in the tool world – was set things up a week or two earlier and promote everything more heavily.
Then came Prime Day in October and everything was shifted earlier so that brick and mortar retailers wouldn’t lose as many sales to Amazon.
I couldn’t tell you why everything just stretched out further from there, but I think media attention helped to accelerate how things changed.
Look at what happens around Prime Day – it’s a huge event that all media channels report on.
With everything on sale all of the time, it’s like nothing is ever on sale.
Change is brought on by consumer shopping habits. This is one area where actions always speak louder than words.
In 2011, JCPenny abandoned all promotional tricks and moved towards consistently low “Fair and Square” pricing to disastrous results.
S
You touch on a critical point here– many of us visiting sites like toolguyd are because we’re chronic tool buyers.
Specifically, I generally know tool prices because I enjoy watching a broad view of the tool market pricing, but usually more of an eye on tangentially-related tools to my interests.
I appreciate stuarts perspective to the historical pricing of any item. I already have an idea of where that pricing falls, and where the ‘sale!’ price is good enough, but like that he backs it up with a historical perspective.
As he said, there’s far too much noise in the system right now, but the fact that he’s not contributing to it as part of his personal ethics is far and away one of the most valuable parts that makes me want to visit this site for information.
The way ad’s are setup on this site compared to others also is a huge difference. It’s one of the very few websites that I still whitelist. Many other sites have reached a point of being almost unusable between overlaid video ad’s, pop ups, and every-other-sentance scrolling ad’s. There’s so many ad’s, it’s hard to even follow the point of the article anymore.
It really reminds me of the older satirical movie “Idiocracy” and what their tv/internet became. An 80″ TV with a 12″
central video display area entirely surrounded by ad space…
Stuart
Frankly, I’ve been doing what feels natural, and I try to conduct myself in a way that I can be proud of.
I don’t know what the next few years will bring. While I might look for ways to adapt, I’m not giving up.
As mentioned in a different comment, I have ideas about how to approach deals differently in a way that focuses on regular readers’ interests and brings back some joy to bargain hunting.
JoelLikestools
Media surrounding tools is terrible right now. I watched the quality of protoolreviews decline very quickly, and that seems to be what has happened to everyone else. I find it hard to watch or read most tool site or videos. (A lot of the youtubers seem yo be emulating VCG construction. Meh.) I like toolguyd, TTC, and Doresoom. Hard to find much else worth paying attention to.
Stuart
I’m subscribed to Nate’s channel (Doresoom – see it here: https://www.youtube.com/@DoresoomReviews/videos ). Taking a look, I see that he has new videos that YouTube never suggested to me, despite my being subscribed.
Regardless of the platform, meaning web, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, creators are at the mercy of algorithms.
Nobody likes clickbait, pouty shocked face thumbnails, or as-seen-on-TV shilling, but it seems to be effective.
I avoid doing any roundups because mass media sites and spam sites all have the “best [type of tool] in 2025” approach down to a science. “Freshness” affects ranking, and so they have these articles auto-updated regularly. It doesn’t matter if I can do it better, for certain content types it has become where there’s no visibility unless you game the system.
I was looking into an electronic part and came across an article discussing it and several others. However, even though the article says it was updated for 2025, it features numerous boards that were replaced years ago with newer models.
Algorithms can’t tell about quality, authority, or usefulness. They can’t tell whether you stayed on a page or watched a video because it was helpful, or because the creator buried the basic answer 6 paragraphs or 3 minutes deep.
There’s also the money factor.
I just received my first Vega impact bits for a project – here’s one of the sizes I ordered from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072K756J1/?tag=toolguyd-20
Buy something through that link – anything – and ToolGuyd gets a referral commission that helps support the site.
The more you click, the higher the potential for you to buy something, even if it’s not what I link to.
Various search algorithms have made it so that there’s a huge emphasis on impromptu visits via news feed, suggested videos, etc. They seem to value engagement that keeps you on a platform beyond what you were searching for.
The first YouTube Shorts that popped up for me just now is some guy using an angle grinder to sharpen drill bits, but in a way that’s highly dangerous. That’s the bulk of their channel, with some videos having millions of views. Another of their videos shows using a Li-ion battery with 2 house keys and a red-hot glowing wire to cut foam.
A video that takes a minute to make and upload will get thousands and even millions of views, even if it’s not a tip or hack or anything anyone should consider doing, while a video that takes time, effort, experience, and a genuine interest and excitement might flop.
I agree that there’s not a lot worth paying attention to these days, and things get even worse when you’re looking for information. (I’m looking to learn how to better design an in-progress project with different bearing types and there’s nothing out there except for video clips from random marketplace suppliers.)
But I also don’t blame content creators for this. There are some who I like as people, but I can’t stand their content. Some are absolutely driven by a desire for fame and fortune, but many seem to be trying to remain relevant lest the algorithm forget about them. If the algorithm stop sending readers or viewers, everything they’ve worked towards could decline and even disappear.
You can see a stark difference in views between tutorial content and QVC type “buy this stuff” content. A lot of people complain, but apparently the shifts in strategy worked if success is measured in views, ad dollars, and affiliate commissions.
I’m guessing it’s for the same reason why magazines and media with long legacies are pumping out a lot of garbage content now. It seems they measure success in terms of views, clicks, and dollars, and not in the number of people they truly helped or informed.
Tool brands are facing challenges too. Every purchase of a $25 no-name chainsaw kit or all-in-one drill kit is a sale that didn’t go to Ryobi, Craftsman, Dremel, Skil, or Worx.
Joellikestools
Thanks for your thorough reply. It does seem the industry is in a bit of a mess. Probably just a reflection of peoples consumption habits in general regarding media and products. I enjoy buying tools that are enjoyable to use. I also like buying from countries that generally treat employees in manufacturing well. I also like giving money to tool centered smaller business that treat customers well like Acme, and KCtool. It is increasingly hard to have the spending money to do so though. I understand why people often choose cheap. It is just a bummer when someone goes for an alphabet soup brand over a reputable DIY brand like Ryobi, or Craftsman.
Your site is one of the few things I enjoy checking daily, thanks for all the hard work and swimming against the current!
Eric
Welcome to the new world where almost everything is AI generated.
Nothing beats a real human for many things.
James
The majorety of the stuff i buy is after you recommended it whether i need it or not
When you put that it’s at the lowest price in a while i jump on it. Thank you.
Farmerguy
I’ve said it before. Give me a curated Amazon and I will use it. Now I only use Amazon for a particular item with known manufacturer if there price is best.
Bonnie
This was the WireCutter and SweetHome for awhile, but since they got bought it’s lost most of the shine.
TonyT
I’m mostly going to this view – avoiding the alphabet brands, and staying with brands I can trust (including HF over alphabet brands). Also, a lot of times now Amazon isn’t the cheapest, especially for items only sold by third party vendors.
I still give Amazon a lot of credit for super quick delivery on a lot of items (although normally delivery speed isn’t important to me) and the Amazon locker program is very convenient for me.
BJ
It just aligns with the AI slop that has come to dominate social media over the past 4-8 weeks. I’m hoping it is just a phase that will pass
Jbongo
I’ve seen some of the examples you posted and just shake my head. It does feel broken in many ways. However, I truly appreciate your site and the content you create. At least there’s a small part that isn’t broken. ❤️
Jbongo
Oops. That wasn’t supposed to be a reply. Sigh. Clumsy fingers.
PKS319
I would assume that the key to these Man Dad Husband survival kits is that they are never ever used. Sort of like a big 4WD that never leaves a road, or pickup trucks owned by bankers. But having a Mand Dad Husband kit in my 4WD sure makes me feel more of a Man as I tool off to the golf course.
Stuart
I posted about Harbor Freight’s new kit in 2023 – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/harbor-freight-12pc-survival-tool-kit/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I noticed that promo pricing returned and posted about it again in 2024 – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/survival-tool-kit-sale-102024/%3C/a%3E .
Even with my saying I’d never buy it, a LOT of people bought one. People have their reasons. I’ve learned not to make assumptions.
I spoke with someone at Swanson a few years ago, and they told me something I didn’t know about plastic rafter squares. I don’t recall how it came up, but they said a lot of folks buy them and modify them into jigs or specialty tools. I wouldn’t have thought that – I just saw those squares as cheaper than aluminum squares.
You don’t know what you don’t know. I agree that some people buy them for the coolness factor – I can’t judge, I have a pocket grappling hook – but there could be other reasons.
MM
I know plastic rafter squares are popular for people fabricating aquariums and similar from acrylic. They cut off the sharp 90 degree corner. Two or more such squares can be used to hold pieces of sheet at 90 degrees to each other for bonding. The missing corner prevents the thin solvent adhesive from wicking under the square via capillary action. The plastic is less likely to scratch the project being worked on compared to metal.
Curt Shields
I snapped up a couple of the Olight I3T 2 mini 1xAAA flashlights, normally $19.99, big spring sale price $11.99… totally worth it even if just for the pocket clip that’ll slide on my hat brim.
Stuart, you’re one of the few people I trust to order something without staring into the abyss of internet reviews. You’ve made something special and unique here with ToolGuyd, and I’m damn grateful for it. Respect the hell out of you for your professionalism.
TonyT
Stuart, please don’t get too depressed and stop doing your things, your way. I really appreciate it.
I’d love to see a search engine that cuts out the LLM AI and human created equivalent content.
Stuart
Thank you, and everyone else for your kinds words!
I loved shopping for and sharing about tool deals. The way things developed in the last year or two, it’s been far less fun and much more stressful.
I might have to adapt a little bit, but there are positives. If I go into a post assuming it’ll be viewed by regular readers rather than regulars and new or info-seeking visitors, I can take a different approach. It also helps with the mindset when I can’t help but glance at performance stats in the back end’s front page dashboard.
I’ve got some ideas.
Badger12345
I would love to see a poll of some kind that would then present statistics on what ToolGuyd readers purchase for work and home and potentially why. At this point, I no longer trust reviews on any merchant site and would welcome real-world experience and recommendations from ToolGuyd readers that use tools regularly.
TN
Not really relevant but somewhat. But I love what you are doing. I think some of this has to do with big retailers need to maximize shareholder value.
But I hate this trend. American online retailers have been known to be the best places to get things. The “marketplace”-ization (I’m coining this term) of online retailers sucks. It really shows were the priorities these retailers have and its not customer focused, but rather investor focused. BestBuy tried this and failed. Funnily enough, they are trying again since their margins are declining and profitability will be the name of the game for these online retailers for the next 4 years.
From a business sense, I can understand why a retailer will do this. Oh, how I miss the days when the customer experience was a priority.
I would like to know who was the overpaid management consultant that pitched the idea to C-suites to turn the websites into a marketplace to lower working capital requirements, optimize cashflows, and let someone else carry the inventory (too many companies are doing this and it just seems too coincidental).
Sam
Feels like I’ve been reading this site for a decade, commented maybe 2-3 times. Just wanted to say I’m amazed that it’s still free, as you do a truly incredible job. There are so many people out here who genuinely appreciate the hard work you put in, even as the internet makes it more and more difficult.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate it!
While I understand that some content such as training materials could be available for purchase, putting everyday type content behind a paywall seems ridiculous to me. When I hit a news paywall, I click away and read something else.
Zac
This is the problem with affiliate type marketing kickbacks.
There are people who provide real reviews or opinions and post affiliate links l, and those who spread their affiliate links seeds like a firehouse.
I just had one today – Dyson Vacuum “for a so unbelievably low price you’d think it’s a price glitch but it’s not.” Click on it and it’s 599 vs 799. The thing is regularly 599…
But now some nutter butter will click on the link thinking it’s a great deal and boom gizmodo just got paid baby! Zero facks really given about the product, they just know how to take in the cashola.
Brent C
I think this only makes ToolGuyd’s importance more obvious than anything. A place where people can go to get the real deals who don’t have time to compare models/prices. I just head toward your site and get the valuable sale information, I trust!
Jack S
You hit the nail on the head and I feel your frustration. All of this “fire sale – buy now” crap has gotten me to the point that I’ve stopped clicking the email announcements from the major tool resellers. I get that they need to keep the lights on, but they’ve lost what marketing capital they had w/ me. And the big box stores are just as bad as you point out – the same items at the same sale price week after week, but advertised in new yet misleading “fire-sale/today-only” ads.
Rx9
It’s just evolution. Grift evolves. Techniques to stop grift evolve too.
Rascally
Stuart,
Thanks for all you’ve accomplished here at Toolguyd. I’ve received your daily emails for years, and it’s the only one I read every day. My Toolaholic inventory is largely bigger than my house and garage can accept now, and you’ve fed my obsession for years!
I totally understand your current position and thoughts. I remember when Prime, Cyber Monday, and other events actually meant good deals. I don’t even bother to look anymore. But I check everyday to see what you say!
There’s a Dewalt model 745 something Table Saw, I bought on a deal probably 15 years ago still wrapped in the original plastic, sitting in a trailer right now. You know I thought buying an enclosed trailer was a good thing to have back in 2009. But it hasn’t rolled in years, as it’s full of stuff besides that saw, being used for storage.
Now that I’m retired now, I’ll probably spend the rest of my life decluttering what I spent the majority of my life creating.
Thanks for all you do!
Rascally
Steve
I like to use camelcamelcamel for checking Amazon products. You simply paste the Amazon product URL into their site, and it gives you the Amazon price history. And the price history can go back a number of years. It’s a great way to see if the hype is real, or if it’s just the same price as normal, but with a “Big Spring Sale” tag.
Stuart
CCC is best for tracking pricing over time. Their tracking updates seem to be tied to product popularity. As such, they miss a lot of the shorter promotions and clickable coupons. Their goal is the same, affiliate commission.
Sledder
I’m a DIY guy and I consult your website regularly to learn about tools and where to buy them at good prices. You have taught me so much about brands, what the differences are between models, which retailers are authorized and why that matters; and on and on. Yes, the internet as a whole is somewhat of a dumpster fire. However, there are diamonds in the rough, and your site is one of the diamonds. You do what you do for the people like me. I stumbled on your site a couple years back and haven’t bought a tool since without checking your site first.
Building things and fixing things keeps us safe, increases the quality of our lives and can be fun. Whether you use tools or not, everyone’s life depends on them. Keep up this important work.
Thank you.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate it!
What frustrates me is that it’s so much harder to find diamonds in a pile of glass. I keep experiencing this when I try to research new things. Every day, big name publications and others are dumping more and more glass shards into the mix, and it’s only getting worse. It’s discouraging.
Mike
Re: the Raspberry Pi ad blocker – It does a lot of the same things as ublock origin and other ad blockers plus other functionality, but it does it at the network level instead of the browser level. It lets you block the traffic for all devices on your home network.
Like, fruity phone and tablet devices have very limited options when it comes to ad blocking at the device level, plus there are no browser extensions. But running something like PiHole on a Raspberry Pi will at least cover you when you are at home.
Stuart
What I’m saying is that if a website is so unreadable due to excessive ads that you have to resort to hardware interception and blocking methods, just don’t give them your time at all.
Adam
Bob Vila is even in on it.
“Walmart is Clearing Out Milwaukee Tools and Batteries—Shop Now For The Best Savings”
Is the latest article they posted.