As you can imagine, PR people email me all the time. Most of the time, it’s great. This time of year, it gets really weird as the “gift ideas” roll into my inbox.
I only received a couple of “please consider this for your gift guide” emails this year. And yes, I know, you guys want to see an update to last year’s Ultimate Gift Guide. I’m working on it, but it’s not ready yet.
Here are two of the most recent gift ideas:
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Give the Gift of FIRE this Christmas!
While putting the “fire” part in all caps was my doing, that’s really the headline I received. Can you imagine? “Here honey, happy holidays – a blow torch!” I guess that could be a good gift, but the subject line led to some crazy visualizations.
Today’s gift guide recommendation was for a drywall tool. Skip the Stressful Holiday Shopping and Give the Gift of [Brand Drywall Tool]. It wasn’t a bad pitch, but I see nothing exciting about drywall tools. Do you? It could also be used to cut other materials, but I couldn’t shake the thought of someone giving a drywall cutting tool as a gift.
I think back to the types of tools I gave myself or others as holiday gifts. You treat yourself to something over the holidays too, right? One year I bought myself a $65 Surefire flashlight using holiday gift cash (thanks Mom!). Another year I bought some Craftsman Professional combination wrenches, mostly with a gift card. Last year I splurged on a Flir E4 thermal imaging camera, although technically it isn’t mine, it’s ToolGuyd’s as I use it strictly for testing purposes. I bought myself a couple of pocket knives and multi-tools in recent years as well. I buy others fun stuff, like Wiha multi-bit driver sets, folding knives, and tactical penlights. See? Fun stuff.
I buy general purpose tools over the holidays as well, and I remember giving my brother-in-law a Bosch 12V drill/driver kit a couple of years back. But I wouldn’t consider that boring, and it was something he needed. A cordless drill is a couple of notches ahead of a drywall tool.
For the holidays, I really prefer for gifts to be fun, wherever possible. Okay, so “Fire” and a drywall tool aren’t exactly terrible gift ideas. Fire just seems a little odd, and a drywall tool seems a little boring.
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Here are a couple of other ridiculous or boring tool gift ideas I could think of.
Heavy Duty Toilet Plunger. This would surely make for a very crappy gift. I’m sorry, I just had to say that! Related, someone asked for heavy duty plunger recommendation. Any ideas or recommendations?
Masking Tape. Duct tape, which nows comes in fancy and fun colors from Duck and other brands, could be fun. Masking tape? Eh.
A Box of Nails.
Anything That You’ve Seen More Than 2 TV Commercials for in a Day. This isn’t really boring or ridiculous, but a lot of the time these types of tools seem great to give and aren’t always good to receive, although there have been exceptions.
Garbage Bags. I was checking out Amazon’s Lightning Deals for today and thought I saw a discount on garbage bags. Nope, the image was of a boxed lamp fixture with a black shade. Still, imagine receiving a box of garbage bags for the holidays…
What do you think would make for a really ridiculous, boring, or awful tool-related gift?
James C
To be fair, it’s really hard for the average person to think up a good gift for a tool fanatics like many of us. We don’t want gimmick tools, el cheapo tools from the giant holiday bins / displays, or boring, but practical, things like a box of screws or a powertool battery. Heck, I have so many that even assorted drill / driver bit sets don’t do it for me anymore.
Michael Quinlan
I don’t really think of tools as gifts – at least not of the receiver is someone who might be reading a tool blog. But I love Samuel L Jackson in the Capital One commercial: “Nothing says Happy Holidays like a shovel!”
Jon B
If the nails are cut nails from Tremont I definitely won’t feel that they’re ridiculous or boring. They make some outstanding nails!
http://www.tremontnail.com/
Jimmie
It’s not really tool-related but I once received a wallet made from Tyvek…
Josh
Inexpensive Shop consumables – who doesn’t want to open up a box of sandpaper, and a roll of shop towels? Maybe some steel wool?
Jimmie
Actually, if it’s good sandpaper, I wouldn’t mind. The good stuff is expensive! 🙂
BikerDad
This points to a good one, as do some of the examples Stu gave.
Commodity consumables. While we can all imagine a circumstance where a commodity consumable on its own could be a good and exciting gift, few of us and few of those we know are in such circumstances. Thus, commodity consumables tend to be booooooooorrrrrrring.
“On it’s own” is significant. AA batteries, meh. AA batteries and a nice LED flashlight and headlamp pair, cool.
10 lb bag of rice. double meh. 10lb bag of rice and a new Zojirushi rice cooker? Cool.
Eric
Most anything from an end cap or special display.
The appeal for the buyer is easy to grab and cheap. That makes buying for a tool guy easy in their mind.
To us, its more dreck to pile away into the depths. Clench wrench, gator grip all come to mind……
Tom
I think that is part of it. But I also think that what makes buying tools as gifts difficult is that people don’t want to buy you something that you already have. So the gimmicky tools on endcaps (most of the Sears Mach series comes to mind) are advertised as new and groundbreaking. People buy you this stuff because they figure that it is a gap in your tool collection, not realizing that it is just junk.
Brett
You know if I got a box of nails or screws in a size/type I like to keep in stock or in a size I need for an upcoming project I don’t think I’d be upset at all. I keep on needing to use the hardware, and the costs can add up quietly but quickly. On the other hand, a random box of galvanized roofing nails? Not so much.
Same thing on tape (masking or duck/duct). If it’s the good stuff, I’ll surely find a use for it. Seems like we’re always painting something around my house, and I frequently can’t lay hands on a roll of duck/duct tape when I need to stick something in place.
Dale
I e gotten some boring presents that I didn’t care for at the time that turned out pretty useful. Like the massive three hundred piece drill bit set my mom got me ages ago. But do make sure you get them something fun to go with the boring.
Sean
Cheap holiday-special multi-tools – the Dewalt 2-pack (full-size and mini) from last year comes to mind.
Stuart
Uch, I know. I bought a pack last year. https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-multi-tool-gift-pack-review/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
The multi-tool is usable, and that’s the best word I could use to describe it. The keychain tool is a lot nicer, but the fit, finish, and overall quality are a little lacking.
BikerDad
A big consideration is “boring and useless” vs “boring and very useful”. A good utility knife falls into the latter category. A set of Harbor Freight screwdrivers likely falls into the former category.
The other consideration, related to the utility question above, is this: where is the receiver at in their “tool accumulation” journey? There are few hammers that I would look forward to receiving as a gift, Glen Drake Tite-Marks and a Stiletto { just because they ARE cool} being the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, yet for somebody just getting started with tool usage, a decent hammer can be a fine gift.
I must admit though that a plunger, even a premium plunger, does seem to break the boring yet useful standard to arrive at ridiculous. It’s kind of like giving a clothes iron, but with an iron, at least a dandy or quaintrelle (aka dandyess) will appreciate the gift.
The best gifts, of course, are exciting, fun, and useful. Or tasty. Tasty is always a good attribute in a gift.
BikerDad
Oh, here’s a good ridiculous gift.
Regular ol’ batteries.
when you didn’t get any battery powered gifts… and you aren’t about to embark on a 6 month hermitage in the wilderness.
Jim
I find high-end consumables or commodity items a safe bet. Something someone would just buy for themselves.
Examples off the top of my head include:
– Large can of Kroil. Very useful, premium brand. Not widely distributed.
– BoeShield T-9. Most can agree we should use it, but we don’t buy it.
– Polyurethane/Titebond III Glue – Poly has limited shelf life, I want a backup handy.
– Pack of 10 mini-super glue. One-use and dispose. Easy.
– Engineer Brand Cutting Shears. Nice quality. Practical.
– Olfa SS Retractable Cutter. Nice, small and practical.
– High quality funnel. Lisle makes a few different models.
– Blue Shop Paper towels w/portable hooked holder. – Always within my reach.
– Multi-pack of several small size drill bits – Always break at the most inconvenient time. Too small to resharpen.
– Single quality staple router bit. Round-over, Cove, Straight. Edge.
Enough, I could go on and on. You should get my drift.
SteveR
Jim–All good gifts/necessities for the shop, but no one would know to get them for you unless you made out a list and sent it to them (similar to a wedding registry at a particular store or stores so your friends and relatives knew about them). The cool thing about being registered is that it names/pictures specific items that you need or want, then shows them as being selected if someone has already bought it for you. That way you don’t get six of one item. Potential gift-givers could then select something else from the registry. That sounds like something Amazon could arrange for dads and other tool junkies; would also be helpful for birthdays. Maybe not this Christmas, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.
Raj
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-AAW100-8-Inch-Adjusting/dp/B000EGM1ZM
Who has not wanted a battery powered crescent wrench?
Well, me for one!