Troy wrote in with a question about when to look for the next round of tool sales. We posted a LOT of tool deals in November and December, but stores do have sales year-round.
I should point out that the above banner is from an EXPIRED Holiday promo.
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There’s a short answer to this, and a long answer.
I’m probably one of the many people out there who didn’t get what they wanted for the holiday (boo hoo, I know.) My question is, when is the next time I can expect to find decent tool sales? If memory serves me right, it seems Father’s Day is my best bet. Just seems to bad I have to wait six months to find some sale pricing. Any insights on the cycle if tool pricing?
Hmm, what did you want for the holiday season that you didn’t get? And you’re right in that you’re definitely not alone.
Yes, Father’s Day is your next best bet for certain deals. But that also depends on what you’re looking for. This year there was a $50 off $200+ Bosch promo, $20 off $100+ Dewalt and Makita promos, and a couple of seasonal specials.
I tend to be sparing with tool deals, but go into “if it’s interesting it gets posts” mode during the winter holiday season and Father’s Day shopping season. Here are lists of tool deal posts that I “tagged” to their respective holiday seasons:
ToolGuyd Father’s Day 2015 Tool Deal Posts
ToolGuyd Holiday 2015 Tool Deal Posts
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There were some Father’s Day deals, but very many more during the holiday season.
During Father’s Day, you’re bound to see more giftable tools, and during the winter holiday shopping season, there’s more of a mix of giftable tools and tools you’d want to buy for yourself.
If you’re looking for a socket set, you can find decent deals on Craftsman, Husky, and Kobalt almost year-round.
If you’re looking for a Milwaukee M12 promo, pick an authorized retailer or two and follow their seasonal deals which change unpredictably.
If you’re looking to buy new Dewalt/Bosch/Makita combo kit, or a bare tool, or something that doesn’t often go on sale, your best bet for a discount is in May/June or November/December. But there are discounts year-round, just not $X of $Y deals like you can expect during the holiday seasons.
There are year-round promos, but a lot of the time the discounts are good but not extraordinary.
I just checked the tool coupons page at Acme Tools, and here are their current promos:
- 10% off all Freud
- Free Milwaukee M12 speaker, spotlight, or battery with qualifying heated gear purchase
- 2 Free Makita batteries with select 18V kit purchases
- 10% off Bosch lasers and accessories
- Skilsaw tool sale – up to $50 off and free t-shirt
- 15% off all tool belts
- 15% off all tool storage
I also remembering seeing a new Milwaukee M12 promo at Home Depot, where you could get a free M12 heated hoodie with the purchase of select M12 cordless tool kits.
Over at ToolNut, there are other offers, such as:
- Free Milwaukee M12 battery with purchase of select heated gear
- Free Milwaukee m12 flood light, spot light, or speaker with purchase of select heated gear
There are other online dealers, such as ToolBarn, CPO Tools, and industrial suppliers (such as Enco), and of course chains such as Home Depot and Lowes, which all have different promos at different times.
In general, Bosch sometimes drops prices on certain tools, Dewalt sometimes has free bonus tool offers, Milwaukee often has free bonus tool or battery offers, Makita sometimes has free bonus battery offers.
Father’s Day and Winter Holiday promos are sometimes predictable. Next June, there will likely be another round of $20 off $100+ promos, or maybe $50 off $200+ Bosch again.
Certain tools don’t go on sale, such as Estwing framing hammers. To save money on one, you’ll have to wait for a good Enco or Zoro Tools coupon.
Without knowing what types of tools you’re shopping for, I can’t offer much more advice than what’s here.
I buy tools throughout the year. I might wait a few weeks to save $10-25, on tools or supplies I won’t use immediately. And I definitely wait until a holiday season to order quantities of Dewalt or Bosch tool boxes. But is it worth waiting months to save $20 on a pricier tools? Sometimes yes, many times no, depending on the tool and circumstances.
So yes, a lot of great tool sales have just finished up, and you won’t see anything of the like until May or even June. But that’s no reason not to spend money over the next few months.
There are still some deals to be had.
Also, retail stores will typically have more holiday promotions, such as President’s Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day sales.
I plan to follow up this post with a “when’s the best time to buy tools?” post. If anyone has a request, I’ll add it to that post for readers to share their experiences and opinions about.
If anyone feels they have a better answer to Troy’s question, please chime in with a comment!
David
It’s worth using tools like camelcamelcamel.com to track tool prices over time. Right now I have a handful of price notifications set that let me track Amazon prices. If they drop to my set price point I get an email and can pick up the tool at the price that I want.
I’m not aware of anything that works for a broader array of sites as easily, but Amazon prices can be a good way to get a rough view of the broader market as they match competitors.
Stuart
With Amazon, I often add items to my cart, saving them for later, and also my wishlist. The wishlist can show you items with price reductions, and the cart gives price change alerts every time you check it.
fred
While Amazon wish lists allow sorting and filtering to show items with “price drops” – sometimes the so called price drop is nothing more than a 3rd party seller offering a lower price – which may not be a good deal depending on shipping cost and sales tax.
Hilton
I’ve learnt the hard way that leaving items in your cart or even ‘saved for later’ attracts the binary b@stards and the system will up the price. Sometimes just enough that you don’t notice but often by a substantial amount.
What I now do is save everything to a wish list. I have plenty of those BTW. I then use the comment section to make a note of the date and current price. Camelcamelcamel can then be used to watch these wishlists.
When I’m almost ready to make a purchase, I move the items from the various wish lists to another wish list called ‘probably’ where I make my mind up once and for all. Those items are then moved to the cart and purchased.
Stuart
My experience has been otherwise. With some products that don’t move quickly, adding them to you cart sometimes seems to prompt a price reduction.
fred
One thing folks might try is to set up separate email account (if you don’t want your primary account bombarded) for tool sales. Then go on some of the popular (depending on your tool shopping needs/wants) web sites and subscribe to their email sales newsletters. Sites that come to mind are: Acme Tool, Burns Tool, Carbide Processors, Chads Tool Box, Costal Tool, Dynamite Tool, Enco, Hartville Tool, Infinity Cutting Tools, Japan Woodworker, JB Tool Sales, Lee Valley, MLCS, Rockler, Router Bit World, ToolBarn, Tool Discounter, ToolNut, ToolsPlus, ToolsToday, ToolTopia, ToolUp, Woodcraft, Zoro.
I get enticements (?) regularly from some of these and other machinery companies that I dealt with in my former working life. Zoro sometimes (scattered throughout the year) offers tiered savings – 10 to 30% off depending on the $ amount you buy – and I sometimes use the Zoro regular price multiplied by 0.7 (30% off) as a gauge for a good deal.
Another idea is to put some shopping lists together on Amazon, use CamelCamelCamel to see Amazon past price trends – then watch your list to see if a price drops to something you want to strike on.
Diplomatic Immunity
If you’re using Google Chrome you can always use camelcamelcamel’s add-on extension to give quick price updates for anything on Amazon.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-camelizer/ghnomdcacenbmilgjigehppbamfndblo?hl=en
Hilton
Talking about shopping lists Fred, perhaps some folk don’t know this but you can add items to your Amazon wish lists from other retailers. This is a great way to collate wish lists from all over the place and have the ability to sort and adjust where necessary. I use the Firefox Add-On for this.
Greg
$100 Off (aka: Trade in) Promo starts in March for Milwaukee M18 line on selected models. You just have to find the store the offers this. I know Ace in Marshall MN will have it.
Jim D
Actually the trade in starts Feb 1st. There are also several other dealers from Milwaukee for free goods. Any M18 Fuel kit has a deal, either the trade-in or a free additional good/s. There are also deal for the M12 Fuel kits where you can get a free additional tool or even a bare tool heated sweatshirt.
Makita has a free 2 battery 36v circular saw with the purchase of a drill and impact kit. They also have a free 2 pack of 3ah batteries when you buy a qualifying kit.
I also have a lot of left over deals from our Christmas show.
We have the DeWalt DCK296P2 brushless drill and impact kit with a free LED light and third battery for only $349.
I have the DeWalt DCKTS390DM2 brushed drill and impact kit with a light, third battery, and a tough box to put it in for only $299
I have the Milwaukee 1/2 high torque brushless impact wrench for $429(regular price) but then you get the bare tool grease gun for 50% off.
There are many more deals here then I can list.
Give me a call at 920-336-7440,
or email at [email protected].
We are called The Power Tool Store, or Bay Verte Machinery, or Dr. Tool. They are all the same company, they just refer to our tool store, machinery sales, and tool repair.
We only have a location in Wisconsin so if you need something we have in stock we would need to ship it but out of state would be tax free.
Dylan
Do you have a website?
Jim D
We do, it is bayverte.com. The website is very dated (one of my many projects.) It will at least give you an idea of the brands we carry and some of the sales.
Taylor
Bosch currently has free Fatpack battery and charger with the purchase of a bare tool, which to me seems like a awesome deal ($100.00 value).
Taylor
Appearantly it ended the other day.
David Funk
Home Depot has had big January February toll markdowns in past like 30% on dewalt. Like big hammer drills, jackhammers, planners, table saws, keep eye out.
Fran Tark
Lowes regularly sends me cards in the mail (actual u.s. Post, not email) for 10% off $50 and 20% off $200 purchases. At least 4x per year. I assume I get them because I once signed up for some kind of “moving” discount they offered…. I moved from one house to another and Lowes had a promotion offering these coupons for “new home owners.” I’ve been getting them for at least 5 years. Might be worth looking into….
ktash
Woodworking shows are another way to get some things at a good price, or with lots of extra add-ons. You have to like going to the show, too, since there’s an admission fee of around $10. Google it for shows according to geographic location.