I just got my cheap metal building....why not fill it with cheap tools.....  I will have to wait and win the lotto for a real building....

I have a coworker that shops there on the regular and tells me the deals he gets....20% of this....30% off that.  I don't exactly trust his judgement on stuff like this and has the tendency to over exaggerate.

What is the real scope with HR sales.  They have coupons all the time but from my understanding some are way better than others.  Some you can only use once and have to have a coupon and others are more always on sale with no coupon needed.  I went there today but didn't have much time as I had to run by the locksmith and rekey the door lock it came with (make it match my house key).  At checkout the cashier asked me if I want to join some club, cost $30 for the year but anything with a blue tag was usually a major discount.  I plan to buy some stuff like tool boxes and other random items that might help me out.  

The basics are.... how I can save the most money at HF?


...and in before the snap on tool first step sign....

Join the club and sign up for emails.

Join the inside track club and sign up for emails.

Unless you absolutely need Snap On quality hand tools, look no further than the Icon and Quinn lineup at HF (Pittsburgh is decent for oddball items that don't see much use)

Some of the corded tools are great, some are shit. Consumables like zip ties, rags, grinder discs, etc are normally good buys. Tool boxes obviously, generators are solid and the Vulcan welders are giving the Big 3 a run for their money

I have a little 3 gallon Bauer shop vac and let me tell you that little shit can suck shit out of carpet that I would have never gotten with my big "real" shop vac. For its size it is nothing short of awesome. I am a professional mechanic, and once I got over the status symbol of the Huge truck bought tool boxes, I gave the box to the dealer to zero the balance on my account. It was a win/win for both of us. I now have a harbor freight box that has served me very well for the last 10 years and no burden to the tool guy. If I need something I pay cash or a couple weeks payments and its done. They sell awesome gun cases too.

This. Don’t rush, just be patient and eventually what you want will be on sale.

Sign up for the coupon emails. every now and again they will throw in a 25% coupon for anything in the store. I bought my US Gen roll around box with that and I'm waiting for the next one to get some Icon tools.

You answered your own question.  No different than PSA emails that show different prices week to week foe the same items.

 



I do this, Something I will use once or twice a year if that, I buy from HF. If it is broken after first or second use I Don't care.

This is also a big factor.  I have one HF rolling tool cart, this US General has been great so far.  I don't use it enough to rate even the Icon price upgrade if that brand had a similar product.  I really need a gantry crane to lift off a truck bed or at least one end at a time.  I probably will only use it once for that purpose but it appears it can lift out engines and other stuff if needed.  Might come in more handy than expected but I have a spot saved up for basically permanent storage if I never use it that much.

I guess time to sign up....and get my email box subjected to the punishment.....

Guarantee you'll find a lot of uses for it. Lots of times I'll be walking through looking for something specific, spot a random item, and immediately think "I can use that for ___" so into the cart it goes...

I wish I had a taller equipment shed right now though, the chain hoist won't pick my utility body up high enough to let me back the other truck under it so I'm treading water until I have time to take it to my buddy's fab shop

I have one of these and just used it the other day to remove a truck bed for cab corner replacement. I bought it just because I was in the middle of pulling the engine on an Equinox, and my cherry picker wouldnt go high enough to clear the core support, so there I was with a mess and no way to fix it. I got an electric hoist for it and everything. It is a pain in the ass to store, but it has been one the best investments I have ever made. I use it al the time from pulling engines, and truck beds to unloading stuff out of the back of the truck. Even used it to relocate my air compressor to a better location.

My $25 reciprocating saw(like a good Milwaukee sawzall) does its job. Loud, cheap feeling, but with good blades will cut truck springs. If it burns up, so what, get another. Hasn’t yet.

Sign up, go to website and put stuff in cart. Wait days or weeks and get a 25% off coupon.

What do you have to do for a 25% off coupon?? Have been signed up for a year or two and buy stuff from them every couple of months. Have never gotten any coupon like that.

To get a 25% coupon go in the store, buy something, register, and wait. I get a 25% we missed you coupon every few months.

This is a good website to look for current and past deals.  

http://www.hfqpdb.com/

Comes in handy if you’re not in a hurry and you can wait out for the next round of parking lot sales or deals.  I bought the Predator 5000 inverter for $1100 and a week and a half later it went on sale for $850.  I didn’t have the luxury of waiting with Helene heading towards us.
I let my ITC lapse but I still get all of the emails offering the deals.

Regarding the 25% off anything coupon, I got one in my name, but to my brother's email, not once but twice last year, a few weeks apart. Funny thing is I used the first one to buy a 26" Gen 2 roll cab that were flying away due to being on clearance, then I got a top chest the day after from a different store. Only used the coupon for the roll cab of course. A few weeks, maybe 3-4 later, got another 25% off we missed you coupon. By then I didn't need it for anything else and let it go.

Maybe I need to have my brother go in and buy a pair of gloves and wait for another coupon?

everything is ALWAYS on sale. if you pay full price at HF you got took. if you paid sale price you still got took.

If you're looking for a new box, the newer model US General toolboxes are worth the money.

They go on sale all the time and if you apply for a HF Credit card, you can add 10% on top of the sale.

Do most of the sales "double up" or is this pick one or that one....or does it depend?

For instance they had the US General 56" tool boxes on sale, 20% off coupon (25th-27th) then on the flip side they have an "Inside Track Club" $100 off for the 56" priced normally at $899 (thru Oct 31st).  The 20% off coupon would have put it at $720.  The 20% coupon was a better deal but if you could stack them the price probably would have ended up at $640 or $620 depending on how they stack them.

Can you wait a couple weeks?

You have to read the extremely fine print on some of those coupons . The 20% off one you are talking about was only good for 1 item  use it on either the top OR bottom box,  not both

was going to post that up

Also, you can't stack coupons. If you have the ITC price, you can't use a 20% off coupon on top of it. Similarly, if something is marked as "instant savings" you can't use a coupon with it.

This is the answer I was looking for.  Thanks.

Uh...."two weeks"....  

Well I ordered this turd pretty much 4 years ago after I got hit with a nadar and the neighbors tree split my last shed in half 12'x24'.  Long story short is if I can't wait two weeks for some HF sales I am fubar already....

For the ones that get a kick out of others struggles....kick your feet up and have a cold one....

Most of the issues were somewhat on me for the time line, I changed my mind going from just putting gravel down and getting it built to....lets not totally half ass this thing and if I don't have a concrete floor I will be kicking my self in the nuts every day I look at it....so what had happened was:

Problem one was the old property owner filled in a pool with old yard debris they knocked down.  Then covered it with dirt.  I started getting "sink holes" in this area.  I figured if I was going to pour concrete I needed to verify that no other crap would turn from some sort of organic material into dirt and create voids like what was starting to happen.  It ended up I dug the pool out for nothing but I had no clue what was there.  This area does drain way better now so maybe it wasn't a total waste of money and a year set back as to hire a contractor to do anything during kung flu and the rebuilding of everyone else plus the supply chain issues was a cluster fuck.  

Problem two was getting a contractor that didn't either no show or never return the bid for the job....took 7 months just to get a concrete contractor.  Then from the time I made the down payment to the time they poured the pad was another 5 months.

Problem three........the leaders of the zoning board in my city are a bunch of retards.  Here is an MS paint picture for reference.......



This is the basic layout of my property (map key):
1.  The black lines are my property lines
2.  The green box is my house
3.  The orange box is where I had a previous shed and wanted to build my garage (also where part of the pool was)
4.  The purple is the main road
5.  The red up arrow is my mailbox.  
6.  The brown line is my driveway
7.. The blue box is where the city said I could put my building at first

The first issue was I had a shed in the area of the orange box that the nader got, pulled the permit for it 10 years ago.  They made it known that if you had damage you would be waived from pulling another permit (with rules like it had to be similar and in the same location).  I called and asked and was told my project would be close enough....what I wasn't told was there was an 8th month time frame to rebuild it.  Hell I doubt anyone got rebuilt in 8 months in 2020.....  Needless to say I had to pull a new permit to put my building there, I had pulled the permit for the one that got wacked.  I let the contractors pull the permit for the one they were building as the city wanted the workers comp and all sorts of other stuff I didn't have access to this time...more on this later.  

I sent the contractors pictures of the concrete pad and said I am ready when you get the permit pulled.  The pad was done in Nov and at Christmas I still hadn't heard anything but most stuff seems to get put on the back burner in Nov-Dec timeframe.  So I called the 2nd week of Jan asking the contractor the timeline when they might put up my building.  I got shuffled around to like 3 people and finally someone that had access to look a the city permit said there was a problem and I couldn't place my building there.  They sent me a picture back of of where in my diagram I could place my building....the blue box directly in front of my front door.......  Now before I poured the concrete pad I called and asked if the property setbacks had changed, the city said no they haven't.  I gave the concrete contractors my diagram so when they pulled a permit to pour the concrete they had all they needed.  They seemed to have no problems and thought I was golden.  Figured at this point they knew my plans and had no problem with it......well it turns out the concrete contractors never had to pull a permit as the rules for a concrete pad are the not the same as a structure above the surface (aka 2D Vs 3D, think of it as a driveway were pretty much you only have to be on your property and no setbacks apply).  

I take my happy self down to the city zoning building and start asking questions.  I got several uh....this is a fubar situation and they had nothing for me sending me on to someone higher up in the food chain.  Finally I talk to someone that said the rules for property lines have changed slightly.....  I said I called and asked about the setbacks and this person told me it wasn't a setback problem but the direction my house faces.  I was like.....  It appears they had changed the "Front" property line to ALWAYS reference the closest property line that is not an access to your property from the street your mailbox is on.  The rules say you can't have an accessory structure within 25' of the front property line, not the 7 feet I had planned for.....  I told them this was a rebuild from the tornado but they wouldn't give me a waiver.....  So now I get told I have to go to the zoning board and file for an exception/exemption.  To appear at this board you have to have your appeal into the board 21 days before the next meeting so they can post your appeal in the local paper, post it online, and mail letters to your direct neighbors of the appeal you are making.  You also have to go downtown and pickup a sign and have it posted at the front of your property 14 days in advance, then email pictures to the board this happened before the 14 day mark.  If the neighbors might have a problem with it at the board they get a chance to speak against me after I state my case.  

They meet on the first Thursday of the month.  I had time to put in my paperwork and make the Feb meeting but they were not having one until March....  I go to the March meeting.  I state my case in front of the board.  The board is normally 7or 8 people if everyone shows up.  A simple majority wins your case.  There was a problem with my application though.  When I was told that you can't build an accessory 25' from the front of the property line....they failed to tell me I ALSO cannot build an accessory structure in my front yard.....  Most everyone at this board were all some contractors, lawyers and other big time people where the board knew these people by name.  Me, nope....no directions but what I was told.  So the lawyer denies my request but the board says they will hear my case a the next public board meeting if I get my application information adjusted to having an accessory structure in the front yard added to my application.  That part legally had to be posted so if anyone complained later it was there and I followed all the rules.  The big problem was the April meeting was not public and was for training...of all things DEI course had to be done for all the board members to work the board..  The only good thing is nobody appeared to argue against me.

So I am pushed back to the May meeting.  Around April 15th I had not been asked to pick up my sign.  I called the downtown office and asked them about it and they said oh....get here today it will be ready and you will be in the May meeting.  I go downtown and pickup my sign and post it that day.  Then appear for the May meeting.....I WASN'T ON THE DOCKET...I was ready to blow a gasket.  The board chairman said I can't do anything to make it happen today but if I were you I would make a complaint to your city counsel member.  I also pretty sure I knew who screwed the pooch because the facial expression when I asked and then showed them a picture I had emailed to the board was there made it obvious.  They did give an apology but I was still mad, didn't blow up but this is turning out to be a clusterfuck.  So I emailed my city counsel member, then sent an email to the city zoning board every week asking when I could pick up my sign....  I showed up to the June meeting.  I was second on the docket, they go by the oldest cases first.  The guy that went first had to fix something before his case would have been approved so that took time.  I won my case with a 7 approved, 0 nay's...again nobody appeared against me.

Now to problem four.....  The day I won my case I was told I would get emailed the results but if the contractor called X person at this number and gave them my zoning board case number that they could push it past the point it got stuck.  I called the contractors and told them I won and to call X if they don't see it move within a week.  I called 2 weeks later and they asked me what happened to my case... (thinking in my head...don't you people take notes?).  Either way by this point I had been emailed the results and I sent it to the contractors.  They said okay we will work it.  I called about 3 weeks after that asking when should I expect to see a building.  They asked me if my zoning board case had been approved....  It appears the person working the department for permits had left the company and the ball was dropped as they eventually had to go in a group mailbox and dig out my zone case approval email.  I then waited and called 3 weeks later and they said my permit is hung up on asking if I needed a watershed permit as well (on a second note how about phone a fool that you need help with the permit next time.... ).  I had told them this before, if you see that click NO and it will still run through the watershed process.  That would have happened if my concrete pad was big enough to affect water runoff but it wasn't and the concrete contractors knew this.  So they clicked NO and then said it went to another office for review.  They said they would call me when it got past that point.....HAHAHHAAHA....yeah right, contractors never call unless you still owe them money for a job already done....  Eventually I called every week until I got my building.  It might be a cheap bastard building but its mine....