Regarding the quality of the finishes, I totally agree. A combination of greed (at the hands of the CEO's), relentless consumer desire for cheaper products and competition from LCC's (low cost countires) is pushing down the quality of every item in this Country. The Wal-Mart/"everything is disposable, just buy another" mentality will eventually ruin us.
On to the tool convo. I always had Craftsman and thought it was fine until I went to work in the automotive repair industry (mgmt., not a technician). I was allowed to use the tech's tools to work on my own stuff after hours and I was amazed at the difference. It's just impossible to describe, you have to work with one and then the other to know how much better the good stuff feels.
My suggestion to everyone, especially the younger folks like Andy is to find a dealer, start an account and simply keep a running tab. Buy an item and pay $25, $50, whatever you can afford, per week. Once the item is paid off, buy something else. You might as well do it this way as the cost of this week-to-week financing is already built into the cost of the tool*. Even if I paid cash, my Snap-On dealer would only cut like 10% off the cost of a purchase and a lot of times, it just didn't make financial sense. It may seem like it's going to take forever (especially when a ratchet set costs $300) but you'll amass a significant collection more quickly than you would think.
Someone above made a very good point: The Sears warranty will do you no good at 9pm on a Saturday night when you are knee deep in a job and the tool breaks. You'll be waiting until Noon the next day to replace it. Dead in the water.
*This does not cover huge purchases like toolboxes, which do have their own financing (and associated interest rates).
