Over at Amazon, they dropped the price of the Leatherman Skeletool multi-tool, to $29.88.
The Skeletool, one of my favorite multi-tool designs (here’s my Skeletool review), is a minimalist tool. It’s compact, light, and comfortable to carry.
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It features a knife blade (partially serrated on this model), multi-functional pliers with wire cutter blades, a screwdriver bit holder and 2 removable double-ended bits, a carabiner clip that doubles as a bottle opener, and a pocket clip.
The Skeletool has been on sale at Home Depot, also for $30. If you want one NOW, you can go to your local HD and buy one (check inventory online), or order it from Amazon and skip the holiday traffic.
I recently bought another one of these multi-tools at the holiday sale price, although I haven’t determined yet where it’ll live. I already have a Skeletool CX and Skeletool as part of my rotation of carryable multi-tools, so this one will more or less be kept where it’ll be used often. Maybe it’ll be my road trip multi-tool?
This is a fantastic multi-tool at a great price.
If you can pony up a little extra dough, consider the Skeletool CX, which has a better knife (plain edge and with slightly more premium blade alloy), DLC scratch-resistant coating, and carbon fiber handle scale. This one has an aluminum handle scale, and stainless steel body.
The CX was on sale yesterday. Now, it’s back to its full price of $67. The CX is a nicer tool than the plain Jane Skeletool, but not for double the money.
If I were giving multi-tool gifts this year, it would probably be a Skeletool, especially at this pricing. It doesn’t have a ton of tools or functions, but it has the most commonly used ones.
Toolfreak
It dropped to $29.88 on Amazon quite awhile ago, and the price has been changing randomly ever since.
I think this is how Amazon tries to manipulate potential buyers – they have an item at a low price, and people save it to their cart or link to it to see if it goes lower, and then when the price actually goes UP to where it was, then back down to the low price, they hope buyers panic and think they will miss getting it at that price if it goes back up again and never goes lower.
Sure would be nice if there was a deal on the Freestyle, I’d rather try that out than the Skeletool, but I guess I’ll have to look for a deal after the holidays in the B&M stores.
Stuart
It did drop to that price somewhat recently, but shot back up to full price not too long after that.
This is the only other time I saw it on sale, and figured it was worth a mention.
I would think this was a planned deal, or Home Depot price matching, not any sort of price manipulation. Maybe the price keeps fluctuating because they have a certain allotment that they can sell at the sale price.
The Knipex mini pliers deal and Wera Torx key set deal were more likely to be price-controlled by Amazon’s algorithm.
I’ve seen a lot of weird pricing on Amazon in recent years. But during the holiday season, price drops on Leatherman multi-tools always seem to be planned or possibly in response to competitive pricing.
fred
I’m never quite sure how Amazon decides on initial prices, price drops etc. I suppose – being the giant that they are – they have a horde of marketing gurus and computer algorithms to help them set policies.
Some of what they do may be traditional marketing – to hype products and generate traffic on their site. Getting you to think that their prices are volatile may get you to revisit their website often and buy more. Since their revenues seem to be increasing and they have started posting profits – compared to losses in 2014- I guess they are doing something right. I think that we have all noticed that their “% off” claims are not always trustworthy, that they seem to often inflate initial offering prices, that they build in shipping costs (quelle surprise!) into their prices even for Prime customers (does anyone really think that there is really free shipping?) and that their prices vary from being bargains to being more like price gouging. So caveat emptor still applies (no surprise here) when dealing with Amazon – just like anyone else – but overall I continue to do the bulk of my online shopping with them because they are easy to deal with, customer service is good, shipping is generally fast, and return policy is very good – should you have a problem. Nonetheless, since being alerted (probably by a Toolguyd reader post) to its existence, I sometime look at the Amazon Price tracker site:
http://camelcamelcamel.com/
I also do some online comparison shopping – often using prices at Home Depot and Lowes to see if I can pick up the item locally for less – and I look at prices on Zoro (multiplied by 0.70 – or 30% off) as a benchmark for what a good price might be.
Mike
I’ve been noticing those fluctuations, too. I’ll see a good sale on something via a targeted ad, then it’s back up, then down again. Sometimes it’s even less than an hour between changes.
Sears used to do the same thing with unadvertised sales on their website. You’d see something at what seemed a good price, only to find it for less a short time later. So you wait to see if it went down more and as often as not the discount ended before you ordered. I don’t think the strategy worked all that well for them.
Jerry
I like my multi-tools to have a saw on it.
Jerry
To save space or weight, i can live without the saw (as long as my full featured multi tool has one) but I use scissors a LOT. The kids always seem to have a loose thread, or need a drinking straw trimmed down, or something. While I have a Skeletool, and like it, I miss scissors, which I use quite often. With them both around $30 right now, it is a tough call, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it, over a Wingman.
Jerry
PS. Different Jerry. I couldn’t resist posting right after the other one 🙂
M C
Can not buy, they can not send it to me.
Bradley Hanstad
I was told by a Home Depot manager that the skeletool is now $19.98 or something, need to confirm in store
fred
I see this online for $19.98
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leatherman-13-Tool-REV-Multi-Purpose-Tool-832288/206076091
Bradley Hanstad
Perhaps that is what he was referring to then.
928'er
Bought 3 of these – one for each glovebox and one for the desk. Used a Horrible Fright 20% off coupon each time – brought the price down to ~$23. I absolutely hate serrated blades (it’s a knife – not a saw), but for the price I can live with it….
Sean
Can you really use Harbor Freight 20% coupons at Home Depot (or Lowes)?
If that is true, I’ve missed soooo many opportunities…
Stuart
It’s up to the discretion of the store manager. I’ve heard that some will allow it, others won’t.
Mike
I’ve never found a store that will accept them. I’ve only heard it on the Internet. Never once found a manager that heard of any Home Depot store accepting them, they’ve also only heard about it on the Internet.
On a completely unrelated note, I have a cookie recipe I’d like to sell for only two fifty. Anyone interested?
Robert
There is an interesting difference that sets the Skeletool apart from the rest in my opinion. It’s the only one, particular the CX version, that is arguably more about the knife than the pliers. It’s weight is similar to a dedicated pocket knife of similar size, and it’s ergonomics are especially geared to the function of the knife in particular. The one handed operation of the knife is smooth and excellent.
If you’re looking for a decent one handed deployable knife, you can’t go wrong with this deal. For 30 bucks, this tool would be worth it for the knife alone. For my purposes, the pliers and screwdriver are just secondary tools.
If you view this tool for what it is instead of what some people try to make it, it’s really cool and useful. If you want serious pliers, get a heavier duty tool. Some people try to use a tool like this like a pair of Klein Linesman’s pliers. If your needs are more knife related however and pliers are secondary things, I can’t imagine not liking this for the price. You can buy a nicer premium knife, but not for 30 bucks.
Home Depot seems to still have plenty of these. If you are willing to spend the current sale price of 50 bucks for the CX version, you can’t beat that either for the knife alone. The other tools are just handy extras.
Robert
I stand corrected on the CX version. The price went back up.