A couple of years ago, many different companies were launching subscription boxes, following the Loot Crate model. You could sign up for many types of subscriptions, and I was surprised to find that this included tools.
Basically, a subscription box is a mystery box where you never know what you’re going to get.
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I posted about the first tool subscription company, or at least the first that I knew of, called “Get to Work.” After seeing images of their first 3 subscription boxes, I wrote that I thought they had potential. I guess they couldn’t gain enough traction, because the company’s website is now defunct.
Fast forward a few years, and tool subscription boxes are trendy again.
Here are some options, as of late 2021. I don’t have experience with any of them, and I also don’t find any of them to be appealing in the least bit.
The Tool Chest on Cratejoy – this seller, on what looks to be a subscription marketplace, offers standard, premium, and “plumber’s edition” tiers, priced from $51 to $85 per month. From the images, you get basic tools, but it doesn’t look like you get your money’s worth. It looks like most of the subscription boxes are sourced from the “special buy” and value-priced sections at Home Depot and Lowe’s.
The Tool Chest – on their own website, The Tool Chest also has standard, premium, and plumber’s edition subscription tool boxes, priced from $60 to $100 per month. They show some boxes with Dewalt, Husky, and Milwaukee products, but others have Anvil, Olympia, and HDX. Aside from tools, you get supplies such as wood glue, stain, and Danish Oil.
ToolHeadsCrate – this company appears to have stopped updating their website 6 months ago. They offer, or offered 3 tiers – basic, standard, and premium, priced from $30 to $75 per month. There are some recognizable brands, such as Lisle, Irwin, and Mayhew, but most boxes are filled with generic entry-priced tools.
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The Handy Box on Amazon – each month you get 4-6 “tools, equipment pieces, electronics, housewares, and gadgets,” with a starting price of $36 per month. After your first month, it’s $40 each month. The company says that you get at least $70 worth of stuff each time.
Tool Crate – a reader brought up this new company (thank you Jared), which offers quarterly subscriptions at $250 CAD (~$197 USD) each time. They advertise that each box is “meticulously curated by industry experts” and that you will “find tools from the big guys and innovative boutique tool companies. Each box looks to come with tools, apparel, and PPE gear.
Here’s the big question: Are tool subscription boxes worth the money?
Frankly, I’m going to say NO!!
Looking over all of the different tool subscription box options – current and recent – I would regret paying for any of them.
I don’t want to pay for a tool subscription box and get Harbor Freight-quality tools or supplies, would you? Or in the case of the $200 quarterly option, if I’m spending that much on an assortment of tools, I want to know exactly what I’m getting.
The “Get to Work” subscription that I posted about a few years ago had potential, and I found their curated selections to be interesting. Tool Crate looks to be the only interesting brand of the current bunch of options, but their price is steep and their mystery boxes often include tools I don’t want, need, or already have.
Some of the tool subscription boxes look to partner with up-and-coming tool brands – smaller niche tool or accessory makers that advertise heavily on social media. Others look to be sources exclusively from home centers’ gift centers and main aisle shelves.
Tool subscription boxes seem best suited for gift-giving.
I occasionally receive surprise tools in the mail, and it’s wonderful. Getting mystery tools is FUN. But buying a mystery selection of tools?
I have never seen a tool subscription company’s large enough to actually work with manufactures at a high enough level to make things interesting.
With a pop culture type of subscription such as Loot Crate, you might not always get something that perfectly matches your tastes, but chances are that you’ll get something new and different. The same goes with food or related subscriptions.
But with tools?
For every tool subscription box I’ve seen, I’m sure I’d find better ways to spend the same amount of money on tools and supplies.
Even if you’re more of a beginner tool user looking to build up their kit, these aren’t the best ways to spend your money.
I don’t think I would ever buy something like this for myself, at least not from what I’ve seen so far. I shouldn’t say never, as I can think of ways that tool subscription boxes could be made more enticing, such as with customized or special edition products, but even then you’d need themes and pricing tiers.
The problem with tool subscription boxes is that they need to be very narrowly focused to be worth it – in my opinion – but there would be so many different categories to manage.
From all the current options I could find, Tool Crate seems to be the most giftable, but at nearly $200 USD and $250 CAD per quarterly box, it’s still a lot of money for a mystery box.
Would you ever buy a tool box subscription?
Plain grainy
I try to buy tools to accomplish what I’m trying to do. Paying for tools that I don’t need makes no sense to me. But it might introduce you to products that may be beneficial to you.
Scott K
I agree. I enjoy using tools and I like having tools that make it easier to accomplish a task. I come here to learn about new tools read reviews when I need something, but it seems wasteful to pay for a box of things I may already own or never use. I have never signed up for a subscription box, but these seem less practical than the clothing, outdoor gear, food options…
MM
Nailed it.
I buy tools that address my immediate needs or that I know I will have a future use for. I’m also picky about quality and my brand choices for any given tool, and I’ve been buying tools long enough that the vast majority of by bases are already covered with proven brands. Chances are I’ve already got better than what’s in the box. The chance of a tool subscription box having something that is both novel and up to my nitpicky standards is honesty pretty low. Sure, I must admit it might turn me onto something new and different, but I have plenty of sources for that sort of information for free without spending hundreds of dollars on tools I likely don’t need or want.
I view them like most other subscription boxes: entertainment. And I can never shake the idea that subscription boxes are a dumping ground for liquidating products that didn’t sell well. Whether companies actually do that or not I have no proof of, but it sure sounds like a great way to offload slow moving stock to me.
If a given subscription service is proven to deliver good value it might make sense for someone starting out, assuming they cover the basics first. It’s silly to spend $$ on a tool subscription service if you don’t have a torpedo level or a pair of pliers.
Jared
I came to exactly the same conclusion. Tool Crate actually has some good stuff in their boxes, but $200 USD/ $250 CAD is a lot of money.
If the contents amounted to such a crazy good value you could overlook duplication and redundancy – or if everything was so unique it was terribly unlikely you would get things you already own – then maybe.
Otherwise, assuming I was buying this for myself, I think I could do a better job with a $250 budget. I could buy stuff I needed or choose things that were a good deal.
Chris P
This format would not be of any interest to me.
I think the big box stores should do something themselves. Not a subscription but a different crate every month you could order online or pick up in store without any ongoing commitment.
It could be a pick and mix. 1 item from category A, 2 from B, 3 from C etc. for a fixed amount. Say something you want pops up then you top up with stuff that makes it value for you.
Chris
Doing a Stitch Fix kind of thing might make sense if they send you high quality tools and you have the option to return the ones you don’t want at no cost. This could give new companies exposure or offer a test market for legacy brands. But paying (and keeping) sub-par tools I have no use for? No thanks.
Joatman
Hell NO! Blindly sending money to a business to make your tool decisions for you??? This might be good for someone new in the tool world, but not for anyone who knows better. I would want to know beforehand if the tools they were sending me were actually worth the cost. Even if they’re sending you high end tools, there becomes a price at which you probably question…..if you knew better. Hate to sound pessimistic, but this sounds like a gimmick for companies to use to reduce some odds-and-ends stock.
Aaron S
people can never figure out what to get me as a gift. If someone were to get me a $200 tool crate I’d rather they’d got me a used joiner off of facebook. If they were rich and got me a year’s subscription I’d rather they put a down payment on a sawstop.
I’d far rather have a subscription that sent me weird chunks of wood to mess with and some ideas on how to work with it. “we think this chunk of burl might be a cool goblet, here are some recomendations of decent lathes” “or you could thin slice it as a live edge picture frame”
IronWood
I love the “weird chunks of wood” subscription crate. Brilliant! Maybe Rockler or similar could offer those for the holidays.
MM
That’s a neat idea. I think creative types are always happy to get special raw materials to work with. They catch is that they have to be special and not just something from the same piddly selection of hardwood that the local HD or Lowes has.
MikeIt
No, they are not worth it. I would never buy one. I may be biased a bit but I don’t think anyone that frequents a tool enthusiast website would buy one either. Many of us would probably end up with duplicate tools. Save for the shoelaces and clips, I already have each of the tools in the top picture. Not the same brand but same kind. When I buy something I like to define my needs and make a purchase that fits those needs. I rarely buy something just because it is on sale. If it doesn’t meet my criteria, I don’t want it. This makes it hard for me to see a random box of tools as a good value. This is after years of purchases made without thinking them through only to end up making a second or even third purchase of the same thing to address the shortcoming of the previous purchase. Also, who are the “industry experts” making these selections? Is it some random buyer in the tool trade or is it someone with a reputation for being knowledgeable about tools? If AvE was curating the loot box and picking out only skookum choochers, that would be interesting. I believe that reputation matters here. This is also why I don’t put much weight on random 1-5 star “reviews” on Amazon, Yelp, etc… because I don’t know who the reviewers are I don’t know if they know what they’re talking about. Lastly, the initial value of these subscriptions may seem high but that is because they are probably taking a loss until they can gain enough subscribers to reach a “critical mass” so they no longer have to take a loss on each loot box and eventually either raise prices or send cheaper tools or both and then customer satisfaction and subscriptions drop. I’ve seen this before with “gadgets”, razors, clothes, food, cheese and beer. The worst ones are the “you’re not a real man unless you buy this” type products. At least with the food and beer you can eat them and be done with them. The other subscriptions just leave you with a bunch of useless crap. These subscriptions try to make you think you are getting a “deal” so they can take your money. Its worse when you pay for the subscription in advance and get junk in return.
Joatman
You make some good points Mikelt.
I just checked out one of these tool crate subscription websites. They show numerous pics of each months tools….each sitting in a wooden box.
It looks like most of the tools, 80-90%, come from those $2 and $3 bargain bins that you see sitting in the middle of the isle. Absolute gah-bage! There are a few tools with recognizable names but nothing to write home about. These are just people scouring the clearanced-out tools and cheapest crap they can find and reselling it under the subscription platform. Just garbage!!
Kent Skinner
These exists so people can give them as gifts.
I’d wager that the number of people buying a subscription box for themselves (and continuing to subscribe) is very, very low.
Steve
Who would do this? It’s like the “Jelly of the month Club” trying to get suckers who want to give it as a gift. That’s probably it.
Anyone interested just send me $100 + shipping every month and I’ll go grab $75 worth of special buys from Home Depot for ya.
Adam
I don’t think I’ve seen any subscription “box” company ever seem compelling. I know one YouTuber that I would like to think is pretty honest, liked the Bespoke boxes, that could contain tools.
I guess I’m not one for huge surprises, though likely it would be a surprise if I did find a box worthwhile. The Dutch in me makes it hard to lay down money ahead of time for items I likely won’t find useful.
Steve
Guys! I just found a compelling subscription service after all! 🤣
https://www.chewboom.com/2021/09/14/taco-bell-tests-30-day-taco-subscription-service/
Well, at least more compelling than the tool subscription service. Right?
JoeM
Uh… No… I don’t like loot crates at all… You pay in, you don’t get to pick what you want or need, and there’s no reward besides “Surprise! We handed you a Junk Drawer!” …And I don’t like surprises to start with… so… LootCrate, NerdBox, Japan whatever… Not my thing.
I prefer having a wishlist, and working through it at my own pace. No guess work or experimentation.
Chris
Maybe just a subscription for that 10mm socket that is always missing…..
Adam
I like this idea. Add in the one small allen key that I always seem to be missing, though.
Jared
This reminded me of SK’s “socket of the month” program.
I don’t subscribe, so I don’t know the specific details – but it seems to me something like that could work. Say you pay a monthly or yearly membership and then pick a tool from what’s offered each month?
With sockets, I don’t much mind duplicates of the ones I use often. Plus there’s a whack of different styles (e.g. Gearwrench sells “kits” that include all the options they sell in a certain size – so you can get a 10mm in shallow, mid, deep, 6pt, 12pt, flex, impact, etc.).
The drawback for the retailer is that they ship you a small parcel semi-regularly. Maybe they could make it “choose 1 each month” but ship it quarterly or something.
MM
That just gave me an idea: Back when I was a kid I remembered that a local supermarket offered an encyclopedia set as a sort of “subscription”. Instead of buying a whole set up-front they had a new volume out each month so you could slowly build up a set.
Something similar could work for tool sets. A comprehensive socket & ratchet set can be very expensive as an up-front purchase but might be something that people could build up with a “subscription”. Of course people can do that already without a subscription, but who knows, it might be appealing for some.
Jared
I’d be interested if they gave me some options to choose from and sold at a bit of a discount. The rationale for the business would have to be as incremental income – adding sales they wouldn’t otherwise get.
That COULD work – if the options were semi-limited it wouldn’t just be a permanent “sale” discounting the tools – yet with options I might be willing to commit to spending that amount each month with one company.
After all, I know about SK’s program because I thought about joining it. It just didn’t work out with me being from Canada.
Zev
A rip off and bad for the environment.
Mikedt
I see little value in getting random tools on a monthly basis. Even if you had zero tools I’d see little value. Odds are no matter what class of pro or hobbyist you are a large part of what you get is either going to be redundant or useless to what you do.
I think I’d find a “fastener of the month” gift box more useful. New types of fasteners seem to keep popping up (the better mousetrap syndrome) and as consumables even if you get some dupes you’ll eventually use them.
MM
That’s my take on it too. Even if the tools were top-tier quality for a great price what are the chances that the random tools you receive happen to
a) suit your needs
and
b) not be duplicates
Looking at the main image at the top of Stuart’s article every single item in there is either redundant to what I already have, or I wouldn’t have a use for it. I’d much rather maintain a tool wish list and then buy myself something off of it every so often that way I know I’ll be able to use what I’m paying for. Sure it never hurts to have spare shoelaces, a flashlight, or an extra pair of safety glasses floating around but that’s of negligible value compared to the cost of these boxes.
David Zeller
I still wish there were a good quality “stock your shop” variety pack of fasteners to Kickstart a home or workshop with. It takes so long to collect everything and you do so many Jerry rigs in the mean time. The little assortments at the big box stores aren’t very good.
After Sandy, and even now, I’d have dropped a good amount for a well curated set-of-sets of different fasteners, maybe in decent organizers, but not necessary. Sets for: Standard and metric machine screws and nuts, maybe a different set in smaller sizes, electrical screws, options for metal screws, wood screws, different types and sizes of nails, deck/drywall/general purpose screws, common wall anchors. Maybe have larger sets, like first time homeowner, woodworker, or whatever. Pick your sets or get them all. BUT ALL HIGH QUALITY AND CURATED TO MAKE SENSE. Grabbing miscellaneous sets at HD or on Amazon results in crappy hardware and gaps and overlaps.
Imagine giving something like this to a first time homeowner, or someone becoming a maker, or rounding out your own stuff.
MM
I have found that the industrial fastener stores like Ace Bolt and Screw, Fastenal, etc. tend to be awesome for this. They usually have well curated assortments available, not just the usual stuff like nuts and washers but also things like O-rings, cotter pins, roll pins, fuses, hairpin clips, electrical crimp terminals, etc. The nice thing is that they will build kits to your specs too so if you need something obscure like an assortment of fine-thread metric stainless locknuts nuts or extra-long marine grade bronze wood screws then they’ve got you covered. Harbor freight has a lot of this too, but nowhere near the quality.
Josh
Looking at the example pictures they put up I think to myself I already have most of it or I don’t want it because it’s something I will unlikely use and if there is something I like i can just get it for a one time cost thats 1/4 of what each monthly cost is. I think it might be worth it for a tool reviewer because it gives them a selection of miscellaneous tools that could be handy for people to purchase
Wayne R.
A minute or two of squealing “Oooh! What’d I get?” followed by an eternity of WTF.
Nathan
random block of wood of the month I think is an awesome idea. maybe even if it also add like a random finish product of the month or something like that attached to it.
tools – no thanks that’s what I come here for.
Mike
Subscription “box” services are frankly all shit. They usually base the value off MSRP, not actual retail pricing which is often significantly lower.
Feel free to change my mind.
PETE
NOPE, i’d never pay for this. Looks like a home depot/lowes clearance section thrown in a box LOL
Eric
I wouldn’t do it for tools, or anything else that isn’t a consumable. I could see random blocks of hardwoods, fasteners, finishes, etc. But even then a lot of it would probably go to waste. But maybe it’s worth it if you find something you really like. It’s like the random snack food boxes. Half of it gets thrown away after one bite, some of it is ok but not something I would buy. And hopefully there’s one thing that you really like and will want to buy more of.
Rcward
I have yet to see any kind of monthly “ box” that is worth it on a consistent basis. Big NO
Yadda
nope
Kevin M Smith
No. I’ve received a variety of these boxes covering many subjects.
I’m pretty picky about my gear. I have learned what works for me and what doesn’t and I prefer to pick out my own stuff. Even those close to me would have a hard time buying me a tool, or fishing gear or hunting gear (I’m even more picky about what goes with me out in the woods than hand tools), there is no way a complete stranger packing a box would have a clue.
I did get a few things that I found useful, but they were few and far between.
In general, these are easy gifts to give, they aren’t meant to fill a serious need.
Tom D
If you want something like this buy the auctions of troops/multi tools abandoned at airport checkpoints.
Michael Veach
No thanks! This might interest someone just moving out on their own that don’t have any tools.
Eugenio
I find all such crates incredibly stupid, but these tool ones are beyond dumb.
Rx9
It has value as a gift item for the rare person who likes being surprised by a random-ish assortment of items. After a month or two the novelty wears off, so 2 or 3 months is the sweet spot. Other than than that use case, loot crates are basically a rip off. I look at these services as the equivalent of a Halloween costume, you’re not paying for the item, so much as the experience, which is fine in small occasional doses.