Yes, Sears Does Still Sell Craftsman Tools (But There's A Catch)

There was a time when one could not think of Craftsman without also thinking about Sears. That is because Craftsman was originally established as the department store's in-house tool brand, but that changed in 2017, when ownership of Craftsman was transferred to Stanley Black & Decker. Now, you can find Craftsman tools sold by a variety of retailers, from Lowe's to Ace Hardware (though not at The Home Depot), but that does not necessarily mean that the company's relationship with its former owners has been completely severed. Even though Sears is no longer the company it used to be, you can still find some Craftsman tools for purchase there, but there are some important caveats in that statement.

Firstly, the Craftsman tools you can buy at Sears are not necessarily the latest versions available elsewhere. For example, take the 11-piece socket wrench set sold at Sears. Right off the bat, you can tell it is an older model based on the carrying case alone. It is a grey-colored case, and now Craftsman uses red cases for its socket wrench sets. The label gives it away, too. The one at Sears has the catalogue number of 13226, whereas the two closest sets that Craftsman currently produces are either 34870 or 34871. It doesn't stop with socket wrenches either. The top-selling screwdriver set at Sears is a 17-piece set, but Craftsman doesn't even sell one with that many pieces anymore. Clearly, Sears's ability to sell Craftsman tools is rather limited.

Sears selling outdated Craftsman tools is not the only issue you will run into if that happens to be your retailer of choice. You will quickly find that the number of Craftsman tools sold by Sears is quite limited. Craftsman produces hundreds upon hundreds of tools of every kind, but at Sears, there are only 154 different tools available. Most notably, you won't find Craftsman power tools at Sears, except for two air compressors. If you are in the market for a drill, a circular saw, or any other piece of equipment that requires a battery or an outlet to work, Sears doesn't sell it.

Some of you may have popped over to the Sears website and noticed that there are indeed hundreds of tools for sale there, including power tools, but there needs to be a massive asterisk to that. Sears does not actually sell all of those Craftsman tools you are seeing. They are sold by third-party sellers that use Sears merely as a distribution tool. These sellers have names like iShopDirect, Mac's Marvels, and TIC-TOK, and purchasing tools from a third-party seller will always be a bit of a gamble. Plenty of these will be perfectly good, brand-new tools, but some may be refurbished or used. If you come across one of these third-party sellers on Sears, you really need to do your due diligence to determine whether they are a trustworthy seller. These are the same considerations when purchasing tools on Amazon, and they are vitally important.