Harbor Freight
Reviews
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The
unofficial review forum for Harbor Freight™ tools. |
and to save a little money too!
Recycling starts with reuse: this practice—not the sorting of discarded items into the proper glass, metal, and paper recycling bins—is the first and foremost step in a conscientious recycling plan. We live in a society where we surround ourselves with disposal items. We eat with plastic utensils and drink our coffee in a use once, disposal Styrofoam container that might be great for convenience but are horrible for the environment. Most consumer items are manufactured cheaply whereby price, not quality, has become the primary marketing objective. The 1970’s practice of manufacturing with built-in obsolescence has given way to the New Millennium’s notion of a disposal society. This encourages the practice of disposing of any item that is not perfect, that has minor flaws even flaws that don’t impair the item’s original intended purpose. Flaws that are often cosmetic and not functional even for utilitarian items that are purchased for their function not for their aesthetic appeal cause us to discard the item at the first opportunity and to replace it with a newer one. For many people, “newer is better,” but for some of us, there is a different agenda—one that involves helping to save-the-planet one-step-at-a-time through product reuse and reclamation.
| Here at Harbor Freight Reviews we strongly
believe that it is the individual, not the government or industry, that
is ultimately responsible for improving the quality-of-life on our
planet and that reversing the damage and destruction that our modern
lifestyle has wrought on our planet will ultimately be accomplished
through the collective involvement of individuals dedicated to making
things just a little bit better. Our resale outlet is one such small
step in recycling 'used' goods that are still suitable for use and just
need to find a new home. To encourage such recycling we strive to price
our items at 50% or more below the retail price of the replacement
item. Some items we buy at considerable discount from liquidators and
other surplus merchandise outlets, while some items are purchased at a
cost that permits just a very small profit margin. All items are deemed
usable and most nearly new. |
At Harbor Freight
Reviews we advocate recycling
through reuse and reclamation. This practice contributes to our
overall
ecology by cutting down on needless manufacturing which consumes raw
materials
as well as energy resource (and contributes
enormously to the pollution problem and global warming) and by
decreasing
excessive landfill waste. We are not advocating compromising our
quality-of-life or a return to a simpler lifestyle, just adaptation of
some
common sense and consideration for the generations to come. Reuse is as
simple
as simply reconsidering whether an item needs to be disposed of and
replaced
with a newer item. Reclamation involves quite often making a simple
repair that
restores full functionality to a ‘broken’ item. These simple measures,
even
adopted on an individual basis, can contribute tremendously to a better
quality-of-life.
Most items offered for sale at Harbor Freight Reviews are our test products purchased for the purpose of conducting our evaluations that form the basis of our reviews. Some items are purchased specifically for the purpose of resale; these items are part of our ‘reclamation’ program, recycling items that have been discarded or surplused, often simply returned to the original retailer because they didn’t suite the needs of or live up to the expectations of their original purchaser. Most retailers repackage open-box merchandise along with show-room display models for sale through liquidators, thus removing them from their normal retail outlets that are open to the public. Sometimes they deface the logo of their product so as to not confuse the item with their normal retail merchandise (e.g., Craftsman™ power tools are usually ‘debranded’ in this fashion). Other times the logo and other brand identifying attributes remain intact but the liquidator is prohibited from mentioning the brand or usual retailer. Most items do not carry their normal product warranties. We test our merchandise before offering it for resale, sometimes extensively in our product reviews. Our experience suggests that merchandise that is ‘used’ and still functions properly is likely to have a long life-expectancy (we consider it ‘field tested’) and that most defective merchandise is discovered to be defective shortly after its initial use. Items that we purchase and find defective in a manner that prohibits use for its intended purpose are scrapped and the parts recycled. A few items which are still usable we offer for resale noting the ‘defects’ in the product. Much of the merchandise we offer for resale was returned by the original purchaser, is a display model, or is simply missing some small part that does not affect its primary use. These items were often used for our reviews and have been thoroughly evaluated. (Important note: any product that receives a negative review from us is a retail product purchased through the normal retail channels. Items purchased through liquidators that receive favorable reviews from us are considered to be at the stated or better quality when purchased by consumers through the normal retail outlets.)
Our main emphasis is on Harbor Freight products. We are systematically working our way through the extensive inventory of Harbor Freight products purchasing, testing, and reviewing each item. Many of these items are later offered for resale through our online sales channels (i.e., this website and eBay) or through local markets in the Northeast (e.g., occasional flea markets). Others are simply too useful to give-up unless we are able to acquire duplicates of the merchandise. In the final analysis, our overall mission at Harbor Freight Reviews is the review not the resale of these items. Our retail sales help to recycle, to partially recover the cost of test items, and to generate some additional revenue for our work here at Harbor Freight Reviews.
Select products from the Sears Craftsman™ and Kenmore™ product lines have been added to Harbor Freight Reviews. This is because sometimes only the quality of a Craftsman tool will suffice and because sometimes a guy just needs a good cup of coffee or a freshly baked loaf of homemade bread.
We pay the tax
for
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Copyright 2010 Beaux Arts Last
revised:
25 July 2010 17:50 (EDT) Contact:
info@HarborFreightReviews.com |