The REAL Reason Tool Prices Are About to Change FOREVER!

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]A few months ago, one of the biggest tool  companies on the planet that owns Milwaukee and RYOBI and some others quietly killed off one of  their own brands. Not because of product recalls, not because of quality issues, just gone.  And the reason the CEO gave, if you actually read the stock exchange announcement, tells you  everything you need to know about what's going to happen to tool prices. I've been buying tools for  decades, and I've seen the pricing cycles over the length of time. Now, I've seen some really good  promotions. We're talking about the battery deals, the bundle deals, and all of that. So, I  know what normal looks like. Right now, something is different. And if you buy tools,  even occasionally, you need to see this before you walk into the store this spring. Let me show you  exactly what's going on. Let's go. If you'd like to check out anything that I talk about today,  I'm going to link it in the description, the pin, comment, and of course, you can always scan the  QR code with your phone if you're watching on TV.

[00:00:48]Takes you right to my website. Also, it can be  confusing to find these links. So, if you're on mobile, right under the video, you have to click  the little more button and then more again to expand the full description. Now, I'm about to  give you three key facts about what's going to happen in the near future. And you don't need to  know about global supply chains or anything like that. You just need to know what's affecting the  price tag you see on the shelf. Fact number one, the Chinese government has been giving tool  battery manufacturers a tax kickback for years, and it's called a VAT export rebate. And that's  what's kept your cordless tools affordable for most things. As of April 1st this year, that  rebate on battery products was cut by a third.

[00:01:27]And as of January 1st, 2027, it's going to go  to zero. So, no rebates on those batteries. The manufacturers absorb most of that first cut. They  will not absorb that second one. Fact number two, TTI, the brand that owns Milwaukee and RYOBI and  some other brands just killed heart tools. And the CEO did not say that it was a product problem or  a quality problem. He said, and I'm going to quote from the official stock exchange announcement, the  decision further supports our ability to deliver our medium-term internal profitability objectives.  And he's citing rising tariffs as a key factor.

[00:02:02]That's the guy who runs Milwaukee telling you  the math for budget cordless tools is broken.

[00:02:08]Fact number three, copper. It's in every brushless  motor tool that you own. and it just hit a record high on COMX this year at over $6 a pound. And the  brands that refuse to cut corners on metal quality have no choice but to pass that cost along. Here  is the key though. Old cost inventory is still sitting on the shelves and in their inventory  right now. But when that old inventory is gone, so is the old prices and those new higher prices  are going to come along. So what should you do currently? There are some tools that you should be  buying now to help offset those costs so you don't basically pay more later. And then there are some  that you can wait on because the cost isn't going to be affected much by these changes. Category  number one, cordless combo kits or tools and batteries are what you should be buying right now  because this is ground zero for the battery tax that's going to start kicking in. and it's already  started April 1st and then as of January 1st, 2027, it is going to get more expensive for  these brands to get these batteries from China over to America. It's just the way it is. The  battery is the most expensive component in most of these kits. And you see that if you just  look at standalone battery prices, if you're say want to look at a Milwaukee M12 Forge 12  amp hour battery, several hundred. This is a very expensive component and that's what's going  to get hit the hardest in the near future. So, if you've been on the fence about getting into  a battery platform or even upgrading some of your current tools or batteries, right now is the  best time in years to get those battery upgrades because of that coming increasing cost. Now, if  you're unsure of what battery platform you want to get into or upgrade, there's some that I would  suggest. First, the Milwaukee M18 is probably one of the best platforms out there. They have a  wide range of tools, and my favorite track saw on the market is the Milwaukee M18. There's other  good ones, obviously, but this is my favorite.

[00:03:52]DeWalt makes some amazing tools. Probably the  best plunge router on the market is the cordless DeWalt. I love that thing. And then if you are  budget-minded, you want to get into some real nice tools but not break the bank, RYOBI. They make  fantastic tools, especially the OnePlus HP line.

[00:04:07]There's not really much you can go wrong because  I've used a ton of different cordless tools from Hercules to Craftsman. They've all worked well.  The main thing is look at the platform as a whole and see what type of tools they have. Maybe you  want to get a tracksaw one day. And if that's the case, I would not get RYOBI because I don't  care for their track saw. There are better ones on the market in my opinion versus the RYOBI.  But if say you don't care about track saws, then the RYOBI has amazing tools in their platform. So  just look at the tools that are available on that platform and make the decision that way. Category  number two to buy now versus waiting, I would say, are brushless tools. Let's say you bought into a  RYOBI kit like I did that had no brushless tools.

[00:04:47]They were all brushed tools. Brushless tools have  better battery life and deliver more power. So, they are better in that sense. Now, if you're  looking to upgrade, right now would be the time to get those brushless tools like the brushless  barrel grip jigsaw that I think is one of the best ones that I've ever used from RYOBI. There are  tons of brushless tools on the market. And I think because of those brushless motors using copper  and the copper prices continuing to increase, it's going to cost you some money because they're going  to have to raise the prices to meet that demand on the copper. So, if you're looking to upgrade, now  might be the time to get those brushless tools. Or if you're already in a battery platform and you've  been thinking about getting, say, the Milwaukee track saw, it's probably going to be the cheapest  time to get it now versus later. The manufacturers who don't cut corners on the material quality  that they're using, people like Milwaukee, DeWalt, RYOBI, Rigid, Bosch, those brands, I think they're  just going to have to increase the prices. Now, some of your more budget friendly brands might  not go up as much, but everybody's got to pay the piper. I keep up with tool prices because I  run a deals website that keeps up with a bunch of deals all the time. And over the last year, I  have seen tools that used to be $1.99 are always at $229 on sale when they were 199 on sale. And  I've seen tools that were $500 on sale last year.

[00:06:03]Now they're $550. So, the price increases  are already happening. Category number four are combo kits. And this is where you need to be  pretty aware of what you're buying because there's some trickery that could happen here. Now, things  that happen in combo kits isn't really advertised by a lot of these brands because they can keep  these combo kits at relatively the same price, but what you get might not be what you could get  last year. Tell you what I mean. Sometimes these combo kits last year or two years ago would come  with a drill and a driver and say two 5 amp hour batteries and it' be like $1.99 on deal. All they  have to do is give you lower amp hour batteries.

[00:06:38]keep the price the same. So you could get a drill  and a driver with two 1.7 amp hour batteries or 1.5 amp hour batteries. The tiny ones keep that  price at 199. You still think you're getting a good deal when you're actually getting less of  a deal than you did a year or two ago because of the battery capacity is lower now. You're getting  less run time on your tools because you have small batteries. Nobody wants small batteries. Here's  tool shopper rule number 410. If you're looking for combo kits and deals, don't just look at the  price. that 199 combo kit might not be the best deal if they're packaging in smaller capacity  batteries. So, you want to look at combo kits that have four, five, six amp hour batteries and  then look at the price and make sure that you're getting a good deal there. Right now, you can  still find those combo kits that have the good batteries, the 5 amp hour or even the DeWalt  power stack or power pack battery combo kits and the Milwaukee combo kits that have the high output  batteries or the forge batteries. Those combo kits are still out there right now, but in the future,  I would expect while they try to keep the prices the same on the combo kits, they're going to start  most likely dropping the capacity of batteries that you're getting in those kits to help maintain  that price and the illusion that you're getting a good deal. Category number five, what you should  be thinking about buying right now if you're ready to upgrade, and that is sanders. Not necessarily  a festal sander, but I just had this one handy because you don't think about the fact that these  are also brushless tools in most cases. So, the motors still use the copper. So, you could expect  the prices on these will likely increase as well.

[00:08:03]So, if you're in the market for a cordless sander,  I have a whole video on the best cordless sanders from the popular brands. Just search 731 cordless  sander. You'll find it. I went through all the cordless sanders that I've ever used. Tested them,  found out who was the best. I think the results will surprise a lot of people. Category number six  is probably the most surprising here because most people don't think about the prices increasing  on these items. And that is blades, bits, and that sort of thing for a specific reason. And I'm  talking specifically about carbide tip blades and bits. Why carbide? The carbide in your saw blade  teeth and bits is tungsten carbide. And the raw materials behind that has seen a significant price  pressure from exports out of China. And the brands that use quality carbide for their blades will  feel this pressure before the cheaper brands. If you can buy some blades now, you'll probably save  some money when they start raising the prices on these. I like CMT orange chrome blades. I do like  the DeWalt blades. You can also pick up Diablo, Ridge Carbide, Forest. A lot of these good quality  blade brands will have to increase prices if this tungsten carbide remains high. Look, I'm not  here to create panic or make you stress out over this stuff. I just want you to be aware of  what's happening in the world right now. Now, there is some light at the end of this tunnel  and it's not a train coming at you. There's some real hope here. First, you can always catch  a deal. I keep track of deals all the time, every single day. We send out a daily tool deals  email called the cut list. If you want to join first link in the description, it's absolutely  free. We send you the best deals to your inbox every single morning. We also update my deals  page over at 731works.com every day. And we have brand hubs from the most popular brands from Acme  Tools, Home Depot, Lowe's, Rockler, and Amazon to keep you updated on the best deals. I would highly  recommend you checking out that deals page every day and signing up for the email. It's absolutely  free for you. And another light at the end of the tunnel is a lot of these brands like TTI and  Stanley Black & Decker are making moves to avoid this battery tax. So hopefully they can make these  moves and offset that cost so that we don't incur or eat the cost of this higher prices. First,  TTI is already manufacturing tools in Mexico, so they can offset that China battery tax  or the lack of that rebate by just making them in Mexico. And their 2025 interim report  mentions manufacturing network rebalancing. quote manufacturing network rebalancing as part of their  capital expenditure spend translated in my mind is they're going to restructure or rem or move some  of the things around their parts around so that they can manufacture those parts somewhere else  and Stanley Black & Decker who owns DeWalt and Craftsman and those said in their quarter 2 2025  earnings call that the company quote is executing a robust plan designed to mitigate tariffs and  is prioritizing adjustments to its supply chain that leverage the strength strength of our North  American footprint. North America includes Mexico.

[00:10:58]And they did just complete a global cost reduction  program delivering $2.1 billion in savings since 2022, which is a lot of money. So when you  see that made in Mexico label on your DeWalt or your Milwaukee or your Rio tools, that's the  company responding to what's going on and trying to offset those costs. Good on them. And as with  anything, times they are changing and any of this could change at any moment. But on this current  trajectory that we're on, we're going to see price increases. We've already been seeing them if  you paid attention over the last year or so. Now, I'm not a political person. I don't get into  politics. If you comment the word tariff, it goes straight to the spam folder because I just don't  want to get into all that noise. This is about the tools and what's real for us on the ground  buying these tools. It costs money. It's going to keep increasing. A table saw you bought 15 years  ago is way more expensive now than that goes with anything on Earth. vehicles, houses, everything  is going up. So, you want to make better buying decisions. And that's what I hope this entire  video has helped you with to make better buying decisions moving forward so you don't waste your  hard-earned money in the future when these tools go up and you can save a little money now or just  sign up for my deals list. Save money all the time. Don't forget right after this video, sign  up for the cut list daily tool deals email. It's absolutely free sending you the best deals to your  inbox every day. If this video is valuable to you, subscribe and watch that next video. Clicking  that box get you the big old virtual fist bump.