[Tim Ayers]

If you can find fully polished Craftsman Industrial or the earlier fully polished US-made, professional line of spanners on Ebay that would be a nice alternative to Snap-On.

I have both and they are very close in quality. Some complain that Craftsman have a "lobster claw" on the open end, but it never stop me from getting access to any fastener.

That said, I would stay away from Chinese-made Craftsman. More of personal thing with me.

Don't shy away from US-made SK's either. Really high quality wrenches.

What about German-made Hazlet's? They should be cheaper than the Snap-On's are in Europe.

I would also lurk on Ryan's other site called The Garage Journal. Its a site for hard-core tool guys and a lot of them buy and sell new or like new Snap-On tools. You can usually find a good deal if you are willing to look around and wheel and deal a bit.