just bought a 40 piece metric and sae socket set with wratchet and extension for my 10 year old nephiew for $2.95 at harbour freight. yes i said two dollars and ninety five cents. that is less than a pack of cigarettes. and it comes with a protective abs plastic case. for what he uses them for, skateboards, bicycles, etc, its perfect. would i personally want to use them to rebuild a car motor? no way. but for the average household consumer who might need to tighten a garage door occasionally, or pull a bike wheel to fix a flat, etc. this is a prefect set of sockets. the metal seems to be a mild steel. not a tool steel. they have what appears to be a light chrome plating. what this means is these sockets and the ratchet would easily break if you tried something like popping a lug nut lose, or using them with an impact wrench. but that doesn't matter for a typical homeowner.
in fact we used the set tonight to pull 4 of his skateboard wheels off so we could clean and re lube the 8 bearings. they were a bit dry and did not spin very well. after cleaning and lubing the bearings with a low drag oil (dexron 3 which was the lightest viscosity i could find), the wheels spin like butter and are whisper quiet.
if you went to snap-on or mac you would find the price of just one socket to be more than that of this entire set. wrap that around you're ugly little minds for a moment. one snap-on socket costs more than this 40 piece set with ratchet.
90% of homers and weekend warriours do not need snap-on, craftsman, mac, kobalt, etc. just a cheapo set of throw away sockets to last a few years. hey if they last even 1 year it's worth it. but a new set for 2.95 every year and throw the old ones in the trash. it's that low cost.
besides that, he is 10. i give him 2 weeks before half the sockets are forever lost. hahaha.