Over at Amazon, they have listings for two identical-looking Knipex Lineman’s pliers. One is model number 09 02 240, and the other is 09 02 240 SBA.
What does SBA mean?
In my experience, SBA simply means the pliers are shipped with retail packaging, with a card and plastic clamshell cover.
I wanted to order Knipex 9.5″ lineman’s pliers for a comparison, and went with the non-SBA model. I did the same for long-nose pliers. The lineman’s pliers arrived with a simply open plastic sleeve, and the long nose pliers arrived wrapped in ultra-sticky and deflated bubble wrap. I’m guessing the oil decomposed things a little?
Some Knipex tools ship in a simple cardstock box.
For certain tools, retail packaging might be a way to avoid shipping damages.
Sometimes, you don’t have a choice. Other times, the model with retail packaging is a little less expensive. It’s not a great example, but the SBA version of Knipex’s electrician’s pliers are around 20 cents less expensive than what I’d describe as the “bulk packaging” version.
For the lineman’s pliers, the bulk packaging version is a couple of dollars less expensive than the pliers packaged for retail. I chose to save a couple of bucks and get the bulk-packaging version. It arrived today and seems to be intact.
Maybe you already knew all this, but if not, maybe it’ll save you a couple of dollars someday.
