Mulitple cheap padlocks with same key

[johnlock]

Today I was in a hardware store, and at the desk there was a box with cheap padlocks. Some old Master 105 and some small Corbin locks. I bought three of the Master and two of the Corbin. When I came back home and studied the locks, all the Masters had the same key, and all the Corbins had the same key. Is this normal?

[MrScruff]

It's not uncommon, just unlikely that you'd find them together like that in a bin.

My local hardware store sells two and three-packs of keyed-alike padlocks, I think they're for people who plan to put them on a trailer. It's possible someone bought two such packs and returned them shortly after.

[johnlock]

I will bring them back to the store tomorrow and confront them. 3 locks of one brand with the same key, and 2 from another brand with the same. strange.

[MacGnG1]

I was at home depot looking at the master locks and ALL of the locks in one box were all KA. they all have a four digit sticker on them so the customer can buy several that are all keyed the same.

Schlage and Kwikset also do the same thing for their deadbolts. That way you can buy a deadbolt and a fancy front door set that are all keyed alike right out of the box and you dont have to take it to a locksmith.

[MBI]

I will bring them back to the store tomorrow and confront them. 3 locks of one brand with the same key, and 2 from another brand with the same. strange.

Confront them? Really?
It's not as though they're up to anything sinister.
This type of thing is pretty common, especially with inexpensive locks.
Some brands of locks have as few as 4-6 different key codes they use unless the vendor special orders something different.

[Evan]

Today I was in a hardware store, and at the desk there was a box with cheap padlocks. Some old Master 105 and some small Corbin locks. I bought three of the Master and two of the Corbin. When I came back home and studied the locks, all the Masters had the same key, and all the Corbins had the same key. Is this normal?

I will bring them back to the store tomorrow and confront them. 3 locks of one brand with the same key, and 2 from another brand with the same. strange.

@johnlock:

Really ?

Sounds to me you didn't look at what you were buying until after the sale was completed...

Stores often order case quantities of padlocks keyed alike (KA) if they do business with a lot of commercial/institutional customers who need numerous padlocks all keyed alike...

It sounds like you observed some "new old stock" being liquidated...

As others have stated here, it is quite common to find keyed alike padlocks even at the big box home centers...

Now to add a bit of legalese to this:

Did the retailer advertise the padlocks as being keyed differently, or was that an assumption made on the part of the buyer ?

Where the products open and able to be inspected by the buyer prior to purchase or were the items sealed up in closed packaging ?


If you think about those questions and ponder the matter you will see that you would be lucky to receive a refund of the purchase price if you asked nicely for it...

~~ Evan

[Rickthepick]

It would be a bonus if you werent buying them to pick and had a use for them