[bwringer]

While I am always happy to pay "a little more" for US-made stuff, I am not willing to pay five to ten times more.

Anyway, I'm not sure why the OP feels that a beginner in the dark arts of wrenchery needs arse-bleedingly expensive tools. Go to your local Sears or Lowes, get some Craftsman or Kobalt stuff, and dig in. When you break stuff on a Saturday afternoon (and you will) you won't need to track down a Snap-On truck.

Also, we seem to be discussing a couple of different things. Ratcheting wrenches are NOT a substitute for combination wrenches -- whatever their pedigree, the ratcheting mechanisms can't withstand nearly the same force.

The solution, of course, is to buy both...