If you have a home improvement tool chest in your garage, then you’re going to need a ratchet set with both metric and standard sockets. A decent ratchet may cost half the price of the whole set or more. Now then, before you go out and shop the latest sales ads at the local Home Depot or Lowe’s store, I desire you to think about the quality of the tools that you’re buying, because not all ratchet and socket sets are made equally and there is a big difference in the durability and quality of these tools.
In one direction to tell the difference between a good socket and ratchet set from a poor quality one, is to take a ratchet and see if there is any play in it, as you move around the head. If there is any play whatsoever, it might break when you’re torquing down a bolt.
Certainly, if you want a quality set you’re going to have to pay for it and it’s not going to be cheap. If you do see a sales ads for a socket ratchet sets then there is a good chance they are made in China and are imported by a manufacturer who is interested in selling low cost, high volume tools. Not necessarily because it came from China, rather because the US company that is contracting through their outsourced Chinese supplier company to build its tools did not specify the durable requirements that you might need.