I was really close to buying a Kurt scratch and dent before Christmas as well, while cross-shopping with Shar's Taiwan-made Tegara line at ~$320USD. With shipping, the Kurt vises start to seem more reasonable, because they do a flat $50USD shipping rate to Canada, whereas Shar's shipping was ~$150USD to Canada. I could have sworn the Kurt's S'n'Ds were <$500 when I looked though...
At the end of the day, I couldn't justify the extra cost of the Kurt for my hobby work. I bought the Shar's during their Black Friday sale. I'm not too far from the border, so I get it shipped to a US mailbox (domestic shipping was only $50) and the border opened up for a very short window before Delta and Omicron went nuts, enabling me to pick it up before Christmas. No complaints yet, but I haven't really put it through its paces.