I figured that you probably had justification for a great meter. Right now you can buy the U1252B New from the Keysight eBay store for $437 shipped.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have bought from Keysight’s eBay store before and been happy so that was one of the first places I looked when I started researching this but there’s a surprise head scratcher lurking there: The listing for the u1252B is a ships only to USA item. I just spent a few minutes browsing around their eBay store and all the items I looked at that are in “New” condition are USA only for shipping but the “Used” refurbished equipment is shipped world-wide.
My speculation, and it’s really just a guess, is that Keysight is protecting their international distributors and not undercutting them on new equipment sales via their own eBay store but that concern wouldn’t apply to refurbished units, which is why I was able to buy some older Agilent equipment there without any problems. Unfortunately, that rules out getting either a u1252b or u1282a from there since even using a workaround like shipping to one of my friends in the states and then picking it up whenever we get together next is off the table with the border closed, so I’m going to have to look around and see what other deals there are out there.
You’re right about the Keysight DMMs being a great meter. They are fine machines. Most of what I have on my bench at home is older HP and some newer Agilent and Keysight gear with the exception of Tek for scopes. I wasn’t expecting to put together such a comprehensive mobile toolkit though given my bench capability at home and in the shop at work but shifting job requirements, a bit of freelance work, and volunteer work have all added up towards needing to have a decent set of test equipment to take on the road and junk drawer Canadian Tire DMMs only take you so far. They’re good for lending out since it’s no great loss if one gets damaged or doesn’t come back, but once you need to be certain in the results of measurements or that it won’t explode in your hand if a transient rips down the line while you’re working on a large piece of equipment, you really do need top tier equipment for sure.