I picked up a RCBS Universal hand prime for $51 (so really $41 after the $10 rebate) recently because I thought I wasn't going to be getting back to PA to get my reloading stuff for a while....turns out I was able to get back to PA on Friday last week so I grabbed as much of my old stuff as I could.  Now I need to decide, quickly, if I'm going to keep it or return it.

In my reloading stash I have an old style Lee auto prime with a "universal set" of auto prime shell holders.  Apparently the old style auto prime is mo' betta than the new one, or so I've gathered from a quick google search.  I know it lacks the "safety" of isolating the loaded primer from the tray and they don't recommend the use of Federal Primers with it...but I've had no issues with mine and haven't cooked off a primer with it to date.  I know the trays on these old ones can be used as a cheap primer tube filler if used in conjunction with a "personal massager".  The downside I see with this hand prime is that there's no parts available for it anymore.

So what would you guys do?  Neither will see very high volumes of use.  I'll only be using one when I'm loading for my bolt guns in the future.  I'll be using a progressive to load higher volumes of pistol and plinker rifle ammo.  

I really miss my old Lee and was very in what replaced it. The RCBS is what I use now and it's not as good as the old Lee but better than the new.

That's easy.......keep 'em both!

This is the first I've heard of the change. I'm glad I was lazy and bought one to use with large primers and one for small. I've never had a problem and I've even used 2 or 3 cases of federal primers.

I got my RCBS on clearance at Wal-Mart for around $20.

I got lucky and found a NIB old style Lee Autoprime the last time I broke mine. I've been using the old style Lee since the late 1980's I think.

Now the pros and cons:

The Lee is very quick to change from one shell holder to another and from large to small or small to large.

The RCBS is not nearly as easy to change shell holders or go from one size primer to another.

The RCBS is much stronger though. I don't have to worry about breaking it.

Since I still use both I can say for sure that I use the old style Lee most. I use the RCBS for military brass and calibers that the Lee can't do like 300 Rem SAUM.

No. My RCBS is not the latest version. It's the one that you use press shell holders in.

Motor

The old round tray Lee was the first one I bought.  I ended up with two of them.  Finally broke the oldest one after thousands and thousands of primed cases.

So, I bought one of the "new" (square tray) Lee hand priming tools.  Lots of primer jam/feed problems.  The plastic catch on one side of the tray broke within the first few months (now have a rubber band on it.)

I still have one of the originals but my youngest son was wanting to get into reloading so I bought the newest Lee hand priming tool for him.  Since the second model wasn't as good as the first model I figured I'd try out the newest one (triangular primer tray).  The newest model still has the jamming/feed issues, as bad, or worse than the square tray model) but has more leverage than either of the previous models.

All in all, if I ever see one of the old round tray models at a gun show I'll be buying it.

The original round tray version is still going strong after more than forty years.  I treat mine like a gun: clean it and lube it at least once a year and you're good to go.

I kept both...

I used the old lee hand priming tool for years. Years ago,when RCBS came out with the hand priming tool that uses shell holders and the round primer tray I had to have one. I Liked it so much I bought a back up

I gave my son his first reloading set up, this included the old Lee hand primer. He's still using it.

Just recently, I had issues seating primers completely with my original RCBS tool. After a little looking, I noticed the shell holders weren't as tight as they use to be in the body and were allowing the ram to push up the case in shell holder/primer guide assembly causing high primers. I simply wore the body out after 15+ years of use! I called RCBS to order a new body, they sent me one for free

I have no experience with the new style hand priming tool with universal holder and square primer tray or the version that uses the priming strips...