I'm in the metro area of MN as well. Menards listed the 980 for a while (never in stock) and now have pulled the listing. Lowes also lists it, but they are never in stock and don't know when stock will be coming.
I sold off my
RecTec RT-700 and bought the 1050 a couple weeks ago. I went to Home Depot and they had both the 560 and the 1050 in stock and out on the floor. I played with both of them and the build quality isn't even close. The 1050 feels like a solid, well built smoker while the 560 feels much cheaper. I think part of that is the extra weight of the double lined chamber. Either way, if you go somewhere and only play with the 560, you will be turned off from the 1050, but shouldn't be.
I have watched the youtube of the guy who has both the 560 and the 980. To me, that isn't a fair comparison as the amount of upgrades on the 1050 to 560 is significant (and he has the first generation 560, which had some issues that have been resolved).
The 1050 has the following improvements over the 560:
- bigger cooking area (obviously)
- more usable second and third rack due to the extra space in the cooking chamber
- Hinge design is better, making it
- Stainless steel front shelf (vs, none)
- Stainless steel side shelf (vs. powder coated)
- Solid bottom shelf (vs. expanded metal)
- Chamber is double walled and porcelain coated (vs. single walled)
On top of that, there were improvements made to the design after the original 560 including:
- Porcelain coated charcoal hopper
- grate between the coals and ash bin were redesigned
What we really need is someone to give a head to head of the 1050 vs. the 980, but that doesn't exist yet as far as I can tell.