About doing it on a tight wallet..

Just today I was at Lamiglas in Woodland. They have a factory outlet store where they sell seconds and repaired rods. Although all rods are sold without warentees you gat get into a good rod inexpensivley I bought a 8'6" "northwest special" for 75 dollars
sure the cork was a little dirty but it had a brand new tip section. Anyway if your not concerned about having the warentee i think it's a great way to go....