Our dryer was over 20 years old and needed to be replaced. New they are over $600, so that wasn't an option.
The spouse has a friend in the scrap metal business, so he called to see if the friend had any dryers that he hadn't scrapped and may be functional. Unfortunately, he didn't.
More research turned up used dryers on Craigslist or FB Marketplace going for over $200, or $75 for an ancient model. Used appliance stores in town didn't have any dryers for sale.
Just when we were looking at traveling to another town to pick up a used model, the scrap metal friend called. It seems that a couple hours after my spouse called, someone had him pick up a dryer they didn't want. The dryer is a decade old, much more modern in looks and style than our previous one, but it had some dings and stains, and the plastic on the front panel was cracked.
The spouse went and picked it up, unscrewed the panels, cleaned out the air intake and the electrical coils, replaced the vent ducting, and voila - a working dryer. We gave the friend money for his time and effort picking up the dryer, plus what it would have earned him at the scrap yard. And of course he took our old dead dryer.
But the spouse and I were both excited. It was serendipitous that the friend happened to get the call about a dryer that day. And my husband was willing to put in a bit of time to clean up the dryer. VS $600+ for a new, or over $200 for a used, we paid $20, a 90% savings over the other used dryers. And the friend came out ahead too!