On the subject of repairing flats I practically paid my way through college fixing sew-ups. I charged $25 to fix one and people were glad to pay it because the really good silk ones were $100+ This was just for patching the tube, not taking it off the rim or remounting it. Of course with sew-ups you had to find the leak, cut the casing, pull out the tube, patch the tube and then sew it up again. The hard part was sewing it up again so that the casing was perfectly even. It was a talent at lot of people didn't have. My mother taught me to sew at an early age and it has served me well :-).

DnvrFox: You might find people willing to take your old tubes instead of you throwing them out. They are so easy to patch I think you will find plenty of people willing to take a tube with only one hole in it and patching it rather than spending the bucks for a new tube. Where I live there is a place that teaches youth to refurbish bicycles and they are always willing to take perfectly good tubes off people's hands.