[thstone]

Same for me. When I replaced the original struts at ~100K mi with PSS9's they seemed to be working ok and passed the bounce test but after removal I found that I could push the shaft in and out by hand - they were toast!

As for buying used, if you can find some low mileage struts on the cheap, you might be able to get by. Its certainly not stupid, sometimes financially you have to do what you have to do.