My tenor saxophone was dropped about six feet and unrepairably damaged last week. I am an active musician who plays with several Portland bands (Kulululu, Paper Gates, Bryson Cone, Star Club) and typically have at least one gig a week.  I've had this saxophone for eighteen years and it's been through a lot. The fall left it badly bent, snapped a couple of keys, and left many other keys frozen in place. The cost of repairing it would be more than replacing it with a better instrument, and it would probably never play as well as it did (which was not great, to be honest.)