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...everyone has a different idea of what's affordable. Dropouts are often repaired by welding a small gusset brace onto one side and/or brazing the crack, but I've only seen it done for higher end frames. It does ruin the paint on the stays on that side, but I guess that's not an issue for you. In your case, with your initial investment, it's hard to say whether finding someone to do the repair for 50 bucks is a sensible investment. I can't imagine finding someone who will do it much cheaper than that, and removal and replacement of the dropout would be too expensive.
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