That line about bagging it after one flip says it all, because a comic you're scared to touch stops being a comic and turns into an asset. The guy in Tulsa might still be holding that original for years while you got six reads out of four bucks.

Testing fuses first sounds smart until you realize half these dryers the fuse blows because the vent is clogged or the element is shorted, so you swap the fuse and it pops again a week later. That Cleveland call could've just been a dirty vent choking the airflow and overheating things. Multimeters are fine but they don't tell you why the part failed, and that's the real reason guys get come-backs. Cheap meter or not, if you skip checking airflow and the element's resistance you're just guessing slower.

Laughed way too hard at this because I had the exact same thing happen to me with a tile guy of all people. He looked at my grout lines and just shook his head like I'd kicked his dog, didn't even say a word at first. Two years later I'm still checking my spacing like a crazy person and my finish work has never been tighter. Getting roasted by another trade stings but man it makes you better fast. My glue lines were probably screaming too and I just could not hear it over my own pride lol.