Developing in house versus buying in shrink wrap
That's a hard one. Overall cost wise it's much of muchness in my experience. Generally people who go down the lets buy it in route, look at what they are getting for 'nothing'. Those who go down the we don't need that route, first do need it, second believe they understand the problem better, and third have plenty of spare time on their hands.
We might need to define exactly waht we are talking about reuse here. If I go buy your stuff, I aren't reusing anything until I buy it again, to use for something similar.
That's all about how much of what you need is already there, how easy is it to get the rest, and the criticality of what's missing. It's highly impacted by what (if anything) you have in place, how much it is costing you, what it won't do that you need, and how long it will last.
There are situation where either approach will the best or acceptable. It's the assumption that one is better the other based on some previous experience that will leave you flat on your face.
reuse = money saved is not always true, nor is write your own...
