Fixing an iPod's Click of Death

[Billfred]

Well, this afternoon my 4G iPod (20GB) went kaput on me. I tried to play a song, it locked up. I then attempted to reset it, at which point it gave me the folder with an exclamation point. I listened to it as well, and it seems to be afflicted with the Click of Death that usually indicates a hard drive failure.

Mine's been out of warranty for about a year now, and a repair job from Apple is about $270, conveniently as much as a new 30GB iPod with my college student discount (or a refurbished 30GB model plus $70 in my bank account, your pick).

I can only assume that I'm not the only person to be in this situation. Has anyone tried third-party iPod repair companies? Is there any technique to fixing these that remains obscure (save for that episode of chucking an iPod from three stories up that reached the blogosphere a while back)? Any merit to selling off the 4G at this point? Do I just have a very nice paperweight?