‘Money for old rope’ is a phrase I heard many a time as I was growing up.  I thought of it as I took this picture:

This saying originates from the days of public hangings. It was a perquisite of the hangman to keep the rope used to hang his ‘customer’. The rope, however, was popular with the macabre crowds, so the hangman used to cut the rope up and sell it.

Thankfully the old rope above was used for a better purpose