It's all relative.
What would a new 38 hp tractor cost?
How much would you use it?
Can you do the work yourself or would you send it to a mechanic?
What's a ton of money? Used to get hamburgers for $0.18 and now restaurants charge $25 (not fast food, anyway).
Work on my own L3800HST, not hard to do it. It has a used price about the same that I paid for it. If everything else but the axle looks good, I would fix it and run it.