The cost of this sweetgum ball harvester was about as much as it would have cost to remove the tree in my front yard (I think), but stump removal would have cost even more and a replacement (younger and therefore smaller) tree more again. As for value for money it would have been nice to have been less expensive but I could find no other product on the market like this tool so evaluating cost by comparison is difficult. But really nice to finish the job without feeling I've had a workout and relatively quickly.

The 36" push Bag-a-Nut Harvester was easy to use, easy to empty, and avoided the physical labor which would have been required by the other options (rake and shovel, or rolling cage on a shaft).

Since my first try was after a wind storm I could only run the BaN tool across my front yard about two passes before emptying the bins but they're so easy to empty the job went relatively (compared to rake and shovel or rolling cage) quickly.

I was concerned that the Bag-a-Nut collection bins could not fill up too full but I just kept on rolling and the balls just kept piling it. A quick brush of the hands to clear the balls away from the wheel cleaning teeth was not really even required since the tool didn't care and just kept piling balls in the bin (see photo). However when emptying the bins it's less messy to push the balls away from the teeth and fully into the bins before removing the bins from the tool.

So glad I found this and decided to buy it! After 20 plus years of raking gum balls on our 1/3 acre lot with 10 big gum trees, I received the 36" model around noon today and had my front yard clean in 45 minutes (3 huge bags full), including installing the handle. The back yard is bigger so will probably take an hour. So all in all, this picker-upper is going to save me about 8 hours every year. And it does a great job! Worth the money for me.

I have 3 gum ball trees in my front which means a lot of gum balls for those of you not familiar. After a few windy days the yard was pretty well covered. What normally woul have taken 4 or 5 hours to rake up took about an hour and a half to do with the big a nut plus no back ache. Just wish the price would have been a little cheaper but I'm glad I hav it now.

I bought this about 2 weeks ago. I am a 75 y/o female and am able to push it. . This was assembled in 20 minutes or less. 36" = 2 of the 18" rollers and two baskets. I like its ability to pick up the sweet gum balls but it's not 100%. If they have been pushed into soft ground they don't usually dislodge. The big drawback is that your yard has to be cleaned of leaves and small sticks for the machine to work efficiently. When it is windy we get ALOT of small sticks and leaves in the yard. This makes it necessary to stop often and clean them out of the rollers. I feel that once we get the yard (3 lots) clean it will be easier to keep it clean. I also feel the price is a bit high for what you get but have no idea of production cost so it might be fair. From my own experience I wouldn't recommend the pull behind unless your yard has no sticks and leaves and just a couple of trees. (Or you have an assistant to walk along and empty the baskets for you.)