Hehe, I have a simple solution but it involves PaintShopPro 9.

Use the 'freehand selection' tool and set it to 'smart edge' and simply trace around the object. If you set 'feather' to a value of 2 (or so), the selection will allow a little faded background to show around the edges which is easy to remove with the 'eraser' tool. The smart edge will find and follow most edges pretty well. It also helps if you magnify the image quite large.

Once you're done cutting out the images, select the image with CTRL+C and paste to a new image by hitting CTRL+V.

Now use the eraser brush and clean up the edges. Set the tranparency and hardness to a low value and apply where necessary. And if the smart edge removed something it shouldn't have, just right click while using the eraser tool and the image is magically replaced.

Imo, PSP9 is miles ahead of Photshop in making fast, clean cut-outs. It's for this reason alone that Photoshop sits unused on my computer.