News from Mechanic: 190D transmission totally shot

[w123fanman]

So I did receive that news today, which is sorta disappointing but at the same time good because he didn't have to take it off the car and take it apart to figure it out, saving me money for labor costs. He is going to remove it from the car and take it to a Mercedes certified rebuild place and see how much they will give him for it then perhaps buy a rebuild from them (as you guys said, probably over $2000). My other options are to buy an automatic transmission from a forum member that's about 2-2 1/2 hours away for $250, supposedly has 100K on it and was taken out for a manual conversion, or I can do a manual conversion, with parts ranging from $1000 to $1500 from what I could tell.