Bad Transmission / just bought car Options

[kingtut12]

Hey there - I am brand new to this site and really like what I am reading. I just bought a 95' Celica GT (Iris blue color) for $300.00. Yep, $300. My brother in law was just gonna junk it after the transmission went out and I looked at it and found a perfectly "fixable" car. Interior is immaculate, paint and body are almost perfect. The engine had no noticable issues as I remember him driving it recently. The dealer told him it would be $3500 for tranny replacement - hence, his "junking" it idea. So I bought it.

My question is this - Is the used transmissions I see on ebay really worth it? They are like $300 bucks and I have a transmission shop here in town quoting me $450 for an install. That is far from $3500, which sounds great and almost too good to be true. What do you guys think? Secondly, I come from the STI/WRX world and have participated in block swaps, front mount IC installs and turbo/ext.wastegate installs. I have never tried to install a tranny before, but with my limited but somewhat experienced skills, is this a do-able project?

Thanks for any info you can give me.