Looking for some realistic advise.
You want realistic advice? Ok you got it. If you are expecting to pay $30 for upgrades, you will be left dissapointed! Parts are rare and will fetch more than that. Some will be easy to find in that range (SCSI cards, HDs, 16-bit RAM cards, etc) but others will go up considerably. The best place for parts is ebay unless you score some stuff local. (I got a whole A2000 system with monitor for free recently)