My first mate paid $1250ish (was a year or 2 ago), second mate bought his slightly used for $950 (from a guy who decided to upgrade).

A 5-6000w inverter Yamaha costs about 6k, so you definitely pay for quality

I would personally buy an older dunlite and run a UPS between any sensitive electronics

Don't have enough use for one though - I just keep a little GMC 800w in the shed in case of power failure. Should power some of the essentials in a blackout