Here's the situation on the parts: the dealer with the loader is not a John Deere dealer, and so he can't get me parts. He did offer to knock $100 off the price, discounting the loader to $1750, when we realized it was missing the mounting brackets. That was the lowest he was willing to go. I asked him to knock $300 off to cover the mounting brackets, but $100 was all he would do.
In all fairness, $1750 for the loader, even without the subframe, is not an unreasonable price, I don't think.
I called my local dealer and got prices: $300 for the mounting brackets and bolts, and $375 for the hood guard kit. So $675 total. I then did some searching online and I can get the mounting brackets and hood guard kit from greenfarmparts.com for $440 shipped. So I'm figuring on $440 for the subframe and hoodguard.
I expect to spend another $20 on hydraulic fluid and $390 in freight. Add it all up ($1750 + $440 + $20 + $390), and you get the $2600.
I think at this point I've settled on going for this loader, but as I mentioned earlier, I've only got $2400 for this at the moment. I've got some more money coming in this month that I can set aside for this. If the seller still has the loader after Christmas, I'll be able to snag it then.
What kills me is the freight. Too bad I can't get free shipping on orders over $25, like with Amazon ;-)