The ex Australian Army Porters were a bargain.
From memory the owners group paid about A$250,000 for it and spent another $80,000 getting it on the register as there was corrosion in one of the wing struts , some minor unserviceabilities plus contribution to certification costs.
A14-689 had a TSN of about 7,500hrs and half life engine and prop.
We never had any problems with it other than a flame out caused by running the collector tank dry on descent (me flying , too much dive and too much bank) , I was on a 3,000ft final when I noticed that I was losing 'the wall of drag' at the front of the porter , looked up and saw all the engine gauges winding down , feathered the prop shut off fuel and did some S turns to get it on the runway (the Porter glides well with that big wing). Once landed it started normally and I taxied back to the fuel bowser , there was still 30 mins of fuel in the tanks.
From what i heard all of the Oz skydiving Porters experienced this at least once
We never used more than 680 deg on climb (705 limit) and never had an issue with the engine , accessories , prop.
The big military ADI/gyro arrangement died in about 6 months and they put in a standard small faced AH. The only thing that I can remember getting replaced in 2 1/2 yrs was a battery and some radios. Most starts were done off a DC GPU with a bank of massive truck batteries.
I heard it sold for US$500-$750k , don't know the exact figure