After getting charged $150 for a TPMS sensor on my wife's car, getting told they won't mount my "oversized" tires, and getting tired of paying the increasing cost mounting, I called my brother and asked him if he wanted to split a tire changer. He found a Walmart buyout company about 4 hours from here with two Coats 70x machines for $1100. One was missing the rim clamp actuator, but we found it inside the case. We found a John Bean balancer for $250 locally. It balances perfectly, but it's kinda quirky. Between the two of us, the machines paid for themselves within a year, and we can recoup most or all of our money by selling the second machine. Even without that, these are probably one of our best tool purchases. Between household recycling, a tire shop that only charges us about half the time, and a buddy who works at a town garage, we really haven't had to spend much on tire disposal either, but it's only $3/tire when we do.
I think that there is so much competition for sales that there's not a lot of margin in tires, so the tire shops maximize profit on the service/labor. There are some good deals still out there on this equipment, but they might need a little work. The machines we found were still a model being sold by Coats at the time we bought them. They have the extra hand air cylinder which is a lifesaver on low profile tires and hold the tire off the bead for TPMS changes. I feel like every time we use the equipment we are putting money in our pockets. Even free friends and family jobs have got me whiskey, beer, or pizza.