I have done a number of $7500. tk downs in the last couple of years. Maybe has become my threshold for nasties. But a number of years ago I cut a tree in half for $10k. It dropped a lead and squashed the house next to it and as it was hit with a downshear it had 3 more split leads, one of which was gonna squash the rest of the house to the ground.
Totally did not want the job as I risked my life 140 feet up in the air doing the crane thing where you hook the the lead to the ball, come down off the climb line, unhook from the ball, buck in and then cut it off and let the crane take it away. Had to take the lead in 3 sections with a 50 ton crane set up far away. If the lead on any of the three sections broke off while I was attached, esp the giant one over the main part of the house, while I was bucked in, it would have tipped over the crane, and me , and the crane would have ended up in the middle of the house.
Tree is still alive and kicking ....500 year old bur oak increment core measured. 480 years old in '88.