Yes, I was aware that I would probably be looking at $1000 to $3000 for the recovery.
The update is - that I was VERY VERY VERY fortunate to have found out that the hard drive case electronics got damaged in the fall - not the hard drive. A friend of mine (3D animator for gaming and computer techie with tons of networked PC and Mac computer farms running all the time) came to my assistance and suggested that I bring the drive over and have him look at it before I send it away and spend the money. The case appeared to be fine from the look of it - but when he put the bare SATA drive in one of his towers, my data was there. I was one happy guy last night. I ended up buying him a nice little gift of a Raid server box last night for saving my bacon (of I course I bought one for myself too).
Thanks for responding.