car-parts.com is showing 1989 hf trannies for $125 up to $550, alot of them are around $150-200, I would say $150 is a reasonable price, my last two trannies for a civic FE I paid $150 for, and a civic VX was $120, of corse they were close enough that I picked them up, and returned the cores for the deposit.
For some people though, it's not all that bad. How much does one weigh? I shipped rburnett my cx tranny and it was something like 70 for shipping, not awful, and the hf weighs less, after all.