What must be added to the equation is cost of getting there and cost of overnight accomodation (difficult to find convenient B&B). It might be cheaper to get the WRO to do some paid research. T
I agree with this - to some extent. If you know exactly what you want to be researched, often the experts, whether from the WRO or a researcher, will often do a faster and possibly better job. However there is not the opportunity for further exploration and serendipitous discovery that you get if you do your own searching.