Last one I got at work was $150, a month ago. I don’t know how much of this is the bunny squeezers and government’s doing vs COVID but this fuckery is really pissing me off. R-134a isn’t perfect but it was cheap, effective, and once you figured it’s quirks out it was easy to work with. Tools for it are cheap.
The replacement R-1234 is not cheap either and takes a whole new round of equipment.