Scrapping all my 80's and starting over would be something I couldn't do. Guess it really depends how much you have invested but any way you cut it 5 level 80's are lots of work. By the time I got another team to 80 also I'd be so burned out wouldn't have much motivation to gear them up much less raid this close to Cataclysm.

Have to figure in your leveling time too. How much closer to Cataclysm are we going to be by then? If you level slowly you could just go right into Cataclysm and get quest gear. But that defeats the whole purpose of you raiding in WOTLK.

To raid in WOTLK you're also going to need some gear. Walking into ICC in quest greens/blues isn't going to work out well. So you're going to have to add some gearing up time in addition to leveling time.

125$ ya know it's a one time investment and definetly worth a couple of months worth of work to me personally. If I were you I'd just go ahead with transfering toons to a new server.

One thing I can't stress enough is fully investigate the server you intend on transfering too.