The thing I'd be suspicious of, is what it takes to kill the clutch in the first place. If the previous owner managed to burn out the clutch to the point that the car is un-drivable, then they may have been very rough with the car. If it's been thrashed there's a good chance they've killed the engine and driveline along with it.

With that kind of treatment, you could be looking at a clapped out gearbox, worn bearings, fried piston rings, heavy wear on the brakes, that kind of thing. Volvos are tough, but nothing is unbreakable if someone tries to race it. One of my cousin's friends managed to snap the driveshaft in a 245 doing burnouts in it, there is no car on earth that rev-heads can't kill.

Unless you have them fix the clutch first, you have no way of knowing what's been done to this poor beast. I wouldn't ever hand over more than a weeks pay for a car that couldn't be driven.
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Drive it like you hate it

I generally won"t pay more than $500 for a car that is not running for whatever reason. YOu only have the seller's word that it is the clutch. What if it's the tranny, + there is no compression in the engine, or even the the rear dif is blown? You could hide all of that by saying the clutch was bad. Mind you all that is pretty rare, but still I would make the sale conditional to a new clutch being the only problem, Ie, you fix the clutch as a downpayment, and if that corrects the problem you pay the remainder and if it doesn't either the owner reimburses you or sells the car for the price of the repair. Also for $3K it should be pretty clean and definatly no rust.

My DIY job last year was ~$200, including flywheel surfacing and trans jack rental; parts kit from FCPGroton, rear main seal from dealer.

Indie repiar shop had quoted $750-ish.

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Tom - original owner '84-245na, ipd 25/25 sways, full gauge set, 288K miles and climbing

Are you planning to put it in yourself? The big cost is labor.