It sort of depends on how much time you have to spend on paint stripping, and what your time's worth. It also depends on whether you view it being worth $600 to pay somebody to do something you can do yourself for the price of a couple of gallons of chemical stripper and a couple of sunny Saturdays in the autumn.
I did two cars (a '68 GTO and a '63 Catalina) with chemical paint stripper. I remember the GTO got Zip Strip but I forget what I used on the Catalina.
The Zip Strip didn't remove the factory red oxide primer, so more wetsanding with 180 grit wet/dry was required. The Catalina's primer came right off.
The other method is to use a DA sander. While it wont' get all the crevices like media blasting will, it's cheap, fast and effective.
Personally, I receive a lot of satisfaction from stripping away the paint and laying the body bare. It's therapeutic to take your time on a nice fall afternoon in your garage and really getting to know every square inch of your car's sheetmetal.
You lose this level of personal satisfaction/interaction with your car when you just drop it off for somebody else to shoot with an air hose.
