From a comment above, United Mercantile takes 30%, so it sounds like you'd be better off with them instead of small claims court. Also, many/most states don't actually do the collection for you if you win, so you may have to resort to a collections agency anyhow. All the court does is decide "Yes party B owes party A sum Y", which frankly seems like that's already pretty clear in the legal contract.
FWIW: I'm in MA, hence my reference to the 2k limit in my comment elsewhere on this thread.
I gather the haircut you take from a collections agency depends on the duration of the delinquency, so you may be right --- although $6.5k is less than a lot of jurisdictions small claims limits.
Your comment about collecting the judgement makes a good point, although I'll point out that it's easier to collect a civil judgement than a debt; judgement debtors can levy bank accounts.
FWIW: I'm in MA, hence my reference to the 2k limit in my comment elsewhere on this thread.