How do you measure your success?

[batcap]

Let's not get all complicated.

Another post got me thinking. . .

Which is the most successful hunt?:

A)The guy that finds a ring on the sidewalk and sells it for $20.
B)The gal that buys a purse for $5 and sells it for $30.
C)The hunter that buys a metal detector for $100 and sells it for $200.

See the subtleties?
A) has infinite profit of $20
B) has 5 X investment for a profit of $25
C) Only doubled his investment for $100 profit.

So, as the title asks, how do you measure your success? Is finding a quarter on the sidewalk the same as finding a dollar-both infinityXinvestiment?
Would you rather risk$5 for a 500% return, or risk $100 on a 100% return on investment?

[diggummup]

The most successful "garage sale" hunt for me is finding something for less than $10 and selling it for more than $100 dollars. I have pretty good luck at picking out the unobvious. So... 1000% or more profit has been my luck. I don't run into too many $100 deals that I can resell for $200 or I would do that. Or maybe i'm too cheap to risk it??
My best deals have always been between $1-$10. Over and over again.
I gotta go to work now or i'd be searching the sales today too.

[SEANO]

Not a real answer to your question, but for me, when I find something to cover my gas for the week, I'm happy.

[Randyd]

When I find something I like!
R

[jerseyben]

When you find something with the highest return on investment that wasn't found by accident for free. Otherwise, that's not success, that's just luck.

[famous turtle treasures]

I will try not to make this complicated, but to me, it is a complicated question.

(A) If I find something of value for free that is great, but it is pure luck.

(B) A $5.00 buy with a $30.00 resale is a success in my book even if it isn't a huge profit.

(C) This one is tough. I like to switch it up and actually do this every once in awhile, but with that being said, investing $100 to make $100 when you could buy 10 items at $10.00 and have a 500% return makes less sense to me.

Call me a hybrid, but I do all 3. I think that if you want to be good at this kind of thing you have to be able to adapt to the situation. There is a lot of luck involved, but there is also a lot of skill and if you are not constantly learning then you are not moving forward.

Basically I measure my own success based on profit and the pleasure of the hunt and sale. I love the feeling of finding something worth money in a place no one would look. I love learning about new items and doing research which leads to me purchasing cheap items I can resell for profit. I love finding an okay deal on items I know others will enjoy, and make a slight profit while at the same time giving a quality product to someone else. For me, the combination of profit plus knowing I worked hard and did a good job and had fun doing it is how I measure success.

[Nightowl 280]

Success for me on the reseller side is staying in the black at 4 way split with one split going back to the kiddy to buy stuff . Normally im alittle bit above this as of late . But to do it ive had to change the way we buy crap . Atleast once very 2-3 months we get that odd ball out of wack profit piece that gives some insane bought for $.50 sell for $60.00-200.00 thing .