There are many more automotive expenses than just gasoline, such as tires, oil, brakes, depreciation, etc etc etc. Too many to list. I believe the government allows a 55 cents per mile driven deduction for an automobile used for business purposes. I believe thats likely a good guide that CRHers could go by as well. An inexpensive fuel efficient vehicle would likely be less, and an expensive gas guzzling tank would likely be more, but I would think 55 cents is likely a good average.
To actually turn a true profit in this hobby requires massive volume combined with decent results. I would venture to say that 90%-95%+ (quite possibly as high as 99%) of all CRHers are not turning a profit at all. Most of us would be "silver ahead" by staying at home and using all that automotive expense money to just buy the silver outright.
If you enjoy the hobby, and consider it a hobby, then by all means have at it. Far be it from me to tell you how to spend your time and/or money. But, if your only goal is to stash away as much silver as you can as cheaply as possible, then likely you'll be better off money-wise by just buying it outright.
I had to quote you Arkie, and add to your point one of my expiriences one hopeless day in December last year... My family and I were in St. George (We live in S.L.C.) for my wife's family Xmas party. It didnt start until 2 P.M. so right before noon, I had a couple hours to kill... Time for CRH'ing....! yeah baby. So I started down a main road hitting banks/credit unions whatever-with no luck. Then, at the end of this road, I see a Credit Union kind of tucked in a little, not quite as noticable, I got the feeling right away. A good feeling, for some reason I knew it was gonna produce. So I turn in, and as Im driving into the parking lot, I am looking at the building to see if they were even open, (it was 12:30 P.M. by this time, on a saturday). All of the sudden.. . CRASH! F#!$ $%&! $LAM! CRUNCH BANG! lights blinking on and off in psync with alarms beeping.... and to my horror... I had failed to notice the abnormally large, and square shaped curb, that for a reason still unknown to me was placed in the middle of a parking lot, about 20 feet from the entrance. I hit this curb with so much violence that I still dont know how it didnt deploy the air bags. It hit me hard once I got out to see the damage, first of all, the almost brand new, michellin 100K mile guaranteed tire, BLEW UP. (seriously, it blew up, both sides of the sidewalls). The body damage looked horrific, but to my amazement popped out to form with a rubber mallet. The tire was also at such an angle, I ruined the spare by driving the less than 2 blocks (thank god) to the local Big-O tire. So at 12:30, with 2 hours before my wife's family Xmas party, while she is sitting alone at our hotel on the other side of town while our 2 yr. old naps, gets a call from me saying, "I wrecked the car, I think we r gonna be late to the party".... Not fun. The financial price tag was just under $500 bucks that day. The emotional price tag, is still being tallied, and the although the car seems fine, several months later, I have noticed uneven ware on that front driverside tire, (the brand new, $150 dollar tire that I replaced that fateful day.).... So ARkie, with all those things you mentioned, and my dismal finds since then, I can guarantee for me that CRH'ing costs me money. After the wreck, I was consumed by CRH'ing come the following monday, "to find enough silver to pay for the damage I caused"... In other words, I ended up spending/ruining the entire day monday CRH'ing while my wife and 2 yr. old sit in the car all day chasing the dragon/silver with me... I found 1, ONE TOTAL silver that whole trip. Dont even ask whether it was 90 or 40, that would be a silly question, it was the ugliest 40%'er I had ever seen, which is probably the only reason it was left for me to get my silver hoarding hands on.... I hope this story isnt so long and boring that its putting folks to sleep, just figured Id share my most expensive CRH'ing expirience to date...
Good luck, happy hunting everyone, Im off to pick up my four boxes of the week. (may my finds be better than my average this year of less than 1 per box)....
Chris.
Oh yes, in reading this, I just realized that I failed to mention that I never even made it into the C.U. to ask "the question". I am convinced it is where the silver in that town was.
