Tracking overall profit has been easy...ZERO! In last three years NADA.
Will get to that quoted statement above in just a minute, but meanwhile...
I can't believe you haven't done a more accurate analysis of your profitability since all your other assesments seem so spot on as to approach to buying, selling, etc. I would have thought that you would have closely figured in expenses such as gasoline, storage, dump runs, purchase price, etc and would have balanced those off against the money coming in.
Now to that ZERO profit statement. Are you saying that you just BROKE EVEN on all the locker work you've done...or worse, LOST some money during the total time you've been doing it? I know it's fun to at least search for the goodies and anticipate the goodies, but if you truly haven't made ANY profit over the long haul, how could you have kept it up for so long?
I track mine month by month, include all expenses (even data purchase for the iPad, entry fee to some auctions, gasoline, etc) and know what the monthly and yearly ratio is on a running basis. I couldn't just go with a ballpark figure.
I have one friend who buys a fair number of lockers on a regular on-going basis; he stated the other day (after about 1.5 years (to 2) of doing this that "I started with $5,000 and I have $5,000 now". To me that's a lot of work for staying "even".
This fellow has a store that he admits after about 8 months of operation is "breaking even" so at least he is tracking that a bit more diligently. He does better at his 6 times a year yard sales saying he does between $2K and $3K each time, (frankly I don't believe that) but even if true, remember he buys lockers regularly for which he pays $800 to $1,500.
Anxious to hear your response on the ZERO profit statement.