What does it cost?

I hear ya. I tend to keep reciepts for everything in nice neat folders, but the project cars. I do most if not all of my buying and selling and get payment and send payment thru paypal, so unless i did something on the computer like a digital accounting spreadsheet to keep track of what i paid for something , or got paid for selling something i honestly couldent keep up.

The last big buy i got was a cache of 69 cuda parts off a local facebook trader i was really only interested in the fenders, valance, and header panel with smashed grill pieces for the 69 notch i have , however rather than pick thru it in somebodies shop, i bought the entire lot of parts for $700 knowing the fenders were worth at least that much. I kept what i needed from the lot , sold the rest and ended up with $850. So the parts i kept were free at this point and i made $150, and still have some pieces left over.

I am always buying parts at the boneyard that i need for my projects, but on those trips, i am also looking for parts i can resell to pay for what i bought. Case in point, i bought big brake rotors and caliper brackets off a 1978 magnum for the M body brake setup i bought prior for $100 for my sons 69 barracuda. Rotors ran me $20 each, and caliper brackets were $10. So $50. I also got some really nice headlight trim parts and turn signal lenses off the 78 magnum to resell. Junkyard guy said $20 on that stuff. A B body guy offered me $50 for the headlight trims, and $45 for the signal lenses, so my parts were now free, and i had some extra money from the magnum parts sale to buy more stuff.

I do this at the junkyard for 2 reasons it pays for my trip, and puts parts back out there that somone can use, otherwise they would eventually be destroyed. So TBH, i really dont know what i spend, because i sell too. I'm hoping in the end its a zero sum game after the smoke clears.