I started with around $100 and was buying gold and silver jewelry at garage sales. I was able to sell the jewelry for roughly $1100, minus a couple of pieces the wife "taxed" me on. My mother had the misfortune of a tree falling on her Airstream trailer, and the insurance company totaled it. I used the money I made to purchase parts and fuel for transporting the trailer and repairing it after she purchased it back from the insurance company. It is not rebuilt to new, but looking at it would be very difficult to tell it has been repaired. After investing almost the full $1100 in parts, plus about 50 hours worth of labor(includes 4 trips to Albuquerque), she paid me $5500 (from insurance money). I used the money to pay off a 13.9% loan that was charging about $120 a month. Over the last 11 months or so, it has saved me about $1200, which added together is about $6700 from my initial investment.
If I can scrape another $100 or $1000 together, I think I'd like to play this game again next year.