What is a good deal?

One of the reasons that I spend so much effort on getting good deals is because I feel like I work hard for my money and I have a lot of respect for the value of money and what it can do for you. So I love getting a good deal because it makes me feel like I am getting more for my money and therefore more from the time that I spend working.

So what is a good deal? What is the difference between a good deal and something that is "On Sale" and what is a "screaming good deal?" My target when trying to get a screaming good deal is 70% off or 30% of the things value. An item that is only 10-20% off of its list price is simply on sale and is nice if you are going to buy that item anyway but is not a motivating enough factor to make me want to buy it simply on the basis of it being a good deal. In order for anything to really be a good deal it has to be 30% or more off of its actual value.

Getting deals at 30% often requires a little calculated risk and the willingness to either repair or live with minor flaws or cosmetic imperfections. I guess what I'm saying is that there is usually a reason why I get it for 70% off. The camp trailer I bought late last year had some cosmetic damage, my truck I bought several years ago has 400,000 miles on it, a tool box I once bought had been dropped and needed some fixing, a truck box I bought was locked closed and had no keys.

Another way to analyize a good deal is asking yourself "If I buy this and use it for X number of years, can I sell it for the same amount or more than I am buying it for after I am done using it?" This approach is a great financial defense to the rule of depreciation. Just about everything goes down in value the older it gets. So you buy something for $1000 bucks and 5 years later when you go to sell it the thing is only worth $500 bucks and so you have spent $100 per year just to own it. So if you can get that same $1000 item for $500 and then after using it for 5 years you can still sell it for $500 then you have all the money you started with in addition to getting some use out of that money in the mean time.