It used to be that if you dropped a decent amount (like a few k $) you could buy gear that would pay you back at least double that in a year or so (really it was even better than that in the early days).  Now though you can't even break even it seems.  People are willing to dive in with new gear with the shittiest margins, or maybe they don't even calculate it any more.  ASIC's go for much more than they are really worth now in my opinion so that I don't even want to buy the brand new ones even though I used to buy anything from a reputable company as soon as it was available.  I have a pile of old ASIC's and GPU's that really aren't worth anything now and those are just the ones I didn't resale when I upgraded.  I don't know who is making money on mining anymore.  I have a few things still running but I haven't bought anything new in like 18 months and the few things I still have going are going to be shut down before too much longer.  I have been mining continuously for just over 6 years but the day when I am doing no mining at all is fast approaching.