Feed items

And it's so easy to fix.

Sellers dream of a bidding war.

Two people going at it, outbidding each other, not wanting to lose.

At some point, they don't even realize how high the price has become, and the winner — if you can call them that — severely overpays for the item.

Great for the seller, though!

Some items are prime for a bidding war

An original Jackson Pollock. Superman comic issue #1. Babe Ruth's rookie card.

Get the right investors and collectors in the room, and these will be bid up to a small fortune.

For these, it doesn't matter where the price starts. It could start at a dollar. It won't stay there.

Most items won't spark a bidding war

This is where the problem for sellers can lie.

The more commodity the item, the less likely it is to trigger a bidding frenzy.

Setting up a store on eBay carries a monthly expense. But you can start selling very easily and without any upfront cost.

You get 250 free listings per month without an eBay store package.

This means you can list items either auction-style or good 'til canceled (GTC) and pay fees only if the item sells.

Your only cost is time

This is a good low-risk strategy for starting out.

If you have some things you want to sell, you don't have any upfront costs except your time.

I've been listing dollar bills with cool serial numbers on eBay. (Here they are.).

As I write this, I have 81 active listings, which isn't anywhere close to using up my 250 zero-insertion-fee listings.

For 2024 I published my side hustle income report each month to maintain accountability.

This year, my main goal is to be profitable.

To maintain transparency with this goal, I'll be reporting on both income and expenses this year.

I haven't been profitable for years. My day job has been subsidizing my side hustles.

My goal this year is to stop that cycle. Working at my business regularly helps me to sleep better at night, but without profit it eventually will just be added stress.

Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not

Since I'm not posting anonymously, my main job income, my part-time job income, and my main investments won't be reported. I'll report everything else, though!

I'll report on income as I receive it.

These tricks led me to see the light and become BFFs with leftovers

If thinking about leftovers cues up scary music, you're not alone.

My wife and I used to play “leftover chicken” — that fun game where we let leftovers stay in the refrigerator until one of us suggests that the other consume it before it spoils.

All this ended up doing is making us despise leftovers more. It wasn't doing us favors to toss food out.

Leftovers help you sleep better at night.

Wait, what?!

There's a lot going on in the world today. Maybe you're embracing the chaos perfectly, and I salute you.

For me, I've caught myself checking out the news more these days, and rarely does it make things calmer.