Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Yes. It's Christmas Wow. It's Exciting. The New Year is almost here and we expect to make things happen again. 2010 was an amazing year. 2011 will be double the fun.


We have been thinking about eBay selling and it is a lot more work than one might imagine. Ebay is great if you have an item that is super popular, let's say an iPhone 4. Now let's say you hate your iPhone for whatever reason, maybe you were dropped on your head when you were little or you are weird and dislike great things. Anyway, after you decide to get an Android or something similar, like 2 cups linked by a string, you don't know what to do with that pesty thing that is your iPhone 4. OOh, has eBay got the solution for you.

Listing an iPhone 4 on eBay is a certain success, you can sell it as a buy it now item or auction style, if you set your price right you are definitely going to make a good deal. If you set it too low you might be underbid and get less than what the item is worth if you set it too high you will scare buyers away from even looking at your listing. It takes savvy and patience to get it right at first.

The cool thing about eBay is that they do have a great help database that explains many of the details of internet trading. However, they might be detailed but they are not going to do things right for you. Do not expect eBay to side with sellers that do not act with good faith. Other than that it's a great tool to get a lot of that junk out of your basement.

Now that the Holidays are almost over it's a great time to list your items for those who only start their shopping when the dust settles.

In the meantime, we'll continue to do what we do.

Thinking Like an Economist - by The Teaching Company

I'm listening to a course by Professor Randall Bartlett with the Teaching Company.Thinking like an Economist is one of the best Courses I've taken through them. It's the first audio course I've tried. It feels like books on tape, but it's a little bit more focused on the main subject. I have another download that I have queued up after I finish with this course. The Art of Critical Thinking sounds really good, I'm excited about that one.

I've been trying my hand at Online Sales for the last 2 months. I gotta tell you I'm having fun with it, for the most part anyway. It's a lot of work and you have to be focused and try to avoid mistakes that will cost money. You gotta be nice to your customers and you gotta be savvy about pricing and competition. I'm really unhappy with PayPal though, they are the reason I have to put a damper on my business. It takes them 21 days for them to free up my money. That is absolutely awful, I'm hoping I can figure out a way to have immediate access to the money after I make a sale even if the buyers don't leave me feedback on eBay. That way I can keep the flow going instead of waiting for the money to clear every time. I was thinking about American Express credit card, but I really don't want to get into debt and I really hate the idea of having to pay interest on anything. Even though these companies make it seem like you can have a credit card with no interest of any fees, for that matter. Sounds a little too good to be true, how do they make their money??? I know how PayPal makes their money. Charging people 10% of all total sales on top of eBay's fees, plus holding on to your money for that long time, they can use that money to at least have a nice capital flow in their bank accounts.

I'm hoping I can either go back to selling on eBay, and most importantly on my own website. On the other hand I really want to go back to school ASAP. Hopefully I'll start working on that pretty soon.

Christmas is almost here now and I'm happy to spend it with my wife for the first time.

Trip to California

We are going to California in January. Me and my wife decided that we should go explore the world a little bit and see what is on the other side of the country. We are going to fly from Boston and get to LAX where we will then take a bus to our hotel. We are taking a tour of the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.


There are a couple of meetup.com groups that are in the Los Angeles area that have great activities. Like one that calls itself Dumpster Ride and Freegan Meal . Apparently bicyclists like to ride around in dumpster trucks. I don't know if that's what they do, but the name is funny. There are other meetups that we will attend.

Meanwhile we are getting everything ready for Christmas.

Football season is in full swing and the Patriots are playing awesomely. They are playing the Bears now and the score is 21x0. The snow there is just piling up bad. The last time they played in the snow They beat Tennessee 59x0

For any other reason we will keep planning our trip.