uber-and-side-hustle – Page 2

Reading Time: 4 minutes

中文简体读者：这里有一个谷歌翻译的版本，可能不是最新的版本，但大意差不多。

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I drove for Uber the first time, after I thought and talked about it for a bit. Note I still have the day job – this is mostly to supplement my income, and also gain some experience/have some fun. I also wrote a Twitter/X thread here.

A few things to do or think before drive for Uber:

I did give some thoughts on the whole thing before my 1st trip. Here are just some of the things I wrote down on my iPhone notes (MX):

MX: read safety tips (here are Uber Tips for Drivers), I also read a bit more on safety at Google and Reddit too, for example, below thread at Reddit:

Safety : r/uberdrivers

Don’t accept any obviously fake names (Smokey, Mr. X, Princess, etc) and if you’re gut says it’s wrong, let rolling and cancel when you get around the block…

Oh, and buy a dashcam! I got one at Walmart for $75. I honestly believe just having it mounted helps avoid issues.

Re: dash cam, I actually did place an order at Amazon, but I decided to cancel the order today after I think more about it. I always get it if needed, down the road. I have a few items that I bought from Amazon that ends up didn’t get used. Try to avoid that mistake again – and I really need to use the items I bought or sell them on eBay (it it’s passed the time to return).

I also thought about Pepper Spray or carry a firearm: my understanding is that Missouri is an open carry state.

It is not a crime under Missouri law to openly carry a weapon into any place where concealed carry is prohibited, except for a church, school bus, school, or onto the grounds of a school function. According to RSMo Section 571.030, there is no age limit to openly carry a handgun, long gun or any weapon.

But I have purchased neither for now: I think the rearview mirror, along with some items near my driver seat are sufficient for me. Under any circumstances, if I feel that my safety is not 100% guaranteed, in most cases if I am driving and my car is good, I expect to get out of the trouble quickly.

MX: only drive days with daylights, no evenings or nights;

MX: tax or expenses tracking including: miles driven, gas receipts 🧾, and insurance.

But today’s two rides (one cancelled) is mostly around “finding the rider” at the starting point.

Some bugs in the Google Map abd Uber Driver App

For the 1st ride, it took me a few minutes to meet my rider. She had someone else called the ride. And it seems (according to her) Google Map also messed up her home address. I think the Uber Driver App too. But I was able to pick her up and drop her off at the right place. From Clayton road near Hanley road to a house near 270 and Manchester (via highway 64 and 270). My gross income for that ride is about $13.50.

Shortly after I complete my 1st ride, as I am driving back to the Manchester road near 270, I got another ride request, and the starting point is at Eureka. That one took time to drive, and unfortunately, the Uber Driver App pointed me to the wrong place (it was close, but not exact). I texted and called the rider, no response. After 5 minutes or so. I decided to leave, and drive back home. One thing because I followed Uber Driver App, and waited the necessary time, I was paid about $15.50 or the cancelled ride. But I do have some lesson learned and I documented in the Twitter/X as well:

use Apple Map for navigation; also pick the ride when I am stationary and have time to think about it. I picked the 2nd ride when I was just finished the 1st trip, and when I was driving. I think I can let the pass in a situation like this next time. Ideally I would stop accept my new ride when I have ample time.

Bonus points

I liked the view of fall leaves: not quite red or changing yet, but start seeing colors when I drove highway 44 west from 270 towards Eureka, MO (exit 264). I used to enjoy similar sceneries when I was working in an office, more specifically working for the Mastercard at their O’fallon MO office. I drove quite a bit of the Page (Missouri 364) Extension and part of the road was beautiful in the fall (autumn). I understand I may not be able to enjoy nice views everywhere I go – but since I work from home 99% nowadays, and yes sometimes I do miss driving (and not just driving with families, my wife and kids – hope they don’t see this comment 🙂

Also, Fatal crash closes westbound I-44 near Six Flags: note I was there about 2 hours before the accident. This again highlights the risk of driving including drive for Uber and drive on highways (high speed).

PS: I will likely write another post on “driving for Uber” or create a quick YT video hopefully soon: I will write down my thoughts after driving for them for the last 4 days (Monday 10/14 to Thursday 10/17), may include Saturday 10/19 too (if I have some free time).

(Update 10-29-2024) in this short YouTube video, I talked about my thoughts after driving 19 trips for Uber. Also, I noticed quite a few YouTube video in Mandarin on Uber 优步 too – collect them here and here.

(Update 11-04-2024) Reddit – Curious as to how well Uber drivers do here in STL?

(Update 11-27-2024) Realized it’s best to keep the Uber driver ratings (score) above 4.6, if applicable (and you are curious about the score).

Reading Time: 7 minutes

(Update 04-03-2025) Received a return request for a laptop bag. It appears the user didn’t use it properly. But I issued the refund anyway. That’s one downside of selling on eBay or drive for Uber: that is the customer service or customer satisfaction. My impression is some customers will never be happy.

(Update 02-13-2025) In general, I hate throwing away useful things into the trash/landfill. Yesterday I was able to fix an old Wi-Fi router. For a while I suspected the power adapter is the reason it didn’t work. Because when I plug in the power adapter the router’s light didn’t come up. Yesterday I looked around and found an OEM power adapter whose output meets the broken power adapter, and I tested it out – it works – and I listed it on eBay right away.

(Update 12-01-2024) New Netflix documentary looks at the downsides of overshopping (CBS Mornings)

(My eBay shop “majorxu” page above, 08-19-2023, do you want to guess which item got sold, which didn’t 🙂

(Update 05-29-2024) Some packing and shipping tips: make sure we get a good, also decent sized packaging, otherwise the item may get lost during USPS shipping. I noticed two recent items (one is a buy from China, via eBay), another is a small item shipped from Springfield, MO (education sector, probably want to save on cost, used a very small box). Both got lost in the process for a while – it was put in the “moving through network“, before eventually showing up. USPS informed delivery helps, but we are mostly in a holding pattern in this case.

This also reminds me of a short video I saw recently: it seems the workers in the video was processing or sorting mountains of packages in China: not sure if this is domestic or International shipping. The number of packages are enormous. Also this is how a Temu warehouse looks like (I 1st saw it on Twitter/X, but can no longer see it).

Btw, “search” on X/Twitter is horrendous, I was able to find it via google search. On the result page, I click on the camera icon to go to other sources.

(Update 04-01-24) I sold a few surprising items last few days, things I didn’t expect to sell.

A generic Fitbit charging cable : I bought it from Taobao in year 2016 as I lost mine in hotel in China. I was using Fitbit at that time.
A filter for sun eclipse: a Mastercard souvenir in year 2017 we had sun eclipse.
A Whirlpool fridge tag: this is my 1st shipment to Puerto Rico, last year I made the sale for another item via auction but the buy didn’t pay. I also experimented the volume listing (2nd and more item off).

(Update 03-03-2024) I sold one item for the multi-quantity with variations listings below. Also I noticed one minor issue: it seems eBay does not offer the USPS 1st class mail now. So I had to pay extra $2.00 or $3.00 to get their ground advantage service. In order to avoid extra cost on my side, I changed the shipping to the USPS Ground Advantage in my listings. I still have 15 items left. Those are free items for me (10+ years ago, Courtney of Subaru America), so overall I am still okay as long as I don’t lose money over shipping and eBay fees 🙂

The reason I want to buy shipping from eBay is it has better integration with eBay payment and so on. I am willing to pay a bit extra to get this. Somewhat like what I do with Turbo Tax (better integration with IRS and the state tax authority, here in the show me state, it’s the depart of revenue).

Fixed price (buy it now) vs Auction: I gave it some more thought. One of the fairly common thing happened to me at least, is with an auction starting price of 99 cents, plus shipping. Some buyers don’t pay after bidding for it. This is usually not the case for the “buy it now” buyers. I assume the latter group is more committed buyer: they will need pay for the item when they bought it via “buy it now”. So in the future I will explore this format instead of my earlier experiment which is mostly auction.

(Update 03-02-2024) Today I created my 1st multiple quantities listing with variations on eBay – Genuine Subaru Badge of Ownership you pick Medallions many Discontinued – NEW. I also explained how to make sure the “variations” show up during listing process in the Twitter thread below.

I created my 1st multiple quantities listing with variations on eBay – Genuine Subaru Badge of Ownership you pick Medallions many Discontinued – NEW https://t.co/Vt8sQ75PA9 #eBay via @eBay /1
— stl-place (@stlplace) March 2, 2024

(Update 02-26-2024) It seems eBay doesn’t like I listing Helmet there, it automatically cancelled the listing a few hours before the bid closes. Below is the email I received from eBay.

email from eBay

I just deleted the “Crutches” listing there too – as earlier I got a similar message from FB Marketplace. I still leave my crutches listing at local CraigsList. Below is the FB Market place rule regarding medical device etc.

FB Marketplace rule re: medical and healthcare products

(Update 02-19-2024) For eBay, when selling old and sometimes not so appealing items, the “unsold” rate could be quite high, one has to have a thick skin, as well as lots of patience and a big heart to continue.
On 02-18-2024
Unsold 132 –
Sold 10 – (2 unpaid; 8 paid and shipped)
Active 25 – (the main concern is not to have a distress kind of feeling)

Last but not least, it seems we lost the money made ($6 or so) from the above shoes in another pair of shoes my 13 year old bought and tried to make some money on eBay. In Chinese we say that as “偷鸡不成蚀把米” 🙂

Back to declutter, I think there are a few other ways to give away things, rather than throw them away, again one man’s trash could be another man’s treasure. They include, local buy nothing sell nothing FB groups, and charities such as Helping Hand Me Downs. The latter direct items to the families in need.

(Update 02-04-2024) Recently I realized I can sell item at 99 cents, plus the USPS Ground Advantage shipping (buyer pay), and I can make about 99 cents from the sale. The buyer’s payment for shipment covers the shipping cost plus the eBay seller fee (transaction fee). One of such items is – 4-Pack Repair Parts to fix Crocs Shoes Rivet Strap Replacement Button Fastener Do you want to guess where I got this item, or how I got started selling those? Hint: I am selling the surplus items I bought from Amazon or other places. Again: reuse, reduce and recycle.

(Original 08-09-2023) This would be my 18th year since I started to sell on eBay in the year 2005. I recall the year because that’s the year one of my nieces was born, and I visited her when she was a newborn in the southwest USA. It’s one of the few times I got to hold a newborn baby. At that time I was single and I didn’t have much chance to hold a baby. Later on, I had more chances to hold babies because my wife and I have 2 girls. I recall in late 2014, I put my baby girl (our 2nd) on my left shoulder, while I typed on my computer (laptop) working. Those are some of the highlights of my life for sure.

Back to selling on eBay topic. I understand nowadays some people would say eBay is slowly dying (here is an article I recently came across). But back in the day, 20 years ago, I recall Dick Cheney (the W’s VP), touted that “Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.” Note he gave that remark in the presidential re-election season of 2004: the economy then was not very good including the employment, note in year 2003 the US invade Iraq. I think eBay’s position then is like today’s Etsy, Uber / Lyft, and Doordash combined in terms of the number of freelance jobs being created. I know we call it gig economy now, a much fancier word.

Recently I came across James Sinclair’s YouTube video and he probably mentioned that “selling on eBay” is a hard business. I tend to agree.

Back in the days

I recall in those early days, I would buy and sell, monitors, digital camcorders, digital cameras, etc from websites such as dell.com, and using some discount codes. Then sell them on eBay. I sold quite a few. Again if you look at my eBay profile, I sold 215 items in all time. I believe most of the sales were done between the years between 2005 and 2007. I don’t think I made a meaningful profit from those (this again sorta confirms Jame’s assertion above). Once I had a complaint filed against me because the item got lost from the US to either Afghanistan or Iraq, which I have zero control. Note the USPS insurance also only covers shipping inside the US. I know this sucks but this is just life, and I think that’s probably another reason I decided to not continue selling on eBay, in addition to low or no profit, as well as in the next few years, iPhone and other smartphones got more popular and gradually replaced many camcorders and digital cameras (24 things that the mobile phone has replaced). I still remember the excitement I had when I got my 1st blackberry, and back in 2009 my coworker really hoped for the iPhone (note it was the early days of iPhone, and it was not available as the company device yet, but it was coming soon).

Different purpose: declutter

But nowadays, my main goal is to sell unused stuff, from a “reduce, reuse, recycle” point of view (refer to the picture at the way bottom to say the point). One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s also why I don’t care much about profitability etc. of all this. It’s not my main goal. I know from time to time I really need to be more organized and reduce the things I keep at home. Until recently I watch Holy Schmidt’s video on the topic, I was not serious enough though. That day I got a bit unhappy about my own mess or the not-well-organization of my desk. So I decided to do a little cleanup. During that, I found out that I forgot to open the mail and quite a few checks from the dental insurance company. Some checks are over one year old and I can no longer deposit them 🙁

Schmidt’s example in his video is more extreme, per se. But I can see I am coming down this path if I don’t clean up the garage, the basement, and other rooms at home quickly. So there is my incentive. I don’t think it’s realistic to sell everything on eBay. I would probably give some large items away, or throw some away eventually.

Last but not least, something left an impression, is this YouTube TedX video, To be different is good, by Jon Jandai. I think I have a lot to chew on about the video in terms of living a simple life.