Lately people have been asking how I’m doing, so here’s the honest update. Things are… okay. I’m in the middle of a full “clean-the-house” eBay
inventory liquidation — pulling stock out of closets, storage bins, and corners that haven’t been touched in years and turning it back into cash. It’s equal parts exhausting and oddly satisfying. I also have an Ohio trip and a Hawaii trip on the books this month, which feels surreal in a good way. Life isn’t falling apart. I’m working, traveling, moving forward. But something else is happening in the background, and it’s impossible not to notice anymore. For years I read articles about the “disappearing middle class.” It always sounded abstract — charts, headlines, politicians arguing about it. I understood it intellectually, but I didn’t feel it. In 2025, I finally did. It started small. Big Lots closing. Okay, retail changes — not shocking. Then 99 Cents Only shut down. That was a little more jarring. Then Dirt Cheap went away. Every location. Those weren’t luxury stores; those were where people went when they needed to stretch a dollar. Then it crept into everyday life. Local Applebee’s closed. Then Arby’s. Then Taco Cabana. Now All Salads To Go is shutting down locations. These aren’t fancy dining experiences. These are the places regular people go when they don’t want to cook but also can’t justify a $40 dinner.
That’s when it really clicked: this isn’t just retail disruption. It’s a pressure squeeze on the middle. At the same time, I’ve noticed something strange in my own business. January is usually dead on eBay. Everyone’s broke after the holidays. Sales slow down. That slump didn’t happen this year. Instead, people are buying more — but differently. They’re not impulse-buying convenience anymore. They’re hunting. They’re comparing. They’re digging. Someone who used to run to CVS or Walgreens and drop $10 on a mascara is now spending time searching online to get it for $6. They’re not splurging — they’re optimizing. That tells you everything. People aren’t broke in the sense of having no money. They’re broke in the sense of being squeezed. Rent is higher. Food is higher. Insurance is higher. Utilities are higher. So the middle class has quietly turned into a nation of bargain hunters, deal stackers, and discount archaeologists. And that’s exactly why resale, liquidation, and secondary markets are booming. What used to be niche has now become survival strategy. Finding a good deal isn’t a hobby anymore. It’s how people make their budgets work. If Silver Linings Playbook taught us anything, it’s that sometimes your life falls apart so loudly that you’re forced to finally pay attention. You don’t get a graceful reset. You get a messy one — full of bad dancing, awkward conversations, and a lot of pretending you’re fine when you’re very obviously not. That’s kind of where we are as a country. The middle class is ghosting us like a bad date. Big box stores, dollar stores, casual restaurants — they’re all quietly packing up their stuff and slipping out the back door. And the rest of us are standing there holding a half-priced mascara and wondering when the vibe changed. But here’s the funny part: people didn’t collapse. They adapted. Instead of panic-buying at CVS, they started hunting deals like Olympic athletes. Instead of paying whatever a store says, they started asking, comparing, reselling, trading, and figuring it out. We went from “treat yourself” to “wait, where’s the coupon?” — and honestly, that’s not a tragedy. That’s character development.
So yeah, the old middle-class fantasy is cracking. But what’s showing up in its place is a weird, scrappy, smarter version of us — less impressed by labels, more obsessed with value, and way harder to fool. And maybe that’s the real silver lining: we’re not becoming poorer. we’re becoming harder to bullshit.