wingnutheadboy

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    • How Does the Boycott Impact eBay? [view article]
      eBay is over. They have had a veritable monopoly for years, and now, they have crossed the line. It is clearly an issue of a large publicly traded company with limited growth in its core business not knowing what to do other than testing price elasticity. The marketing spin that they keep putting out is actually some of the most unbelievable boulderdash I have seen in possibly my 25 years in the tech business, and any other business for that matter. This Usher dude should be fired, drawn and quartered.

      What most folks have to understand (I am a silicon valley tech executive) is that what eBay has done is not that hard to replicate/duplicate. They have brand, but the mechanics of the system are simply to copy in software.

      Meg gave the company an honorable and moral image for years, but as growth slowed, and as the company started promoting large firm's business through its sites, as opposed to the regular joes who created the company, it lost its way. Plus, the pressures of public ownership cause it to seek growth every quarter as we all know, and fees are the only way to do that. They add little value for these fees.

      At this point, a regular person who want to sell on eBay will lose 10-20% of the sale price in zillions of fees that are stacked up both up front and final value, as well as funds transfer via Paypal. The average person selling small stuff loses way too much margin dollars to eBay now.

      Take a look at listings in most areas. There is little left in the way of private people trading via the tried and true auction format. Its mostly high priced stuff with Buy it Now listings. Retail has become cheaper and in many cases, more accessible.

      Whats even worse, is that eBay may in fact be committing fraud when it publishes its listing data. If a company artificially changes "business data" to create an impression of upside, they are in fact, committing securities fraud. Them saying that listings are up, which the layman has no way to verify, when they are most likely down, OR changing the method of counting in order to change public perception, is in fact no different than falsifying revenue.

      It is well known that they have done a huge amount of "Test Listings" during this period. They could in fact be creating millions of false listings without anyone knowing.

      Time to short eBay       Feb 24 05:44 PM
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