a. palmer jr.

Black Friday Sales Are Down Because Online Spending Is Up

I still do most of my shopping at the local stores. I buy some items online because generally they're cheaper, but you can't beat the uptown stores for browsing and checking out new products.
In the future what will be the deciding factor of the success of online shopping will be the honesty of the people selling the products. I know there are a lot of scammers out there and too many of them will put us right back in the brick and mortar stores where we at least have some control of what we're getting.

How Did the Major Online Retailers Cope with Black Friday Madness?

You can't see what you're getting when buying online. That being said, I did buy my wife some perfume online this year. It turned out ok so I guess you can win sometimes.

Tech BigWigs Keep Net Neutrality at the Forefront

Yeah, that's all we need, Comcast charging us for internet pages like they do for tv. I probably would be one of the first to throw the computer in the front yard!

Wal-Mart and Amazon: Price Wars Reopen Question of Intermediaries

If the Walton family could compete, why not others? Wal-Mart doesn't have a monopoly on cheap prices...anyone can do it. I see prices on eBay and a local flea market I go to that have Wal-Mart beaten to pieces. It can be done. Wal-Mart just did it first, or at least they're given credit for that, but doesn't mean they're the only ones. Wal-Mart gets sweet deals from wholesalers because they're so big but that doesn't mean that you and I and hundreds of other people couldn't go together and start a chain bigger than they. Copy Wal-Mart's model but sell more quality merchandise and fix their problems and you have a store that beats them.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

It looks like I picked a good time to be a Pfizer stock owner. I wonder if they're thinking of reducing the dividends some more? Some of these companies would do better if they just went about their business in an honest way instead of trying to scam people and break the law!

eBay Is a Winning Bid - Barron's

I've used eBay in the past and though I'm not a big fan of the more recent eBay, I can tell that there are lots of smaller fans than I. I haven't opened up a "hate eBay" website or spewed a lot of "drivel" about how bad their company is. If you don't like something just don't use it.

eBay: Where Did All the Fun Go?

You as a buyer might get a good deal with sniping tools, but you as a seller don't make as much money selling your merchandise. If you can't make any money selling on ebay why do it? My conclusion is to hold my merchandise out and wait for another opportunity somewhere else.

Is eBay's Real Threat Amazon or Classifieds, or Both?

You stated that in troubled times people use ebay to clean out their garages and make a little money. I don't think that's possible now with all the fees and higher postage plus the paypal fees, etc. I believe that when you clean your garage out you might as well haul the stuff to the dump.

What Can eBay Do to Close Its Amazon Gap?

If you want to give your items away, eBay is the way to go. If you want to make a little money on the deal, go elsewhere. Between the fees, the postage, paypal, and taxes if you're honest, you'd be lucky to just break even, assuming it didn't cost you too much to acquire your product.

Cramer's Lightning Round - Wal-Mart Will Own the World (2/23/09)

I could stop Cramer's good feeling about Wal-Mart...All I would have to do is buy a few shares of it and it would drop like a rock! It's worked with all the other stocks I've bought.

Cramer's Mad Money - As Lehman Lay Dying (2/19/09)

I'm glad someone brought up Lehman...haven't heard anything for a while. I was wondering, as a Lehman bondholder, what's going on with the courts, bankruptcy, etc. It's tax time and was wondering what to do with it. Anybody have any information?

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Please don't encourage Congress to do anything...the last thing the working people need is another gas tax. They enact a gas tax when it is low priced and it is here to stay forever, even when gas gets to $4.50 a gallon. With Democrats in there will be enough taxes to go around without any encouragement.

Amex, eBay, IBM Most Trusted for Privacy in 2008

I have been a small seller and buyer on ebay and personally have had no trouble at all with ebay or paypal, but the more I read about ebay in articles like this the more reluctant I am to deal with them.
The only problem I have with them currently is with them continually raising the fees. On most of my sales lately the only one making any money is ebay and the shipper. I know this is supposed to be about trust and privacy but I couldn't help but throw that in.

What Will Become of eBay?

We seem to have missed another point why sellers leave ebay, and that is the increasing fees that ebay imposes. Along with the postage increases due to the fuel increase (which didn't go down when fuel prices went down) it just isn't profitable to sell anything on ebay unless you had the merchandise given to you or you stole it!!