jonreagan

eBay vs Amazon: My Take

Totally agree with beachgal's comments, as well as the others regarding eBay...."a disorganized second hand shop" is about the best description I've heard! It's fairly close to my own analogy: eBay may be a huge libraray of information and resources (which they continually brag about), but the books are just scattered all over the floor.

I speak from the perspective of an eBay seller, and it's a nightmare for us as well. There is nothing intuitive about the processes, which change from one week to the next. The "sell your item" form alone has gone through four iterations this year, in its continuing evolution. Twice during the last month, I used the "live help" feature when encountering selling problems, and was told by the individual assisting me (each time!) that due to a "Site Bug", my problems couldn't be solved. Their solution was to cancel my listings, and refund my seller fees. SO--if you eventually hear that eBay's listings are down for this quarter, there are plenty of reasons why.

Any successful retailer--regardless of channel of distribution--has got to be customer friendly. EBay is anything but, and it will ultimately lead to their demise, perhaps by being bought by someone like Amazon who knows what they're doing.

Is Tech Still a Safe Haven?

While it's normal to ascribe some downward movements after a run-up to "profit-taking", the trashing of GOOG, AAPL, and RIMM in the last week reminds me of the free fall that AAPL went into last August....immediately before a hedge fund redemption date. Institutions looking to raise cash are going to dump the good stuff, not the dogs...

S&P 500 Stocks With the Highest Estimated Growth Rates

Thanks for the listing...always enjoy reviewing the lists you guys put together. Two questions--
1) Is the growth rate you're showing for EPS, or for Net Income? Definitely worth knowing. As I'm sure you know, several cases have come to light recently where companies were actually borrowing to finance share buybacks. And...surprise, surprise....the CEO invariable had a bonus incentive tied to EPS growth. Perhaps one silver lining to the current credit crunch will be making these kinds of stunts less appealing.
2) any way to add a column showing the P/E ratio for each company?
Again thanks.