As the markets have declined, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has not only been going with the flow, it has been one click ahead of it. Since that fateful Tuesday in late February, the Nasdaq has lost 6.2% of its value, while eBay shares are down 8.5%, more than Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) or Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO).
Why could that be, you may ask. In my view it's simple. In dangerous economic times, investors tend to lean toward stocks that offer more security and away from stocks with uncertain futures. What an outstanding concept that is. So to see eBay shares pounded relentlessly back towards their recently undeserved $30 cresting point comes as no surprise to me. As a matter of fact, I would be a bit surprised if it didn't get back down near its recent $28 low point, or perhaps even below that. Shorting eBay might be a concept I'd consider.
For the first time ever, someone used the term "perma-bear" in regard to my opinion of eBay and its future. Once again I put forward the challenge for those who disagree with my negative opinion of eBay's value to go on that site and spend some time reviewing the public discussion boards. While you may be deprived of thousands of dissenting opinions that have been relentlessly purged from eBay's public record by the company, there is still plenty there for you to still get an idea of the problems I see with eBay.
Perma-bear, I like that. Perhaps I'll make that my next eBay user ID.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-15-2007 @ 12:11AM
James said...
January 2006 Ebay caved in to the relentless threat of the publishers of public school materials (that related to the teachers editions, etc.)to come after infringements of their products. Ebay thus banned all those materials. This lead to thousands of buyers and sellers to lose trust in Ebay. The law of First Sell Doctrine protected the rights of sellers. But, that was suplanted by the threats of the publishers. One wonders why Ebay is starting to suffer? It is because they lost their first love...being a venue for sellers to sell their products. They will lose out on many more markets if they do not listen to the buyers' wants and the seller who can provide those items.
3-15-2007 @ 12:12AM
vlad said...
One word --------- VLADUZ
3-15-2007 @ 12:13AM
tony tucker said...
i have been a seller of antiques on ebay since 1997 ...... it has gotten harder to do business and harder to sell anything with each passing day.
ebay mistakes have been often and many , and i work with it nearly every day.
anyone whop wants to see what the users have to say about the slow , bloated , mess that ebay has become only need look at a few of their own links .... or maybe the ebay " discuss newest features " board , just listen to us all ..... its only money ......... sigh
3-15-2007 @ 12:16AM
firemeg said...
When eBay stock started going up last year, despite massive internal problems on the site and enormous user discontent fueled by management disconnect and bad code, I felt sorry for the investors in eBay. Now, months later, I have no sympathy whatsoever for those who will lose money. Today eBay initiated yet another almost-end-of-quarter-revenue-generating-listing-sale, a 20 cent insertion "special." (Just as I had forecasted, some of you might remember).
Instead of the usual 10 cent sale, eBay chose to go with the 20 cent sale, which is not actually that great of a deal and only amounts to a nickel savings on some listings. Why 20 cents? Because eBay management knows something that they won't be telling you...they are having trouble meeting their numbers and maintaining growth.
For anyone who thinks that eBay is a bull (Cramer, Forbes, Goldman Sachs, Prudential, and any other ill-informed individual or entity) I invite you to check out my site and the news stories appearing there and also my blog. Also do a google search for "Vladuz eBay." After checking into this (IT'S RESEARCH!!) if you honestly still feel eBay is a wise investment at the current price, please let us know why. We're dying to know.
ebay is going downhill faster than it has been in the past couple of years. In just the past COUPLE of months there have been some serious issues with management, the site, and security. A few of these issues are:
1) Vladuz hackings
2) Millions of scam listings
3) Unhappy customer base of SMI
4) Unhappy worldwide base over FB 2.0
5) New listings are down to 12,000,000
6) TOM buying back eBay shares in China
7) Page views are at a low not seen since 2001 (maybe earlier, Alexa only goes back to fall 2001)
8) Page rank is down
9) Site reach is down (#7, 8, & 9 all occurring now, when they should be up considering ebay spent quite a bit of money on new features to draw views - wiki, blogs, chat...etc.)
10) Prosperpoint.com breach
11) ebay Inc. shown in study to own the top 2 sites in the world in amount of scams (paypal and eBay.com)
12) shares already fallen by a couple of dollars
13) Question of whether eBay violated California law by not notifying customers of personal financial info that was posted to the discussion boards.
14)Numerous scam-in-a-box phishing software programs available widely for sale that allow anyone to start scamming like a pro in less than 30 minutes.
15) Less than stellar performance of Skype. Anyone who thinks eBay will break even in that deal is either insane or just plain dumb.
16) Continued search and indexing issues.
I could go on, and on...
I suggest anyone bold enough to be giving eBay a hold or buy rating to read over the eBay.com discussion board thread, "Massive Worldwide Attacks."
Oh, and if you don't listen to the masses of eBay users who are crying out about the above issues, don't say we didn't warn you. It sucks to hear "I told you so," especially after losing $20K.
http://firemeg.blogspot.com
3-16-2007 @ 12:34AM
brianthesnale said...
It has amazed me that eBay has been able to maintain the smoke and mirrors for as long as it has. Any Investor who cares to not only look at the woes on ebays's own boards, and also see the recent growth of sites like eBid and Tazbar to see that it is time to take what's left of the money and run for cover.
3-16-2007 @ 12:41AM
My Next Auctions said...
Looks like eBay stock is on a rally mode today, fueled by analysts speculation. In my opinion, the institutional investors have made a bet on eBay since the beginning of this year since every down movement is propped by a sudden rally. I thought this stock would go down somewhere in the $28 area but today's movement has surprised me.
http://www.myauctionfeedback.com
http://www.feedbacksecrets.com
3-16-2007 @ 12:42AM
Katherine said...
No-matter how well someone tries to bury the truth, it is out there in blogs, forums and the google cache.
http://www.pheebay.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1192&start=456
3-16-2007 @ 12:43AM
DOC said...
Someone is still atacking listings at random!
http://www.ebaymotorssucks.com/vladuz-screen-captures.htm
3-16-2007 @ 12:44AM
DOC said...
Someone is inserting Vladuz style BIN and Gmail addresses into current running auctions. Some are power sellers with high feedback, others are newbies just registered a couple of days ago..
Something is fishy that's for sure!
There are a bunch of screen shots over here.
http://www.ebaymotorssucks.com/vladuz-screen-captures.htm