Pullback in eBay creates buying opportunity

Eric,
What exactly is Meeker basing her numbers on? An eBay press/news release? ebay just had a $.20 listing sale where they usually have a $.10 sale near the end of the quarter. (Translation for non-eBayers) eBay is in trouble and needs lots of extra cash by the end of the quarter. If eBay rolls out yet another sale even closer to the end of the quarter, you can be assured that they were having trouble meeting their numbers.

Listing numbers, page views, traffic...are all way way down. Combine that with the recent Vladuz hacking mess and things like the Prosperpoint.com scandal, and I honestly can't see how anyone is even holding onto their stock at this point.

eBay is a company that can easily play with their numbers via listing sales (as they do at the end of each quarter). I'm still waiting for Prudential to release their y/y numbers, that ought to be good.
http://firemeg.blogspot.com

It's always the usual suspects willing to spin the Ebay line that all is well at the inn.

Goldman Sachs? Didn't Meg Whitman used to be one of their directors?
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m12/i20/s01

Mary Meeker? Are you having a laugh?
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28410,00.html

Bribery? Where would capitalism be without it?!

No wonder eBay is backed up by these investment banks, I did not know that Meg Whitman used to be one of them. As I stated previously, I see a strong interests from investment banks to prop up eBay stock prices from falling below 30s, judging by the trading volume and movement.

http://www.feedbacksecrets.com
http://www.myauctionfeedback.com

Yup listen to FireMeg's advice! LOL Hey FireMeg can you show us your brokerage receipts shorting Ebay to back your claims of a company going nowhere but down?

Yup I thought so. No backbone but just "hot air".

"No backbone but just hot air".

Couldn't have summed up Ebay better myself!

I personally like ebay, if i have ever had a problem they always take care of it for me, i list and sell on ebay and pay about $100 bucks a month in fees (i sell alot) i think it is a great company, you have to ask yourself this, do you see this company being alive in the next 10 years, i do, other sites might gain market share but i think that ebay will still be at the top and profitable

Thomas, do you honestly think $100 a month in fees is "a lot?" At the height of my eBay selling I was paying close to $5000 a month in eBay and Paypal fees. ...and I was not even what is considered a big seller.

I find it odd that I provide proof of malfeasance within eBay's management, and ask questions of the author of this blog about certain things, but never get an answer.

Morgan Stanley's Meeker just says that eBay's strong performance in continuing. On what does she base this? It was just announced a week or so ago that listing in the US are down y/y. The US is by far the biggest source of revenue for eBay. Meg Whitman will have you believe that it's growing by leaps and bounds internationally, but that just isn't true. Look at the numbers, not the ones that she provides.

Meeker? Name itself is an oxymoron!

Has anyone thought about the effects that the new taret of Nigerian scam artists is Ebay and Paypal? Aside from reading a few items and seeing a recent news expose on the problems EBAY is having with "online fencing of stolen goods", the recent scams that I have personally been involved with is very disturbing.

Ebay is based on trust between seller and buyer. Without that there is no EBAY as buyers can go to store online with good reputations and buy there for a bit more. Since EBAY is no longer always the cheapest price, the shine may be off the chrome.

If scammers continue to steal accounts, fraudulently buy goods and then try to get the seller to login to a phished paypal or send a product and request shipping verification before receiving money, then there could be a real pullback in revenue from higher end products like electronics. This is a big segment for EBAY.

With YTD numbers down and a consumer with less to spend, could this mean a perfect storm is brewing for the once darling of Wall Street? We think it is possible.

Watch carefully the breakdown of revenue and the trends YOY as well as quarterly. If there is more slippage support may be breached.

Trust is at stake here, once broken it may take a long time to gain back.

Andrew Horowitz, CFP
more found about this on our blogsite: www.thedisciplinedinvestor.com/blog
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As of the writing, our clients are SHORT shares of EBAY primarily due to the reasons outlined.

Firemeg

What is your paramour with Ebay?
Do you have an an@l fitting problem with this company?

Brian... just the right fit

Hey Andrew and firemeg,

Can I see your brokerage receipts shorting ebay? LOL

Thank you.

On many metrics, eBay looks enticing and I am not as negative on Mary Meeker's work as are some. However eBay does have some problems with fraud taht need to be addressed better than in the past. Some glaring cases of fraudsters beating the eBay system easily have been in the news in the past few years. One was of a coin seller who didn;t deliver the goods and beat the eBay system for many months by using other identities to "sell" expensive products without delivering the goods. There has also been controversy about the selling of houses- some of which turn out to be crack houses- on eBay.

Items on Internet stocks, including several items about eBay (the coin story, the crack house story and a more positive item about buying antique silver through the auction site) and many others are available in the Internet stock update section at (green label) http://www.barrelomoney.com

Since so many people are making thousands of dollars by selling on e-bay and getting funds thru pay pal does the IRS have anyway of tracking the funds paid to an individual seller or is all the profit from this selling tax-free?