eBay finds salvation in South Jersey

EBay has always perpetuated the myth that the dissenters (in terms of sellers) are just a "small but vociferous" minority and in certain respects they can point to figures to disprove whatever they like ...

... but (you knew there was a "but" didn't you) the site is over-run with scammers, hijackers and hackers and there are some threads running on the T&S Community Discussion Board in the US and particularly one on the German site - where there is greater freedom to post up scam listings - http://forums.ebay.de/thread.jspa?threadID=237558&start=9560

Most of the sellers who have become disenchanted with eBay have simply moved on and transferred their businesses elsewhere, many gather in places like www.powersellersunite.com and www.pheebay.com where communities help each other to find success in the many other auction venues online.

EBay keep hiking fees for a very poor service and while there are still bargains to be found, more and more full and part-time sellers are finding it impossible to make even part of their living from what once was a lucrative venture.

There are only so many people on the planet and eventually eBay will run out of new members, approximately two thirds of their accounts are not active already, that's why growth is slowing but I see no magic rabbits coming out of the hat to save eBay.

"Does eBay have its challenges? You bet it does."

What about Jack Ma?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/202181/this_years_april_fools_joke_on_ebay.html

Listing numbers on ebay have decline by a third over the last three months, a huge number of sellers left last summer, and more are following now, the forums are full of discontented sellers who are fed up at the glitches and having their concerns ignored. A company in decline you bet, look at the growth of the alternative auctions sites recently. On a personal note my sales in six months elsewhere have exceeded the last six months I was on eBay, so is it worth quitting ebay You bet it is.

Funny how people always claim they left for other alternative sites and doing well without Ebay but they seem to have time trolling the public forums and spewing their same bitterness on and on and on and on.

Have you really moved on? Mmmmmmmmm I don't think so.

By the way the market expects Ebay to have declining growth. It's already price into the stock. By the way 30% growth is not shabby. I don't know about you but Ebay showed robust revenue and earnings performance in Q3 and Q4. Doesn't sound like a company going into a death spiral to me.

The future and new growth driver will be paypal and skype and represent a greater portion of Ebay's revenue.. Paypal already accounts for over 25%. Oh yes Ebay core does represent a bulk of Paypal revenue. That was the whole idea. But if you follow Paypal closely the are expanding aggressively after other merchants outside of Ebay. It's going to be the next Western Union Killer.

Then again, I don't expect bashers and wall street analyst to understand these businesses.

I'm beginning to sense a wave of analyst upgrades ...

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Sometimes people behave irrationally. They might throw away valuable things by accident or because they didn’t realize the value. (A small example: When my wife was six months pregnant I accidentally threw all her maternity clothes down the incinerator; they were meant for the laundromat and in a large green bag, like our garbage bags. It was an accident!) Needless to say, if you can avoid being irrational, you can save yourself a lot of hardship.

Examples of irrational behavior occur every day in the stock market. At Stockpickr.com, I keep track of a portfolio of stocks that are down over the past 52 weeks, but have strong earnings growth and, quietly, analysts have been upping their estimates for the coming quarters. I also only look at the stocks that have earnings multiples that do not yet reflect their strong growth.

If a stock is valued like a slow-moving utility company, but has expected growth of 20% or better, then something is wrong with how the market is valuing it. This usually indicates that people sold off these stocks for irrational reasons, perhaps selling them off too hard. Now these stocks are set to rebound when their growth kicks in.

Take eBay for example. We all know that eBay probably made a poor acquisition when it bought Skype. However, eBay has exceeded or equaled analysts’ estimates in the past four quarters. Earnings are expected to grow from $1.05 per share in 2006, to $1.28 per share for 2007, and $1.51 in 2008. The consensus estimate for 2007 earnings per share 90 days ago was $1.23, but since then 19 analysts upped their projections to bring the consensus to its current $1.28.

The 20% expected growth for eBay is double that of the overall market. With a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 22 and a growth rate of 20%, eBay’s price-to-earnings growth ratio (PEG) is a modest 1.1.

I’m not the only one who believes that eBay is undervalued. So does billionaire Saudi investor Prince Al-Waleed, who made a good chunk of his fortune picking up value plays like AOL and Citigroup in the mid 1990s. Now he’s buying eBay. Because of his value bent, he is often called “the Warren Buffett of the Middle East.” Here is look at Prince Al-Waleed’s portfolio holdings.

Despite the broader market hitting new highs, eBay has had no love over the past year. I think this year changes that trend.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/04/04/ebay-amat-stockpickr-pf-ii-in_ja_0404soapbox_inl.html?partner=yahootix

Who would you believe if you are serious investor? Analysts or bashers representing a sliver of ebays total sellers? This is a no brainer.

EBay Finishes Higher After Bear Stearns Raises Earnings Estimates

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of online auctioneer eBay jumped in Tuesday's session after a Bear Stearns analyst raised his first-quarter revenue estimate for the company due to increasing conversion rates and rising average selling prices.
On a day of gains for the broader market, eBay shares rose 80 cents, or 2.4 percent, to close at $33.80 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. During the past year, the stock has traded between $22.83 and $40.82.

Bear Stearns analyst Robert S. Peck increased his revenue estimate for the company's first quarter of fiscal 2007 to $1.74 billion from $1.71 billion Tuesday, which he noted was $15 million higher than the high end of the company's estimate of $1.72 billion.

Peck also raised his earnings-per-share estimate to 31 cents from 30 cents for the quarter and bumped up his revenue estimates for the rest of the year slightly.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect earnings of 29 cents per share on revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter.

In a note to clients, Peck wrote he estimates eBay's total listings increased 10 percent, year-over-year, to 512.1 million for the quarter-to-date over the same period last year, although they remained flat year-over-year in the U.S.

He said the company is gaining higher gross take from auctions and higher per-listing revenue, which stem from a move toward core listings, increased average selling prices and improved conversion rates.

EBay has experienced conversion rates on their domestic platform so far this year, and they also improved within the quarter -- which says they may get better in the next quarter, too, he wrote.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070403/ebay_mover.html?.v=1

Looks like a lot of Gurus buying ebay.

George Soros
Dodge and Cox
Mason Hawkins
Ruane Cunliff

not bad company to keep


http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?symbol=EBAY

I keep hearing about the "alternatives." What are the viable alternatives out there? Nothing has the sheer volume of buyers and sellers as ebay. Plus nobody has the name brand recognition as PayPal. It seems to me that ebay/PayPal enjoy monopoly-like dominance in the market, which means despite the throngs of angry users, they will continue to overcharge as long as there is no viable alternative.

The “Big Three” (YHOO, EBAY, GOOG)

4-3-07: What a great day on Wall St. The housing sector received a boost from a surprise gain in existing home sales and the decline in oil price got investors excited. It has been awhile since the market was this excited about anything. To see green numbers scrolling across our screen again was a welcome sight. Ebay (EBAY), a stock we have recently identified as a value stock received a vote of confidence after Bear Stearns finally realized the stock was undervalued and increased their earning estimates. Ebay closed up 3% (very nice), now trading above $33 per share.

The big three internet companies will report in the next couple of weeks, we are referring to Ebay, Yahoo and Google. Ebay will likely surprise the market by beating their numbers handily. We also believed the company will increase their guidance for the year. Our view is Ebay is still currently undervalued, this stock should be trading in the high 30s. An increase to $37 per share is indeed possible if the company does report great numbers and provide an optimistic guidance.



The recent search monetization efforts Ebay signed with both Yahoo! and Google should provide a positive impact on their bottom line. Furthermore, Ebay is still the king of online auction. No one comes close. The Paypal unit continues to dominate. There were concern Google’s payment system will have an impact on their business, but so far that has not been the case. The company also recently increased their auction fees so that should help as well. The Skype unit is also looking promising as they are making progress to integrate. Bottom line, look for opportunities to buy Ebay on any weakness

http://ibooyah.com/blog/2007/04/the_big_three_yhoo_ebay_goog_1.html

Oh you pro-eBay types are so cute!


Did you say the same thing about Enron..."There is a small group of dissenters."...."Enron's COMPANY XX is going to be growing substantially"....."The analysts say that Enron is super!"


The best thing you can hope for is a rainy, dreary, soggy summer with no hurricanes or major storms. Are you willing to bet your portfolio on the weather? If you said no, but still think eBay is a good buy, you'd better hope for it isn't a nice summer with major storms, because nice weather and major storms drive eBay's slumping summer numbers even lower.

eBay is starting the YEAR off with less traffic and less listings that it has had for the past 4 years. And that's BEFORE the nice weather arrives and the usual summer slump hits.

LOL I guess Ebay Whining Bashers never heard of Sarbannes Oxley post Enron. Meg woundn't risk her billions to cook the books and goto jail for 20 years.

Also Ebay has experienced 5 consecutive quarters of meeting or exceeding earnings forecast so claims of declining listings or traffic is meaningless.

3 years of fear mongering doesn't work. Just ask George W. Bush and the American public. LOL

I've heard sellers complain of ebay's fees digging into profits.

This type of interchange hurts competition. I work with the Merchants Payment Coalition and you can fight these fees at http://www.unfaircreditcardfees.com

Funny how www.powersellersunite A site desinged to trash ebay & take busines away from ebay uses paypal,A ebay company to collect donations from its users WOW THAT REALY HURTS EBAYS BOTTOM LINE. EBAY BABY LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

That's good for the folks of Lumberton and I wish them all the best, however, eBay and PayPal's fees are clearly over the top. For all the things we "other" sellers & buyers hate about eBay, take heart, there will soon come a bigger, better means of selling.

Blah blah blah...I've been an ebay member, power seller, since 1999. Anyone who thinks ebay is the same is kidding themselves. Ebay has changed dramatically over the years mostly for the worse. "All good things must come to an end". Ebay is slowly being infiltrated with unethical cheats and scam artists who found the ebay forum an easy venue for criminal activity. Unfortunately, this is ruining eBay and driving the good people away. Between this and the rising costs, fees, percentages to ebay, paypal fees, etc., eBay is NOT such a GREAT place to do business anymore. After 8 years, I've thrown in the towel and hope some new, less GREEDY venue comes along.

I have been selling in a store on ebay for about 2 years. I do some puchasing also. It is certainly a roller coaster ride!!! They do NOT respond to customers. Period. Just as I get used to using a new complicated feature,ahh, they add one even more complicated--though lately they have added some really nice, logical features. I have checked out other sites such as Craigslist, Amazon, to name a couple. I feel they DO NOT compete with ebay. The listings they have are cold, and unwelcoming. Ebay is totally the opposite. When I considered the name recognition, the friendliness of the site, the nice customer-inviting listings, I realized the total fees charged {yes, they are HIGH } are worth the effort to stay with ebay. Ebays biggest problem, I feel, is they need to listen to the customers!!!!
But, I wondered if those other sites listen to their customers--no matter what the ad may say about customer service..... PS: There are tons of spoof emails at ebay & PayPal. We report them to ebay or PayPal, get a form letter in return. Why can't ebay and PayPal start working on this issue?? They have lost customers due to that problem, people feeling threatened by identity theft.

i dont know what good this will do but the story is as follows...i became an ebay store in feb. 2006...had a store i had to close so had extra inventory.. hired an ex ebay employee to help me.. then i had issues due to agent orange and spent lots of time at the va.hospital the ex ebay employee did a gtreat job for me and the customers were really happy..problem was she got busy anf i got delayed at the va. so so accounts were not shipped,, which was my fault and got suspended as i should have.contacted all accounts and took care of all problems have contacted ebay but they still ask for info i have provided many many time dont know what to do ..i want to stay with ebay but i can understand what else to do... can anyone out there help? tks uncle

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