Bill
I don't thinking that sniping is the problem. It is just that people aren't spending money and EBAY has thousands and thousands of items that go unsold.
The point of RBC's downgrade was all the stuff that doesn't get sold.
From Bloomberg:
Shares of EBay Inc. fell 8.2 percent after the largest Internet auctioneer was downgraded by RBC Capital Markets analyst George Sutton on concerns about inventory-liquidation sales.
EBay shares fell $4.69 to $52.81 at 4:01 p.m. in New York on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. It was the largest decline since Feb. 19, when it fell 9.4 percent.
Several companies that have used EBay to liquidate goods found there weren't as many buyers as they wanted, limiting the prices paid and number of items sold, Sutton wrote in a research report. He downgraded the stock to ``underperform'' from ``sector perform,'' noting some companies may seek other sites such as Amazon.com Inc. or Yahoo! Inc. to sell excess inventory.
Storefronts, or rented pages on which EBay sellers can list all of their available items, also haven't generated the traffic some users expected, Sutton wrote. EBay's pending acquisition of PayPal Inc., an electronic-payment service, could be risky because sellers may switch to competitors, he said. Sutton, who does not personally own EBay shares, has covered the company since April 2000.
EBay last week debuted a category page to make it easier for buyers of large lots to find items. The page links to lists of office supplies, toys, telephones and other items available in bulk. The San Jose, California-based company, which also holds auctions of collectibles, cars, tickets, real estate and other items, had 49.7 million users at the end of the second quarter |
