Reporting as Promised.......Online Pharmacy Sales......
Stock research dd can be fun sometimes, idly surfing around saying "wunnerfitz this, wunnerwhos that"....
Have you noticed some up-and coming sectors being STEPPED ON lately?
Internet Telephony for one. I suffered for a year watching VOCLF behaving all funny; then finally got enough experience/gumption to just bail from it at an almost break-even and what a relief. Being patient with a stock is one thing. Frustrated and puzzled is another.
You'd think I'd of learned my lesson. NOT.
I recently bought some TLTG (teltran.com)at 1.20, (all excited about it?) right before it opened it's Portal... then the site opened and it popped some so I got some more at 2.77. Big mistake. Now just LOOK at that pretty new penny Internet Portal! They even got Internet Telephony on it, news, make it your homepage, shopping, it works great, all kinds of stuff. Looks better than Geocities did early this year. So why is it back at 1.50 today, trading all goofy with nothing but one after another volume buys and stock goes down, all that funny stuff? Who knows, but I sold that block at a loss when I grokked on the bad luck with anything to do with Internet Telephony, and couldn't stand the way it traded, like there's something funny going on. Usually I would have much more patience to hold and hold and hold, but not this time. I'm trying not to watch it everyday of course, because I've got everything I need, I'm an artist, I dont look back... Really, I heaved a sigh of relief when I sold it, it drove me crazy with the weird way it acted. I wonder if the Big Phone Companies have anything to do with it, squashing small IP Companies taking their long distance revenues til they're ready to deploy it, rather than just MM's on the OTC playing their famous games.
Anyway, I'm wondering if Online Prescription Sales will be another and Next upcoming web battle to get out of the way of; or if it will be profitable to invest in it at startup. Now's The Time Of Startup. My spyglass was on the wunnerfitz of the issue this morning, and here's my trail.....
drugemporium.com - (DEMP at 7 on Nasdaq right now) has been selling & shipping online prescription medicine for a couple of months now. No forums, no news, they've just been quietly doing it.
The BIG excitement today is drugstore.com (no ticker, a private Company, phone 425-881-5131) who just made an agreement with aol and yhoo to go on their sites (headline in aol PF blurbs today if its still on there)...like it's the Coming Introduction of Buying Online Prescriptions TA-DA!!!!!!! That site is under construction.
And then there's soma.com - another privately held company already selling & shipping online prescriptions...phone number is 206-256-1511 (their address is a suite in Seattle)and who ever heard of them either?
I'm thinking of buying just a few shares of that Drug Emporium DEMP at 7; (The First Online Pharmacy "they say"); the ytd high was 9 at the announcement; can't find any threads on it, just text search comments here and there saying that it's price movement is frustrating. It's already DOING it, the Co. has actual stores & earnings, (earnings down this quarter with revenues a tad up) just to see where it goes. Looks like a good buyout candidate; especially as they just acquired a very small chain of drugstores. But News on DEMP Corporate FAQs on its website downplays the Internet sales site okayed in 49 states and operational now. Wonder what gives?
As if this wasn't enough....there's a stock PMOR (Pharmor Corp.)(http://www.pharmor.com) that's being alternately raved & complained about on its tread re: It's The Next Challenger to Amazon vs. It's A No-Good because of the strange way it's share price moves relative to what would be expected from the action. To me it looks like a big zero with (ho-hum) big possibilities (that's probably what will make it the winner)but what do I know...as my take on early Amazon was "Who wants to buy books on the Internet when the point of the web is to no longer have use for books? DUH". PMOR's website sells vitamins, and when I called them at 425-881-5131 they said drugstore.com is a competitor of theirs and is not a part of their company; although drugstore.com is mentioned alongside PMOR on some threads and in a news article I saw just as though it's the same entity.
They also said that they have plans to market medicines by prescription in the future but no target date.
On the drugemporium.com site, by the way, it's not just refills and pickups. The doctor can either mail the prescription to them, or the customer provides drugemporium with the doctor's phone number. It looks easy.
This whole thing is playing real funny, and it WILL be big, IMHO -
the trophies will go to those who catch the eye of the market with it. The Bigs sure aren't going to want these newbie interlopers to steal their thunder, just like the Phone Companies don't like 'em. On the Walgreens (WAG) thread the investors are worrying WAG may be left in the dust of the wake of this Drugstore.com announcement with those Big-Name Internet Affiliates. Then of course the mantra is that WMT (WalMart) and MRK (Merck-Medco) are supposed to be The Coming Big for Online Pharmacies. But WMT is at 80+ a share, MRK is about 80 after a split this week, WAG is at 30+ after a recent split, DEMP is at 7, Soma.com and Pharmacy.com are privately held, and then there's still Rite Aid and Longs and Target and CVS and quite a few others to look at. And as for MCNS at 6 1/2 (Mediconsult on GNET, I have a few shares up 30% from my basis at a holding level) it's the next logical move and of course I hope they do it but who knows. AARP has shipped pharmaceuticals from prescriptions for years and right now they're in the process of transferring information from their old system to a new system (one of my Old Folks told me) and internet was mentioned. But don't know who they'll be working with.
IMHO the Online Pharmacies will be initially competitive and then become diluted quickly; unless The Bigs have something up a sleeve like Lobbying for new complex compliance codes to existing federal and state laws, that on top of new laws, specialized monitoring Boards and Agencies, prohibitively costly insurance, and interstate licenses with big fees and deposits for sales taxes that would exclude the smaller players. (LOL giggle: wouldn't you??!!)
Whatever Will Happen, It's Happening. I'm not buying any shares today.
909 wishes to my pals,
Joanie |
