Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : eBay - Superb Internet Business Model -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (4189)	7/22/1999 6:29:00 AM
From: Ricky Rydell	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 7772

Anyone besides me ever notice that this board starts to fill with messages and a plethora of expert analysis only when the stock goes up?

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (4189)	7/22/1999 9:19:00 AM
From: mrknowitall	Respond to of 7772

Interesting data, J. C. - something that I've heard of but not seen articulated in that level of detail here. Two other factors that I think will have an impact on ebay's growth potential - the first being internet performance. I have noted before on other threads that two key technologies - networking and processor capability - seem to play a cyclical catch-up game with each other every so often. The bottleneck of network access is being addressed every day with the deployment of newer high-speed local-loop services and very high speed backbones. Of course, with that, we now will see site (server and switch) performance problems that will result in "forklift" upgrades to many sites that wish to keep up. This is great for other internet-backbone and host site product vendors, but, because the two technology areas are not on a parallel improvement track, the growing community of users aren't going to see their response times improve radically. The other factor is looming around the corner - taxes. Already a task force is making the case to make sure that congress doesn't extend the three year moratorium on sales taxes for internet transactions. It's an entirely bogus argument, but the city and state politician's are already posturing about how much they are supposedly losing in tax revenues and how it is unfair to local merchants - all the while knowing those local merchants are already engaged in e-commerce or about to be and that local transactions are already taxed. If they ever decide to stem their "losses" in on-line auctions, it could cripple ebay's growth rate. Imagine having to collect, report and pay "internet" sales taxes for your auctions. If you sell low-priced items, you've just blown your profit picture apart - the process costs you more than it's worth. From what I understand, the vast majority of ebay's auction items are under $25, meaning a tax on each transaction would be all but terminal for on-line auctions. Thanks for the informative post . . . Mr. K.