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 : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (4541)	5/20/1998 2:25:00 AM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

mark, i would if i knew it. let's take an easy example. say shipping is $1 (kind of cheap for a book) and the book is $9. 10% of amzn's revs are related to postage, obviously, buying a book through the net is MUCH, MUCH less efficient from a postage standpoint alone. shipping book by book is more expensive than shipping 10k, 20k or 50k books all at once. amzn has some efficiency advantages (or at least had) and some inefficiency disadvantages. we know what amzn can do with little or no competition. this is a new era. every advantage amzn had is now a non issue. the search bots will become more widely publicized. i have no doubt amzn can sell many books well into the future. i do doubt their ability to profit. bks is financing the internet, at least in part, though cash generated in their store business. amzn is just financing. they may be somewhat successful. the stock price guarantees success - anything short of rapid success may end up punishing many people. everything is about valuation and valuation only. corollas are great cars but i won't pay $90k for one.

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (4541)	5/20/1998 7:19:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Funny, how it's that i had to pay for the shipping cost when i order books from Amzn. I'll check into that to see if your right about those large shipping cost. I don't know what there shipping expense ratio is to sales. Mark, They hide the shipping revenues in their revenue stream. One does not know the percentage. They do the same by placing their operational costs in their marketing expense. The point is they are hiding a lot of material facts from the investor. Most firms have an expense item of freight out and a revenue for shipping and handling. Then one can tell. Glenn