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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (28997)	6/13/1998 1:44:00 PM
From: Ed Beers	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Michael, I have been looking at shorting/putting Amazon but my broker can't find any shares to short and the put premiums look sky high. Any ideas on how to short Amazon? Are some brokers more likely to succeed than others? If I succeed shorting, is there an unreasonable risk that I will be forced to return them before I'm ready because the owner wants them back? Do any of the Amazon puts look attractive at the current price? Ed

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (28997)	6/13/1998 7:34:00 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

mike, cds aren't high margin at bmg or columbia house. 13 cds for $20 or so. you go amzn.con ;-) book prices will drop as competition heats up. amzn IS NOT the low cost seller or even close.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (28997)	6/16/1998 1:52:00 AM
From: S. maltophilia	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

MB Don't know about CD margins, but book margin is considerably less than 50-70%. From the American Booksellers Association site: bookweb.org <<For the purpose of initial planning of both inventory costs and planning ratios, the prospective bookseller should use a basic 40 percent discount from selling price. Remember to add estimated freight costs, which booksellers frequently pay. Discounts on nontrade titles, such as texts or scholarly reference titles, are usually smaller, 20 percent being the most common with special agency plans allowing up to 33 percent. Such titles are traditionally referred to as "short" discount titles, although there are also "net pricing" plans. These state only a set price to the bookseller without reference to a discount from a suggested list price.>> Whan I sold books in the late 70's our small chain got up to 47% (before shipping--which was about 6%-books are heavy) from some of the major publishers, but usually closer to 40-42%. The big chains can do slightly better; how much better is going to make the ABA's and their adversaries' lawyers a lot of money. This was all back in the stone age when books were sold at list price, period. Now you have to factor in AMZN and others' 20% discount. At least BKS & BGP sell coffee to the posers; I'm not sure how AMZN plans to make a profit. Sorry to be so late responding. We were at my wife's daughter's farm in downstate Illinois, far from any ISP. Last time we were there on a Monday was Oct. 27, 1997<G>.