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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (13602)	8/15/1998 10:12:00 AM
From: llamaphlegm	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164685

Yet more good news. 0 barriers to entry and below we have yet another threat of substitution (rocket books et al and this one which cuts out both publisher and middleman retailer, at least the competing shop bots just cut out the retailer!) Jeff Bezos, I wish you much luck competing with nscp, msn, lcos, scit, yhoo, aol, seek, zap, planetretail, et al in the shop bot industry, since it's pretty clear that you will never see profits in the on line book and music (sure i'll toss in video) retailing industry. lp xlibris.com "It's the powerful new publishing service from Xlibris that makes it easy to publish for thousands less than any other option available." Xlibris is a publishing service in which the costs of publication are low enough for everyone to become their own publisher. We apply technology to make it possible for authors to easily publish their books. We handle the publishing processes, manufacture and sell books, and pay royalties. At Xlibris, the author is the publisher. Authors retain all their rights and are always in control of their work. Last and most important, books published at Xlibris remain in print forever. Until the author decides otherwise, their book will be permanently available for sale. Xlibris sells professionally-manufactured hardback books with text printed on acid-free, book-weight, literary quality paper, with dust covers printed in full color. The books are available for sale from Xlibris' Internet bookstore, as well as by phone, fax and mail order. Soon, Xlibris books will also be distributed nationally through bookstore order desks. Authors pay a one-time fee of $450 to publish their books. As we receive orders, we manufacture books and deliver them by mail. Authors earn a royalty of 50% of the gross profit from each book sold, or about $4.00 per copy. Xlibris uses the Internet and our proprietary digital publishing systems to make publishing more efficient than ever before. Books published at Xlibris are stored digitally. No book is ever printed until a reader orders it. When we receive an order for a book, we produce and deliver one copy specifically for the person who ordered it using direct printing technology. The benefits of this one small step are extraordinary. There is no enormous investment to make in printing at Xlibris --- ever. Since our inventory is completely electronic, and since we can manufacture books on-demand in quantities as low as a single copy, no book ever has to go out of print.

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (13602)	8/15/1998 10:29:00 AM
From: IceShark	Respond to of 164685

Glenn, There are shares to short everywhere. I can find them at three brokerage houses out of three brokerage houses but do not need more shares. I think a bunch of shares are hitting the market that we don't know about yet. I guess it doesn't really matter trying to figure out how many - the fact that they are available to short signals the supply/demand dynamic has changed. I also wonder how many AMZN employees have entered into bank loan deals, pledging their shares/selling forward, etc. It can be a pretty slick way to, in effect, cash out while making it confusing for observers to figure out what is going on on a timely basis. These deals are a real growth product for banks. As far as Datek goes, I wouldn't be accepting any job offers from those boys. -g- Regards, IS

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (13602)	8/15/1998 2:51:00 PM
From: zax	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164685

Datek appears to be in real trouble from what I have read I would beg to differ, and have speculated an explanation for the events surrounding this whole situation which at least makes sense in my mind. I think the investigations with Datek are because Datek has managed to upset some of the big boys with their farsighted and quick success, having tapped into a key new market made available though emerging technologies (SSL). I also believe that Datek had short shares when no one else did, because of their relationship with TMF. While Jeff Fisher was pumping the stock, Datek, though their business relationship with TMF (all TMF stories go directly to Datek newsfeed, so when one clicks on 'stock news' for any particular issue, the TMF stories quite often appear) was getting lots of buy orders on AMZN from naive newbie investors. Thus as they held a large number of newly purchased shares, they had shares available to loan for shorting when few others did. There is no TMF-Datek "conspiracy" in my mind, the situation was just that of a naive, possibly self serving, bean-counter turned journalist having made a mistake. I also think TMFJeff is showing evidence of having quickly learned some important and valuable lessons from this one. He has since dramatically changed his stance on the stock, although not quite from bull to bear, he is now describing AMZN as a "learning experience". Also, I think we are seeing a great new age dawning. An age of direct market participation by average Americans, fluid capital flow to deserving, undervalued and visionary enterprises, and the collapse of the big money big brother know it all market manipulating investment houses. But again this is all quite speculative and just MHOs. I also believe that we are all actively participating in unfolding events of historical importance. Someone pointed out on TMF their thought that AMZN will reappear in 2002 as a footnote in an undergraduate economic textbook on stock 'crazes' which occurred during the 'early years' of the internet stock frenzy. It will be a very small footnote, right below tulips in holland, RCA in the 30's, and Biotechs in the 70's. I am highly sympathetic to this line of view. Good luck to one and all! -- Zaxbowow :) P.S. I have no personal evidence of new shares having come available to short. My MSDW broker has been checking every day, and I've been checking every day on Datek, to no avail. Who do you know of that is getting these cherished and rare commodities? ;)