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

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (31613)	12/29/1998 4:10:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

AMZN down almost 20 to 131. Preview for tomorrow's coming attraction? :)

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (31613)	12/29/1998 4:26:00 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 164684

>>With absolutely zero barriers to entry, as nearly every major search engine now has their own free auction site. Forget "zero barriers to entry"! It's not a viable argument. An established franchise is a formidable barrier to entry. Otherwise you could claim the cola, or cereal, or million other goods and services have zero barriers, too.

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (31613)	12/29/1998 5:32:00 PM
From: Webfoot	Respond to of 164684

Restricted float worked for YHOO, elevating another "no assets" site to over $26 billion MV. Difference is that EBAY and AMZN have business models that YHOO only aspires to ... a cut of every transaction. YHOO managed to get valued strictly based on a soft, indirect ad revenue model and a lot of well orchestrated marketing of their inflated page view and so-called "registered user" numbers. Meanwhile they are scrambling to get their acts together and build some real technology that will actually permit them to get in the middle of auction and other ecommerce transactions to get their cut. They don't offer a "free" auction site - it is paid for in the only way YHOO's limited technology can manage - through ads and placement charges. I've seen complaints on this thread about EBAY pulling their aggregate auction numbers off their site on 12/24 -- tell me, where have you seen YHOO post numbers on how much traffic they direct to a site? (consider AAGP - latest beneficiary of a press release that they paid up their $250 / month to be on Yahoo's shopping site ... and boom, their stock surges ... but how much good will one link of some 3,500 other really do them?) So if the sector remains in the Tulip fields, EBAY certainly has a shot at further growth, as does AMZN. Both have the strength of brand that YHOO does in their SPECIFIC CATEGORIES... YHOO just has more categories covered for the moment. AMZN and EBAY work well for the most part, and top line revenues are a direct function of rapidly growing user transactions, not paying advertisers and merchants as with YHOO. EBAY will grow because it is accessible -- individuals and small businesses can get a product / service message to a huge audience without paying up huge dollars as with AOL, YHOO and other portals. RE the tight float, keep your eyes open for the effects of the additional insider stock YHOO is dumping into the public hands soon (check their SEC filings for details) as a bellweather to the possible dangers of additional EBAY shares coming on line. Just remember Tiny Tim -- you have to "Tiptoe" thru the Tulips.

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (31613)	12/30/1998 12:13:00 AM
From: Victor Lazlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

I must begrudgingly admit that there are barriers to successful (and sustained) entry into ebay's market. My wife collects tea caddies. A tea caddy is an antique box which was used to store tea, usually with a mixing bowl in the middle of the inside of the box. As tea was quite expensive in the old days, the tea caddies have locks on them to prevent the household help from taking the tea. Well anyway, most people do not even know what a tea caddy is, and they are very hard to locate even among established antique dealers. There is a web site I visit from time to time that specializes in tea caddies, but I consider the prices to be about 150% to 250% too high. So, then I decide to try ebay for the first time ever, and I see about seven tea caddies on active auction. This to me is unbelievable. I place bids on a couple and get rejected immediately, then I get wise to how the whole Dutch auction thing works, and I get a bit better, albeit higher priced, at it. Simultaneusly, I check three other online auction sites, and none of them has even one decent tea caddy available. So what do i do? i consumate a deal on ebay and get a fairly good caddy and the dealer who I never met, and never even talked to on the phone, delivers on time prior to Christmas, and I am happy, and my wife cannot believe I found a tea caddy for her for Christmas. So in the future where will I go to get another unique item should the need arise? Btw, i think that ebay stock is way overpriced. Victor