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Technology Stocks : OnSale Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scott who wrote (3539)	1/20/1999 9:16:00 PM
From: Don Wellington Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4903

I don't know why I keep coming back to this string. So much of the postings are non-sensical. OnSale has a combination of programs, both for "atcost" and the "auction". 1)If they are confident in the product category, OnSale purchases the goods outright, and puts it in their warehouse, and ships orders to the customer. The shipping and handling becomes their call, traditionally very reasonable and fair. 2)If OnSale believes a category is volatile or "maybe" in terms of their ability to sell it, they offer a consignment program to a vendor. The vendor can ship it into OnSale's distribution centers, specify the price offered or the starting bid, and OnSale processes the order,only paying for what sells. Again, the shipping and handling is OnSale's call. 3) OnSale offers a Fulfillment program. A Vendor can specify starting bid or Cost offered, and Onsale simply processes the orders.The vendor keeps inventory and ships. At the "auction", it is for a fee based on percentage of end bid price. I assume "atcost" will be a flat $10.00 fee to the vendor. The vendor sets the shipping and handling and Onsale never touches the goods. OnSale simply processes the orders to the Vendor, electronically (and very efficiently). The easiest way to determine who is doing what, is to look in the item shipping description. Somewhere it will say " Shipped by OnSale", or shipped by Vendor. The best model is "Fulfillment", but that has been a hard model for OnSale to sell to major brands. The other factor is, "What is Cost?" Price Waterhouse can verify that the "cost" paid by OnSale is $100.00. That's easy. But, what if OnSale is using a two or three-step vendor to acquire the goods offered? Then "cost" to Onsale could be at or higher than traditional retail. That's the OnSale merchant's job to police, and they are very good at it. Oh well, we will see. As it stands now, all companies I sold to buy OnSale; Microsoft, Geocities, and SBC Communications, have skyrocketed the last few days, and OnSale has dumped. We keep on trucking.