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Non-Tech : Sotheby's (BID) Auction House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Geoff who wrote (160)	1/26/1999 1:53:00 PM
From: John	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 236

Geoff, I agree completely with your post. I was particularly interested in your statement that eBay plans to authenticate items sold on its site. I had heard nothing about that, and IMO there is no way that they can hope to do that (in least in the case of antiques and collectibles) without engaging a panel of experts in each area to police the items that are offered for sale, which is (1) impossible because they will not have the opportunity to examine the items in most cases (and photos are often not enough), and (2) very expensive, probably prohibitively expensive for them. The big advantage that eBay offers is that its cost structure is low, so that they can charge very low commissions that attract sellers and permit the auctioning of low-priced items. If they move away from that and try to go head to head with Sotheby's by trying to match expertise, they lose that advantage, and that's also a war they'll never win. I did hear that eBay was going to be obtaining insurance, but I cannot believe that the policy will cover authenticity. I thought that it would cover creditworthiness. I thought it had something to do with their new validation service provided by Equifax. IMO, if Sotheby's does this right (and they seem to be doing just that), they will skim off the cream of the internet market and leave eBay with the lower end merchandise. To do that, however, Sotheby's must make the commission structure on its net auctions attractive. Commissions need not be as low as eBay, but they must be lower than Sotheby's normal structure. If they do that I think they'll be wildly successful. John

To: Geoff who wrote (160)	1/26/1999 3:19:00 PM
From: ratan lal	Respond to of 236

Geoff, enjoyed readin your analysis. Here is my take.... 3. Brand recognition - even if it is due to EBAY's stock price is still brand recognition and must not be diminished. Furthermore I know more about EBAY since they auction ordinary everyday items which i want or need whereas Sotheby's sell fine art for which the general public has no use. Sotheby's stock price before they announced their online venture was around 16. Its now 36 with a recent high of 42+. The change was due to online venture with the assumption of increased sales and low overhead. I thought the momentum would stay and bought at 40. Since then I haev realized that there needs to be some online activity and more news for BID to go upto its recent high and beyond. Meanwhile EBAY keeps going up 20 to 30 points a day while BID keeps going down. Long term I still have high hopes for BID. But execution of \online auction will dictate whether they go up or be buried in the anals of online history. ratan

To: Geoff who wrote (160)	1/27/1999 10:00:00 AM
From: Iceberg	Respond to of 236

Geoff, You pointed out some important differences between BID and EBAY. But it's the similarities that, IMO, are important to note. It's the similarities that shouldn't be ignored by Sotheby's investors. The mere fact that online auctioning is relatively new in the history of mankind is an important similarity between BID and EBAY. EBAY came in with relatively strong earnings and opened up about 80 points this morning. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that BID opened up about 2 points this morning also. I think there is a certain amount of linkage between the two companies by virtue of the fact that they are both involved with the relatively new venue of online auctioning. So I see no reason for BID investors to turn a blind eye to what happens to EBAY, even though there are very real and major differences between the two companies, as you eloquently pointed out. FWIW, that's my opinion. Thanks for yours. Ice