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Technology Stocks : eBay - Superb Internet Business Model -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jenne who wrote (2641)	4/14/1999 8:46:00 PM
From: Doug Fowler	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7772

As was stated in the article, Amazon has done little to help bidders distinguish between sellers who are businesses and sellers who are individuals. eBay has empowered the individual sellers greatly, giving them as much of an advantage as the bigger guys typically get. The eBay rating system goes a VERY long way in helping determine who is legitimate and who isn't. One thing eBay COULD do right now, if it so chose, would be to place a special marker beside a listing for anyone whose rating is 100 or higher (and with 1 or fewer negative feedbacks). This would be a kind of "Seal of Approval", and let someone know before taking the time to look at an item whether it was from a legitimate seller. I would certainly just as soon buy from someone with a nice healthy feedback rating as from a "company". And let's not forget one of the biggest allures and drivers of online auctions: price. People expect to get great deals on eBay, and generally they do get great deals. A company simply has more overhead, and is likely to be striving for a higher price than a "little guy" who operates out of his home. I doubt sincerely that eBay is going to be left behind in any important trends that develop in this space. Let's not forget that with their recent secondary offering, they have more than $700M in cash. If someone starts making significant progress, eBay will likely buy them out.

To: Jenne who wrote (2641)	4/14/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: Jing Qian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7772

I have said repeatedly before. Business-to-consumer auction will be more lucrative and easier to handle than the current eBay model, person to person auctions. The advantage is as follows: 1) Revenues from businesses are constant and predictable. 2) Consumers tend to trust business more than a individual with only a email address. So goods offered by business can be sold much faster. 3) Businesses are normally established, so less problem of fraud. 4) Simply all businesses are dying to find a place like eBay to sell their goods. As soon as eBay goes out to woo them, they will come. So I am starting to get frustrated, why on earth is EBAY not seeing this obvious things to do? Is it difficult to do that? Not at all, simply enhance their person-to-person site a little bit, they will get a business site. I hope eBay is not stupid enough to let AMZN steal all the opportunities. I am still long on eBay, but lately I am getting frustrated by their obvious lack of vision.