Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: fedhead who wrote (50482)	4/15/1999 3:55:00 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

> Would you call EBay a Ponzi scheme ? No, I would call Ebay a moderately successful online auctioning business. It makes no more profit than a large dry-cleaning operation in any major city. I would, however, call its stock price a ponzi scheme. Or more correctly, a pyramid scheme. A company's stock price should be equivalent to their earnings potential over a reasonable period of time. (10 years, 20 years, etc) Subtracting the amount of interest an equivalent investment in government bonds would gain, of course. Once the net companies established a trend of complete disconnection from underlying value, the pyramid starts growing. Like the previous poster said, if AOL is overvalued at 150 billion, what's to stop it from going to 20 trillion? After all, the share price represents nothing whatsoever about the company's business revenue or profit. Let's all just keep buying the stock, and if we all promise to only sell a share after it has gone up 5 points, then we'll all be rich as bill gates in short order. Right? Isn't that how capitalism works? >They are essentially destroying the newspaper classified ad biz which is >highly profitable for newspapers. How much is that worth ? Well, we all know that Amazon's market cap is more than the total of all books sold in the US per year. (And about 15 times the annual profit on all those books) I'll take a guess and bet that total value of all classified advertising in papers is less than Ebay's market cap. But in a mania, why bother with such mundane concerns? Furby's to the moon!

To: fedhead who wrote (50482)	4/15/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: re3	Respond to of 164684

On line auctioning reminds me of home shopping...It was a novelty for awhile, but didn't really change business all that much...Certainly that boxer sells a lot of grills, etc, but its not all that significant...I always thought ebay was good if you collect something unique, a place for collectors to exchange stuff...but even at the ipo of 18 a share, I thought it was overpriced...You also have competition, amzn, yahoo auctions and bid.com in canada, plus southeby's... this may not be a short candidate for reasons outlined in various posts, but I certainly would never buy this unless you look at it as a day trade and take your lumps if it goes down...I personally feel this one is the most ridiculous of all the big name net stocks...more so than amzn, by a country mile even... Howard