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

To: Al Chechatka who wrote (52541)	4/24/1999 2:30:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>Let me give you a lesson on margins, one that I learned from my own experiences. So what? Since when did margins or profits or even ethical business practices have ANYTHING to do with internet stocks? Buddy, this is a casino, or a lottery, depending on your viewpoint. It ceased to have anything to do with business nearly 2 years ago. It makes no difference to Amazon/yahoo/ebay if their profit margins are 100% or negative 150%. Their stocks are controlled by day traders with no concept of either. It simply does not matter. :) Just as loans were made by S&L officers without question of financial soundness, internet stocks are being bought without any regard to anything. In both cases, the party won't end until the public wakes up and realizes they've just transferred billions of dollars into the hands of a few people- and those few people always end up in prison. Mobs tend to get angry that way. :)

To: Al Chechatka who wrote (52541)	4/24/1999 4:34:00 PM
From: Rob S.	Respond to of 164684

Good observations. Al, I'm afraid these words of wisdom from practical business experience will be lost on the Internet crazed investor for quite a while yet. They "get" the experience of the Internet but just don't "get" the nature of free business competition. The common wisdom of the day is: "Yea, that might of been the case prior to the Internet and Amazon, but THEY are different and don't hold to the laws of business" -as practiced since some caveman traded a sharp rock for some fresh caught game.

To: Al Chechatka who wrote (52541)	4/24/1999 7:32:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Respond to of 164684

My point, auctions are commodities. I thought that too, until I put myself in the position of an individual with something to sell. If you have anything worthwhile you aren't going to sell it on the #2 auction site, the margin just isn't worth the potential price differential you might get with more bidders. And this situation feeds on itself. There might be a real race between amzn and ebay but every other auction site is going to have to focus on a niche or close up shop is my guess. In the non-internet world there are sometimes 2 competing auction houses and that seems to work... there are 2 business liquidation auction houses out here for example and in the art world there is Sotheby's and Christies, but 2 seems to be the limit, fwiw.

To: Al Chechatka who wrote (52541)	4/24/1999 7:37:00 PM
From: Tom Kearney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

re: eBay margins - Maybe, but I use eBay [to buy - I've never sold there, yet] because they have a much larger selection of stuff I want to buy then anyone else, and it takes a while to scan through it all, even in my area of interest. I'm looking for relatively rare, items. I don't look anywhere else, because of the time involved. I did check Amazon out once, and they had far fewer items, almost none that I was interested in. So, for a seller, more people are going to see his auction on eBay, That's where he'll post. He [usually] has unique items, so can't auction elsewhere at the same time. Lower charges don't make up for no one bidding on his items. Likewise, I always go to Amazon for books. I don't have time to browse the others, too. Maybe if the net gets much faster, But, for now, I am not convinced that it is a commodity business. Regards, Tom