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

To: Pareto who wrote (56952)	5/16/1999 11:28:00 PM
From: Randy Ellingson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

could you make a guess what the total real cost to them was for this auction? Is the whole process 100% automatic? Are they involved in the delivery? Do they have to finance for some days the transaction or much better, do they get some days the float of the money? It's very difficult to say how much a typical auction costs Amazon; of course once they have the automation set up and working, costs are pretty low (as evidenced by eBay's margins). Largest continuing costs (is there a proper economic term for this?) would probably come from customer service, ensuring that the buyers and sellers have their questions properly answered. The effort/cost would go into improved help resources, people answering emails, and better web site design. These are all issues Amazon is currently concentrating on, I expect. Nice painting by the way, next time I may be one of the bidders, do I get a discount? Thanks (realizing I'm only the artist's son). Sorry, no insider bidding ;-). Randy