Wondering about eBay
You gotta wonder about eBay. The stock was down about 20% last week amid concerns about slowing growth. Still a hugely profitable and growing company, but also still very richly valued. But the financials are not what makes me wonder.
What I think is odd are the listing that have started to appear on eBay for what can only kindly be called intangibles. Examples range from toasted cheese sandwiches to a cane with a ghost of a grandfather in it to a "happy midwest childhood."
Taking the last of these as an example, the "Happy Midwest Childhood Age 5 to 18 Teddy Bear Included" went for $267 with 44 bids. This kind of success leads to me-too listings for more bogus stuff. Are some or all the bids the result of shilling? Who can say.
But there's a fundamental problem with eBay's hands-off business model. If their growth metrics are based on statistics that include this kind of thing, then the metrics are themselves bogus. Ultimately eBay will need to do a better job of policing their listings, because a listing service per se doesn't add that much value.
Posted by Harold Davis at January 23, 2005 09:35 AM
