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$16.73 0.77 (4.82%)
10/10/2008 4:00 PM

eBay, Inc. (EBAY)

CAPS Rating:
***

The Company's purpose is to pioneer new communities around the world, built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. It operates three primary business segments, Marketplaces, Payments and Communications.

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Avatar TMFBreakerDave (99.12) Submitted: 4/13/06 11:03 AM : Outperform Start Price: $38.52 EBAY Score: -25.39

This always-expensive-looking stock has always beaten the market for me via the long term. When I first bought in 1999, my shares doubled within 6 months. By 2002, post-Nasdaq-crash, I had given it all back, having returned to my cost basis. From that point on, EBAY stock has been a winner and now judged over the 7 years has almost tripled and is well ahead of a flat market. I think that's the way you have to approach stocks like these, sometimes. You're paying up in the short term for something that looks overvalued, may sell off (will, badly, sometimes), but if you hold an excellent industry leader like EBAY, as profitable as it is, you are rewarded. You beat the market. Just watch.

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Avatar riyazH (98.03) Submitted: 6/02/07 10:57 PM

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Not sure what you are trying to bring across, when you say it has performed extremely well in the past. Its easy to point out if a stock has performed well in the past. Just look at the chart.

Question is, why do you feel this is a long term winner? I am sure you have positive points you can share, but here are the negatives -
1) While network effect of eBay is strong, Google could potentially come up with something better and cripple eBay's network over a surprisingly short period (1-2 years, I can bet).
2) Too many smaller eBay sellers who do business on eBay complain about their high listing fees, and double hits on eBay sales commissions and PayPal payment processing fees. If eBay now decides to lower the fees, the sales will suffer, but if eBay decides to keep the fees high, their reputation will continue to suffer. Either way, Google can and should exploit this weakness, by starting a free service for next 1 year and then phase-in listing fees, but definitely not make the same mistakes eBay made.

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