Ebay newsprogram

Re: Ebay newsprogram

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Be sure and post a summary for those of us who don't do cable.

Pam

Sure

Jack Guzman from Maine

>

Summary

Jack Guzman from Maine

>The show was 90 min long and well done.Basically a history of the company and an inside look into the daily workings.Interviews with their CEO(who by the way is a woman).Problems with the system and how they're dealt with;including fraud,policing of daily auctions and bans on certain types of items. I was disappointed that there was no mention of sniping.They covered alot of ground but I can't think of anything else in particular worth mentioning.Sorry I can't give a better summary. Any questions?---Jack

Thanks, Jack

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>

Lotsa glitz

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>and focus on the business side of Ebay. Even so, how could they do 90 FULL MINUTES on Ebay and NEVER mention sniping????!!!!???? Maybe the producer should have bid on just one thing???

Re: Summary

Todd Hughes

>I think they did make a passing remark about services that will place a last min. bid for you.....I was really struck with just how BIG ebay is and how many people are on it and use it....and how much it is growing everyday,[Like millions of Chinese are on it now with thousands added daily!] Also how it has changed so many people lives.From the couple that lives out in the country and now makes a good living selling Videos out of a small building in the back yard to the collector that spent 2 1/2 million on it buying comic book stuff.One thing I was surprised to see was ebay sellers grouse about Ebay fee raises when I think the fees are so low esp. compared to live auctions and how well you can do selling on it.....Really is amazing how much how a seemingly simple idea like ebay has changed things and is hard to imagine how it will finaly end up....Todd

Todd, you don't know the half of it- long

Patrick Gibbons, Houston

>I'm in the gift industry and once sold a line for many years that was considered by many to be a collectible. Collectibles are a category in the industry that started out with Hummels, collector plates and the like and then, like cancer, grew to include things made expressly to be collected. The difference I am trying to convey is that originally collectibles were items, like Hummel figurines, that people liked and started buying them, then displaying them and finally forming clubs and organizations where they could talk about them and meet with others. Later, companies made products to sell as collectibles with artificial values. "Limited quantities" was a phrase bandied about much. "Heck, only 10,000 of these will be sold in North America." Beanie Babies, like tulips in an earlier century, rose to unbelievably high prices, sustained by the greater fool principle of economics. The bitter results this left in the pocket books of many caused a fallout with all collectibles. "What about ebay?" you ask. Collectible lines that did well on the primary market (at retail) were always the ones that did well on the secondary market, where consumers went to find those pieces they needed to fill out a collection or to sell a piece no longer needed. Ebay took out the inefficency in the secondary market. Without inefficency, prices were reduced greatly. Overnight, 10,000 pieces for North America went from being so few to way too many. In the gift industry today, collectibles are a dead issue. Now don't get me started about China.

Re: Todd, you don't know the half of it- long

Todd Hughes

>That may be true with those collectables but I think ebay is probably one of the most important factors that has seemed to have revitalised interst in Hand tools and in doing so raised thier prices. I think of course it has exposed millions of people to items that befor ebay they would not have had much chance to find, and as they are exposed to them they become consumers for even more as well as becoming more interested in what they bought....Todd