.The W S.J. and E Bay.

[CHABSENTIA]

Thought people would be interested as there have been a few articles in the W.S.J. last week about E Bay.

 

Meg Whitman brought in Donahue several years beck as she knew him as they had worked together for Bain.

 

Meg had considered leaving E Bay when Michael Eisner left Disney for the CEO position but changed her mind when she felt that the Board of Directors were linning up for Iger.

 

Donahue skipped over two more Senior E Bay Executives and reported directly to Meg Whitman after she changed her mind about seeking the Disney CEO position.

 

Meg Whitman claims that she was the one who decifed to leave as she felt that any CEO should not sepend more than a decade at any one spot.

 

The W.S.J. also stated that because of Ebay Meg Whitman is worth 1.4 Billion dollars. It did not break the 1.4 Billion down.

 

EBay up until a few years ago had triple digit increases in earnings and last year was only 30%. The decision had been made several weeks ago to raise the Fees for the Sellers. It was deliberately decided to announce the New feees art the same time as the Departure of Meg.The reason given by Insiders at EBAY was that EBay figured that the fees would be better received under a new CEO so it was planned in advance for the annoucement etc.

 

This is the trend. Banks that have lost a great deal of Money due to their decisions regarding the Sub Prime mess are raising their various fees such as the ones Non account Holders use to access their ATMS and fees for Overdrafts and other items.

 

Also according to the W.S.J the new fees are entirely the Idea of Donahue and he stated that " the highest fees would come about on the completed Sales of Sellers and Gallery Fees would be reduced so that Sellers could add more Photos for the Buyers to see etc. and so the Sellers were getting a great Deal.

 

As James Carson has stated "E BAY is not for every one".

 

 

[cpm9ball]

Do you think that the increase in fees was intended to try and recover some of the perks Whitman may have "cashed in" upon leaving?

 

Chris

[thebeav]

If indeed she's worth 1.4 mega large, she didn't have to cash in (but I'm not sure Chris).

I think this is just a move by 'the only game in town', simply because they could....

Perhaps it's just a matter of time before they're not the only game, but for the time being......

 

Paul

[BULLY]

I think this is just a move by 'the only game in town', simply because they could....

Perhaps it's just a matter of time before they're not the only game, but for the time being......

 

Someone else posted info about an auction site, selling U.S. coins anyway, and it appears INTERESTING, with some more intense oversight by actual coin collectors, committees, and so forth.

 

Clearly, it is more limited in exposure, but, any start-ups will be. There is a blog there though and I saw some positive feedback from new users.

 

Has anyone else heard of it? The site is:

 

http://787900.web001.whp.server-hosting.com/home.aspx

 

ilikecoins.com

 

They are advertising new users register for free and pay NO SELLER FEES until March 1, 2008.

 

You can read more on their web site, but their fee structure seems pretty straightforward as follows:

 

The only fee paid to ilikecoins will be a flat percentage of the hammer price.

 

ilikecoins will ask for 4.5% for coins with a hammer price up to (and including) $1,000, 3.25% for coins with a hammer price between $1,000.01 and $4,999 and 2.0% for coins with a hammer price equal to or above $5,000. This fee is the sole responsibility of the seller.

 

So here's the question:

 

With all the dissatisfied sellers (at least if you believe the postings on eBay and even on these message boards), and the desire to go elsewhere, and the apparent lack of places to go, WHAT IF this turns out to be a viable place to go?

 

What if MORE OF US going there MAKES IT a more viable place to go?

 

For the record, I have no stake in this site, I've not used it before even. I just read about it from another posting on the message boards, then visited the site, explored it, and didn't hate it. Which got me to thinking: What would make a start up viable? If RELIABLE buyers and sellers used it!