PayPal Report Shows Troubling Signs for eBay

by: Denny

I think the problem is off shore sellers on e-bay for sellers sales declines. I found a couple items that I actually made a few bucks on after all the fees taxes etc. Like $20.00. Then All of a sudden they weren't selling anymore? I had a look and offshore sellers picked up on it and flooded E-bay with similar items. They also decided $3.00 was a great profit and that was the end of those sales. I guess e-bay likes the smaller final value fees and false advertising I see on the offshore listings? Denny

by: Lightning

@Toolguy
Sorry, toolguy, I was just trying to clear up the difference between inventory Turn Rate and Listing turnover rate.  I wasn't taking a shot - most of us would love to have your results of selling quickly half of what you list.  And Turn Rate is just a metric.  Different businesses have established acceptable Turn Rates, so you can compare yours to the norm for that type of business.  Then it might tell you that you need to improve it, usually by being more selective in your purchasing, killing off items that take up space and take a long time to turn over.  

I know you have carved out a nice niche business in your aviation related parts and tools, and stockpiled a lot of goods at dirt cheap prices.  Another very good attribute.  The Turn Rate thing is mostly for retailers and manufacturers who have recurring lines of product to order, restock, and sell again.  

by: CanBrit

Really when it comes to selling, if you have the right product, the right site, location, etc, the right price, your items will sell. For many on eBay, they have the first and the last. Good pricing, good product, but a site that is dogging them down to death. Not everyone can get out. I know for many seniors who started down this path with eBay, have become so comfortable with what they know that anything else is just too much of a stretch. They don't want change.

So they reduce their prices and reduce their prices, but the buyers aren't there as much and so many other sellers are doing the same thing. The market gets glutted with good items at terrible prices through desperation.

I wish I saw a way forward but I just can't right now. Even someone buying eBay.,,,,good grief, who would want to take that on?

by: ebayout

@CanBrit
I'm a bit of an optimist on new ebay management, given the proper changes.
1st off, ebay is a cash cow with no dividends. Definite positive.
They're losing sellers with no apparent plan to replace. Definite negative.
So...what if...there were a 9% selling fee (or even a grauated fee for higher priced items) and NO shipping fee, and that reality was somehow communicated to prospective/existing sellers?
And...what if...they concentrated on SELLER good will, not buyer good wiil?
Also...what if...they ignored Wall St. and didn't cook the books for a couple of quarters?
I know...I know...my dreams are now as big as Wenig's nightmares.

by: Bill

The Johnson Fistel, LLP investigation was announced on 10-21 and probably had been going on for a while before hand.
Is that why the earnings call was delayed?

On the balance sheet for Q2 they list $5.1 Billion as "goodwill" and they list shareholder equity at $7.1 Billion so in reality shareholder equity is only $2 Billion in "cash" value. With almost 1 billion shares outstanding the actual cash value if the company was liquidated is $2.00.
How is this a good company to invest in?

eBay = Dead Man Walking

by: toolguy

@Bill

It's not and neither is any other company!

Wall street is STUPID, that's why they have all the money. . .(I'm being VERY sarcastic)

eBay doesn't have many assets except the fact they make money or at least they used to. . . .

by: ebayout

Thanks, Bill.

I've mentioned elsewhere that their assets are a hologram.
"Goodwill" sure falls in there somewhere

by: angryllama

Tuesday Oct 23 the stock Gapped DOWN again on the open.  This is all without any OFFICIAL filing of Third Quarter Financials.
When a company takes this sort of dive essentially ONLY on the comments from an InterTwined Company ( PayPal ) it just does not seem like Smooth Sailing for The C-Level Boys.
I think that this Dive makes reports that this Summer's EBAY OPEN was done on the Cheap seem even more ominous harbinger of the future.
Folks who Jumped Ship 2 weeks ago are Sitting the Cat-Bird Seat and those who saw this coming and SOLD SHORT are even happier campers.

by: Mark4

John Donahue to David Wenig  "Good Luck Davie, you can't screw up ebay anymore than I did!!"  David Wenig to John Donahue "Hold my beer Johnny Ho"  all while making a 14 million dollar plus salary......

by: ebayout

$5B in "goodwill"...have stockholders, current and potential, finally realized that...
...there's no "there" there?

Yeah..."Fill Your Cart with Color"......RED!

by: CanBrit

I wonder what difference it would have made if they eBay announced their third quarter before PayPal did. I'm of the opinion that they were not even close to being aware that PayPal could drop a bomb on them. Very short sighted on their part.

Wall Street certainly is paying attention now. A little too late for we sellers, though. After a good week long run, my store is now without light.

by: NoMoreEbay

I'm selling a popular North Face backpack fairly cheap. Not a single view in 3 days with barely any views on the rest of my stuff.

ebay's plan is to bleed sellers with homemade formulas, kangaroo decisions and interference at every single turn instead of improving their infrastructure, focusing on healing the decade long abuses perpetuated by more abuses and reversing the endless changes that has and is damaging their entire platform.

PayPal is not only right, they probably underestimated just how bad ebay is. I haven't bought new inventory in almost 6 months and don't plan to. As far as this seller is concerned, the well has gone dry and it's over.

by: eBay Shill Buster

https://www.investopedia.com/news/ebay-street-becomes-bearish-ahead-ea
rnings/?utm_campaign=quote-nasdaq&utm_source=nasdaq&utm_medium=referral&utm_term=fb-capture&utm_content=/#ec rss-nasdaq

 Amazon lawsuit is no excuse for Devin's terrible management of eBay.

by: eBay Shill Buster

https://goo.gl/ZtXKeR

 The prior link may be truncated by the CMS here, above is a short link to the same story on Wall Street downgrades of eBay and shows why eBay is losing sales to more aggressive ecommerce players.

by: eBay Shill Buster

David please fix the links and consolidate the above posts please and delete this one when you do.  

by: iheartjacksparrow

@eBay Shill Buster - Your shortened link comes up as a 404. I did find an article on Yahoo Finance that stated eBay is now "neutral" from being a "buy." The article also states that the 3rd Quarter financials will obviously have bad news.

On another site there was this: "Merrill Lynch said eBay appears to be growing more in line with retail than e-commerce, and the firm now assumes that the company is contemplating cost cutting or announcing other broader strategic actions."

by: eBay Shill Buster

Working link, like I said, the CMS here truncates links and text a lot of times, you have to add extra spaces to get it right sometimes, no idea why that happens here.

    https://www.investopedia.com/news/ebay-street-becomes-bearish-ahead-ea

rnings/?utm_campaign=quote-nasdaq&utm_source=nasdaq&utm_medium=referral&utm_term=fb-capture&utm_content=/#ec

by: eBay Shill Buster

That link did not paste right either, that is why I am asking David to fix this, just cut and paste the first link into your browser without the   rss-nasdaq

and it will work, hope David can fix these ongoing problems with the CMS

by: ebayout

search "ebay stock"...then click "yahoo finance"...it'll be within the first couple results.

That'll bring up about 10 negative articles, including the just announced investigation of ebay stock reporting.
Methinks Oct 30th will be a LOT scarier for ebay than Oct 31st.

by: David Steiner

Long links stretch out the pages, so breaks are automatically inserted. Try putting the URL in web site URL in your post preview and point to it in the body of your comment