So I am a little tired of eBay stock being listed as a buy. What?? If you bought it on July 6th, you have lost almost 5 bucks a share. I get that it might be a tempting buy because some think it is undervalued and it may be but before you do – here are some takeaways.
Full disclosure — I own ZERO ebay stock but I am an ebay seller and I have been struggling the last few months due to the tech glitches and downtime — and so have a lot of sellers to the point of some leaving — so there you have that!
Here are what I see the issues with eBay:
- eBay have an identity crisis. They don’t know who they are. They strive to be Amazon yet they have ZERO logistics, they own NO inventory and their whole model is completely different. eBay have a FABULOUS model — a place to sell new or used stuff with an extremely low “entrance fee”. You don’t need to have any capital or a “business” You can literally be a mom selling your crap from your garage or stuff you found when you cleaned out your parents house or your kids old toys.
- eBay focus on the wrong thing. Don’t worry about how sellers package stuff and try to micromanage every little thing. That is what feedback is for. Sellers will learn how buyers like things or they will suffer the feedback slam. eBay don’t need to design boxes (or sell them to sellers at double what it costs to buy other boxes) eBay don’t need to worry about guaranteed delivery (this is a plan that is going to cost them a ton at the holidays and great — then maybe they will learn — because despite sellers telling them no, eBay continues to ram that down the throats of seller because they think they know your business better than you do.
- eBay have CRAP customer service. How can a small company like William Sonoma have home based customer service in the USA and how can even the IRS have good customer service yet eBay have long waits, poorly trained people and sometimes it can be such a frustrating experience that you want to stab pins in your eyes.
- eBay fail to block bad buyers. And I don’t mean people who have a little spat with a seller or return something. I am talking about the straight up fraudsters who use other names to work around block lists, who claim all products they receive are INAD and people who steal credit cards to buy stuff. If you do get them stopping a fraud, it is DAYS after the “deadline” to ship your item so the seller is boned regardless.
- eBay is PLAGUED by their inability or disinterest in BETA TESTING. They just roll crap out in any fashion at any time they think is good (like 4th quarter should probably have no fiddling with it but they rolled out new crap last fall like they have no experience)
- Their VP literally had to be told in a Q & A that they had tech issues and that they never apologize for them. Of course, this was not a live Q & A because they know better than to expose themselves to a pack of angry sellers so the questions were pre-screened 2 weeks in advance (lol- sorry I find that funny and sad – 2 weeks to decide on what you want to answer in your Q & A is more BS than a politician in a town meeting with planted questions) And then they issued a CANNED apology. So ya, this goes to the “we don’t care” mentality that rules eBay.
Let’s remember this is a company that has been around for YEARS. They are not a new startup. Most of these things they should know better so all you can deduce is that they DO NOT CARE and why would I want to invest in a company regardless of the fundamentals if THEY DO NOT CARE. So while some stock dudes say it is good based on the fundamentals, I personally would stay away until they fix some of these things.
just my thoughts — feel free to comment me with your own thoughts and ideas on eBay !