Great eBay investment!

[markdoane]

Buying a RV on eBay? Save your money and invest in eBay stock.

A $10,000 investment in eBay four years ago would be worth $84,000 today.

What is the most used search term on eBay?

[flyfisher]

Originally Posted by markdoane

Buying a RV on eBay? Save your money and invest in eBay stock.

A $10,000 investment in eBay four years ago would be worth $84,000 today.

What is the most used search term on eBay?

Don -

Even better, you could have bought Ebay stock in late 1998 for about $3/share and its price is about $118/share now, with 3 stock splits in between. If you would have invested a little more than $10,000 then, today you'd have enough to buy the whole Airstream manufacturing plant.

I think I saw on Ebay a week ago that the most used search term was "Mary Kay" -- I have no earthly idea what all those people were looking for!

John

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by flyfisher

Don -

I think I saw on Ebay a week ago that the most used search term was "Mary Kay" -- I have no earthly idea what all those people were looking for!

John

On CNN today, they reported the most used search term on eBay was 'RV'.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/30/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

Ebay was $2.42 on October 8, 1998. $10,000 invested would be worth $487,000 today. You could certainly buy most of the inventory at the plant for that.

[ALANSD]

so without playing broker---you think it still a good buy at its present price?

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by ALANSD

so without playing broker---you think it still a good buy at its present price?

I've learned to trust my advisor. He's not buying more, and is selling some of what I had.

[Davydd]

Hindsight is great. I've got a lot of what ifs in my closet. The biggest one for me was when AOL IPOed in 1992 at $10 per share. Since I was under contract with them at the time I had an opportunity to get in. I had never purchased stock before outside of 401(k)s so didn't know much about investing. I was going to invest $1,000. My brother the stock broker said IPOs always went down so I should wait to get in. So I took his advice. In two days it was up to $28 and I got the cold feet. I continued to track that theoretical $1,000 investment through the dot.com boom and it peaked at about $880,000 before its rapid decline in 2000.

Most likely had I got in I would have gotten out way before that peak so it is only conjecture and dreams. Or I would have ridden through the dot.com bust and saw those dreams evaporate.

I didn't get in on Google either.

[ALANSD]

yes, I guess I should be happy with my mutual funds preformance lately, they have regained a lot of the lost ground from the big sink a couple of years ago. I also got a lot smarter and better diversified. At 117 a share Ebay may not be a good shot right now.

Then again I have done ok selling stuff on there.

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Most likely had I got in I would have gotten out way before that peak so it is only conjecture and dreams. Or I would have ridden through the dot.com bust and saw those dreams evaporate.

I never buy IPO, and never try to ride a stock to the very top. I'm happy with the 50% in the middle.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by markdoane

I never buy IPO, and never try to ride a stock to the very top. I'm happy with the 50% in the middle.

I've never participated in an IPO either. That AOL one was the only one I had an opportunity to do. As great as hindsight is I wish I had listened to my foresight better. I was into this online stuff back in 1984 and on the ground floor with AOL when it had less than 100 employees. It came and went and passed me by. I write this as Conan O'brien celebrates the Central Time Zone New Year. Happy New Year!

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I write this as Conan O'brien celebrates the Central Time Zone New Year. Happy New Year!

David,

Did you see the fireworks? I can send a bottle rocket your way.

Hey, I know you're an Apple freak. I bought AAPL in late august and its up 110%. Hurray!

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by markdoane

David,

Did you see the fireworks? I can send a bottle rocket your way.

Hey, I know you're an Apple freak. I bought AAPL in late august and its up 110%. Hurray!

I hear the noise. I'm down in a hole so don't see much. In fact the noise is still going on after 50 minutes.

Interestingly, I just sold my Apple stock to close out the year that I got in on at $12.30/share. It is around $64 now. I wish I had a lot of it but I didn't. I just don't think the it will stay up after Christmas with its high PE and historical distrust by the investment community, but it felt like I was giving up a pet. It was the last stock I owned with a PE over 21 except for a couple of speculative stocks I have in alternative energy and veggie food.

I've been on a low PE, value and dividend course and it seems to be paying off. I've got my modest portfolio shifted over and I no longer follow the crowd that seems to buy high and sell low on the flashy, newsy stocks. Think Krispy Kreme, Sirius, etc. and then think about March 2000 dot.com bust. But what do I know? I passed on Starbucks and eBay when I had a positive feeling about them. I even visited Starbucks' HQ 5 years ago to design and plan and had inside information about their Target Store plans.

I'm looking at foreign investments and commodities this coming year. I'm also researching and moving into mutual funds since they seem to do better than I do if you can pick ones with positive track records. I just wish I had more money to play this investment game. It's exciting. I think I will buy a Powerball ticket tomorrow and hope.