eBay: Bear Stearns Schmoozes With Happy Powersellers

After dining with a bunch of eBay powersellers, Bear Stearns analyst Bob Peck is now more optimistic about the company's ability to re-accelerate listings growth and revenue per listing.  Peck believes "changes eBay has implemented / is implementing will ultimately drive more buyer activity, which should improve seller economics, and hence a re-acceleration in listings."  He notes, however, that this will remain a faith-based opinion until at least mid-summer.

JJ: Bob says sellers get higher ASPs and ROI at AMZN and GOOG but they sell on EBAY because of the huge volume, which gives them purchasing power in their overall inventory.  I think EBAY needs to drive a better buying experience to maintain the volume.  The EBAY demo using ADBE Apollo was a much better user interface and could result in a better experience.

HB: I own the stock and would therefore be happy if Bob were right, but the above logic sounds pretty flimsy.  eBay used to have no competition.  Now it has a lot of it.  Following on Jason's "interface" comments, eBay's still feels clunky and amateurish--almost as though the company is trying to maintain the informality and fun of its Pez-dispenser days while actually selling Mercedeses.  I'd still be in favor of an eBay-Amazon merger (Amazon's strengths match up well with eBay's weaknesses), but I gather Meg and Jeff hate each other.