Wall Street Folly

Well naturally, like everyone else, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is taking some major stock market lumps.  Here's what the charts look like:

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Tags: 13F, 13F Charts, Alwaleed, Apple, Apple Computer, Citigroup, Disney, Eastman Kodak, Ebay, Hedge Fund Chart study, Hewlett Packard, investments, Kindom Holdings, Motorola, News Corp, Priceline, Procter & Gamble, Saks, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Time Warner

A Bear Stearns holiday card signed by indicted former hedge fund manager Ralph Cioffi fetched $102.50 on Ebay in an auction that ended on 6/28…..

Tags: Bear Stearns, Ebay

That’s more than three times last year’s record auction haul of $650,100!  This year’s winner was Chinese hedge fund manager Zhao Danyang, manager of Pureheart China Growth Investment fund.  His winning bid was a whopping $2,110,100. 

Buffett has conducted annual auctions benefiting the Glide Foundation for the past nine years.  The first three, not on Ebay, brought in $18-$25K a piece. Starting in 2003, the auctions were listed on Ebay, with Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn paying $250K for lunch with Buffett.  The bids have mostly escalated higher ever since culminating in this year’s humongous record.

Buffett Has $2.1 Million Lunch Date With Hedge-Fund Manager – Bloomberg

Tags: Ebay, Philanthropy

It’s that time of year again for what’s be come an annual event.  Warren Buffett is auctioning off another lunch on Ebay that will benefit the Glide Foundation. The winner can bring up to seven friends to dine with him at New York’s Smith and Wollensky at a mutually agreed upon date.  Current bidding stands at $77,100 and it closes Friday evening (6/27) at 10PM eastern time.

Last year’s winning bidder, Mohnish Pabrai, who runs Pabrai Investment Funds and is an avid Buffett disciple, paid $650,100 to dine with his idol.  He had bid for years before being successful.

Warren Buffett Power Lunch to Benefit Glide Foundation – Ebay

Update: As it turns out, today is the day that last year’s winner is collecting on his winning bid.  Warren Buffett is at Smith and Wollensky’s for lunch with Mohnish Pabrai, who will be interviewed on CNBC at 4:30 to talk about the meeting.

Tags: Ebay, Hedge funds, Philanthropy

When Ebay acquired Skype we thought that they grossly overpaid when they bought it for $3.1 billion.  Don’t get us wrong, we love Skype and were one of the early beta users of it.  But we were always skeptical of Ebay’s plans to try to make Skype a major part of their auction platform.  Then they wrote it down by $1.4 billion, and we laughed.  Now they’re thinking about selling it altogether if they can’t make it work for them by the end of the year.  Go figure.  LOL. 

Ebay will consider selling off its Skype
internet phone subsidiary at the end of this year if it fails to find ways to
use the fast-growing service to support its core e-commerce business, according
to the company’s chief executive.

The comments from John Donahoe, who took
over at the end of last month, are the most direct indication yet that Ebay is
thinking of scrapping the ill-starred acquisition. It paid $3.1bn, but wrote
down the value of the business by $1.4bn last year after concluding it would not
match earlier hopes.

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Tags: Ebay

After bidding for the past several years, fund manager and avid Warren Buffett disciple Mohnish Pabrai finally won the prized opportunity to have lunch with his idol.  He was an early bidder for last year’s auction, bidding as  much as $502,300.  However, he wasn’t the winner.  Yongping Duan, 45, a California investor was the last bidder standing, ponying up $620,100.  In 2005 Pabrai bid 300,000 and 202,000 in 2004, all falling short.  He told the Orange County Register in 2005 that "Eventually, I’ll win."

This year his prediction came true.  Pabrai, who runs Irvine, California based Pabrai Investment Funds, was finally victorious paying $650,100 and setting a new record for the now annual Lunch with Buffett charity auction which ended on Friday evening….

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Tags: Ebay

It’s that time  of year again for what’s become an annual event since 2000 — Warren Buffett is auctioning off a Power lunch on Ebay  with proceeds donated to the Glide Foundation.   The opening bid was $25,000 and the action ends on June 29.  The winner gets to bring up to seven of his/her friends to dine with Buffett at Smith & Wollensky.  Last year’s winner was Yongping Duan who forked over $620K for The Oracle of Omaha’s pearls of wisdom.

Tags: Ebay, Philanthropy

Shell hedge fund for sale: If you’re in the market to own your very own hedge fund, one can be had for as little as $70K….

Could it be the carcass they call Amaranth?…..

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Tags: Ebay, Hedge funds

First Ebay’s much touted plans for China crashed and burned with Ebay for all intents and purposes acknowledging defeat by announcing that it would close its Chinese auction site — retreating to a joint venture with Tom Online instead.  Now word comes that its much ballyhooed Ebay Express may not be faring all that well either:

EBay is trying to woo online shoppers with its new eBay Express Web site. But it’s been a tough sell. This is bad news for eBay, which has made eBay Express a pillar of its holiday-shopping efforts.

Jonathan Garriss, executive director of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance, estimates eBay Express accounts for less than 1% of sales for the group’s more than 1,000 members. And while eBay’s main auction site attracted more consumer visits than any other online retailer in November, eBay Express was at No. 87 on the list of top shopping and classified sites, according to research firm Hitwise Pty. Ltd.

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Tags: Ebay

Meg has egg on her face: As was widely expected, Ebay is finally throwing in the towel on its money losing Chinese auction site that Meg Whitman once touted as the company’s greatest expected growth vehicle.  They’ve been trounced in the Chinese market by Yahoo partner Taobao. Instead, it will partner with Tom Online in a new joint venture:

Ebay’s expansion dreams in China appeared to be in tatters on Monday night after the internet auction site was set to close its operation in the country and become the junior partner in a new joint venture, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ebay plans to pull back from the Chinese market and shutter its website, while announcing as early as Tuesday that it will partner with the online portal Tom Online, the person said.

There were no plans to eliminate any jobs in China, they added. The decision was a strategic one aimed at strengthening its position in the region and was not an exit.

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Tags: Ebay

Warren Buffett is making charity news again.  This time, he’ll be auctioning off his 2001 Lincoln Town Car –complete with the license plate that says "THRIFTY" — in a charity auction on Ebay that will start on September 12 and run for 10 days.  Bidding starts at $25K…

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Tags: Ebay

It’s been long known that traffic on Ebay comes to a grinding halt during certain events.  American Idol is one of them.  Apparently World Cup Soccer is another.  Ebay disclosed on it’s earnings conference call that each time a game started, its traffic dropped….

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Tags: Ebay

Yongping Duan, a 45 year old California investor and former consumer electronics company owner (who"became a young hero of business in China") is the proud winner of Ebay’s auction for Lunch with Warren Buffett.  Identified on Ebay as "fastisslow", he beat out a Taipai businessman named Rocky Liang whose Ebay name is "magicyourlife".  After reading one of Buffett’s books Duan said "I mostly want to thank him” for the advice."…

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Tags: Ebay

Going, going, GONE!  Despite a last minute flurry of bids by "magicyourlife" who entered the bidding on the last day and made his/her last bid with 33 seconds to go, Warren Buffett’s Ebay auction lunch was sold to "fastisslow" for $620,100, the highest price yet for what has become an annual event.   This year’s winning bid decimated last year’s winner of $350,100.  "fastisslow" and 7 friends will get to lunch with Mr. Buffett at Smith & Wollensky.  Proceeds from the auction will go to The Glide Foundation in San Francisco, that helps the poor and homeless.

Here’s how the bidding went:

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Tags: Ebay

We took a look at the Warren Buffett charity lunch offering on Ebay to see if the price had budged, and it’s now up to $502,400 with "fastisslow" as the current high bidder.   He topped "mpabrai" who had also upped his bid earlier today to $502,300.  Bidding ends Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, whenever you get high profile items for sale, there are always clinger auctions that pop up that try to take advantage of the traffic.  One such auction is "Warren Buffett Power Lunch : signed by artist" billed as an original caricature of Warren Buffett (pictured).  The only problem, at least in our humble opinion, is that it looks nothing like Mr. B.  For those who think it does, it’s being offered with a price starting at $9.99 before S/H….

Tags: Ebay

Bidding is underway for the annual Warren Buffett charity lunch being auctioned off on Ebay.  Starting at $50k, the current high bid at $455,100 has already topped last year’s $351,000 not even a full day into the auction.  Final bids are due on June 29.

Let’s do lunch: Warren Buffett to launch another charity auction on Ebay – Wall Street Folly

How does Warren Buffett prepare for his annual charity auction lunch? – Wall Street Folly

Tags: Ebay

"They say it’s all-you-can-eat," says Mr. Buffett, 75 years old, who works out three mornings a week with a personal trainer but is well-known for his faithful patronage of Gorat’s, a steakhouse in Omaha.

"I don’t eat for a week ahead of time," he adds.

A Steak With Mr. Buffett Will Cost You a Bundle – Wall Street Journal

Tags: Ebay

In what’s become an annual tradition since 2000, Warren Buffett will be auctioning off another lunch on Ebay in late June.  Proceeds will be donated to The Glide Foundation.  The winner will join Mr. Buffett for lunch at Smith & Wollensky in New York, and gets to bring up to seven friends along.  Last year’s auction brought in $351,000.  Reuters

Tags: Ebay

The competition in China, where Ebay expects much of its future growth, appears to be heating up even more.  It’s being reported that Ebay is ending transaction fees on its Eachnet auction site, which might at least in part explain why Ebay’s guidance was somewhat softer than expected. 

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Tags: Ebay

Ebay’s Chinese auction site Eachnet must be feeling the pinch from its largest competitor in that market, Taobao.com.  Ebay said that it is eliminating monthly fees for stores that its sellers open, for which it had previously charged from 35 to 500 yuan per month (roughly $4.34 to $62).  Taobao had announced in October that it would charge no fees until at least 2008.  Ebay will still be charging listing fees and final value fees when items are sold.

Ebay was also forced to reduce listing fees in May bowing to pressure from Taobao.

According to China View, at the end of October, Ebay China had more than 10,000 stores on its site.  Taobao currently has around 250.000.

Ebay China clicks off charges for shop setups – China View

Tags: Ebay