Marc Lore was made half a billionaire by Amazon, and he’s apparently declaring war on them. Here’s his pitch:

Like Costco (COST), Jet plans to make money on membership fees. Every other savings will be passed along to the buyer. And like EBay (EBAY) and the dominant Chinese e-commerce player, Alibaba.com (BABA), it will function primarily as a marketplace, allowing other merchants to compete to offer their wares to customers. But there’s a twist: Shoppers can squeeze out more savings if they can control the urge for instant gratification and let Jet figure out how to deliver the goods as economically as possible. For example, prices can drop when a shopper combines multiple orders into a single shipment or is willing to wait for a seller offering a more economical shipping option.

I’m a happy member of Amazon Prime. It’s the perfect storm for instant gratification. I also frequent eBay, though, when I am looking for something a little less interest, but with a touch less urgency.

The “wait for a better price” model appeals to me, as it is often how I use eBay. I often want something, but don’t need it right away. So I basically keep an eye on eBay once a week or so until the product hits a certain price point. Then I’ll buy it. Lately I’ve been waiting for a good Thinkpad T520/W520 for under $600. I wish there were a way to reverse the eBay model a bit, and instead of bidding price on something I want relatively now, I can simply put a price out there and wait for someone to list it at that price.


Category: Market

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3 Responses to I Want To Reverse eBay

  1. fillyjonk says:

    Interesting. I don’t think I’d choose to use it; I like the convenience of 2-day shipping that Amazon Prime gives.

    I live in the boonies and it’s a big effort to get to the nearest bookstore of any size (an hour’s round-trip away). In town, we have a paperback exchange (mostly romance and westerns) and a couple shelves of trade books in the campus bookstore.

    I admit irritation at the folks who go “Don’t buy from Amazon, they kill indie bookstores” What do those of us without an indie bookstore anywhere near us do? Not read? Not own books? Go to the Books A Million an hour away and beg them to order the new Brian Fagan book on prehistory for you? I always feel like I want to one-up them and “call” them on their “big-city privilege.”

  2. Trumwill says:

    I used to almost never shop at Walmart until I lived in a small city. You go with the options you have.

  3. fillyjonk says:

    Oh, yeah, don’t get me started on the folks who tell me not to shop at WalMart….

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