Buy.com going the way of Etoys?

skeister

Junior Member
Nov 10, 2000
11
0
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looks like the x-mas season of 2000 might be remembered for the last one that offered real steals. another etailer looks to be hitting the ropes with serious layoffs. less competition means higher prices. will the days of free shipping, scandalous coupons, PMing be a thing of the past? light a candle for fond remembrance. See news.com story. link
 

frogster220

Senior member
Feb 9, 2001
261
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It will be a dark day if they close their doors.

I already miss their constant discount codes. they almost always have the lowest price and a great return policy.
 

BigSmooth

Lifer
Aug 18, 2000
10,484
12
81
I know you might consider this "hot-deal" related, but this is a discussion for Off Topic.

There are already some threads going on about this subject, such as this one.
 

Souka

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2000
4,728
1
76
They used to be a sweet place to get good honest deals.....lately, it's getting more of a pain.

Last two orders I placed didn't arrive as ordered, plus I recieved someone else's order (but had my address on it) a while back.

Oh well...its just a business.
 

bargingunner

Member
Dec 9, 2000
28
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i don't understand everyone's suprise. we cruise the net trying to find typo's and mistakes so that we can order 100 of an item at an almost for nothing price, plus receive a rebate on top of it. and then when the site doesn't honor our order, we belittle them and swear we will never shop there again. so all we are really seeing with the death of the dotcoms, is the fruits of our labor! haven't we been trying to kill them off all along.
 

Zwingle

Golden Member
Jan 1, 2001
1,925
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I agree to a point with you bargin....but....we were not trying to put the dotcoms out of business...we were taking advantage of their low prices and sometimes their mistakes....we may have inadvertently put them out of business, but they did have our business. There is too much competetion for dotcom companies, especially for pc hardware and software. Companies were stocking this stuff...the mistake was their own. The companies that don't carry inventory and operate on j.i.t. inventories will survive. Like Darwin law of survival of the fittest. Look at ow many office supply companies there are compared to 10 years ago, Omax, OD, Staples, Sav a lot, to name a few....as WalMart and Target fill in every corner around the US, some of the office supply companies will be losing more ground too. I don't think Circuit City will be around much longer either, they will end up like ComputerCity did, bought out by CompUSA is my guess. But, hey that's my opinion....I could be wrong.
 

rgwalt

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2000
7,393
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The whole dotcom industry was way over valued. There just isn't enough of a demand out there for the huge numbers of businesses that errupted to sell computer hardware and related stuff on-line. There will always be an on-line market for such gear, but e-tailers are realizing that their market isn't nearly as big as they had hoped. The super-sites will stay in business, like buy.com and egghead.com, but I'm not surprised other businesses are closing down. The big sites will still offer good deals, deals that you can't beat by shopping locally. However, I think the days of huge on-line savings are over (and have been over for awhile). Just my humble opinion.

Ryan :)
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
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Buy.com's model was flawed to begin with. They lose 105 on each item you buy, and make up the difference with ads. Since ads don't work (just ask all those free ISPs :) ), they're not getting all the revenue needed to make a profit. I expect the prices of all hardware to go up a LOT in the next few months due to the flaws in this business model.
 

Cyberian

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2000
9,999
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Did someone finally figure out that you can't stay in business too long when you lose $100 Million a year?
 

Zwingle

Golden Member
Jan 1, 2001
1,925
0
0
Ahhhh....I remember the days I used to make about $600-$800 a month just on click thru banners ads.....too bad thaose days are gone.....
 

ktchong

Member
Oct 14, 2000
111
0
0
>>Cyberian: Did someone finally figure out that you can't stay in business too long when you lose $100 Million a year?

And when investors finally wake up and realize that they have lost billions of dollars to all the stupid online business models that give away money and will never really earn a profit, investors are going to have less to invest and be less willing to invest, and the entire economy is going to suffer.

Come to think of it, we are sorta causing our next major economic recession or even depression. But hey, I'm not going to stop being cheap... ahem, I mean, saving money anytime soon!
 

HawkeyeNJ

Platinum Member
Feb 2, 2001
2,417
0
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But none of u notice that GREG HAWKINS CEO took his signture OFF of HOMEPAGE !!!!!!! Told the CSR I notice this .... did they talk up a storm ! Not to mention give me a PM on Amazon's (error) SB Live Platinum 5.1 for $99 bucks. Could not find anything for a buck .... so I said the heck with it I will pay the 5.40 shipping.
Guess it is get even time:D She was working nights. I caught her on her last day.