So finally, Amazon is making money

[YaSO]

So finally, Amazon is making money; well, they've been doing Ok recently, but apparently, this is the first time Amazon posts profit outside the holiday season.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml...39&section=news (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3661339&section=news)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100799,00.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/983258.asp?0cv=BB10&cp1=1

If you were to look into making some investment, would you be buying their stocks? I think they are very expensive; more expensive than they really should be, although I personally believe that Amazon will be a good profitable company in a long run.

[philipwhiteold]

I love to shop at Amazon. Huge media selection. I wouldn't buy stock in them because I probably can't afford it. I think they have a good strategy and are probably going to be arround for some time. If they do a stock split and the price is low enough I think it might might be a good investment.

[YaSO]

I wouldn't buy stock in them because I probably can't afford it.
Well, yeah, it's expensive, I know, but how about investing in Amazon through firms like http://www.sharebuilder.com/. I'm surprised that no has mentioned about ShareBuilder in this forum yet.

[philipwhiteold]

Well once we have 30,000 members and were on our own server then I'm sure no good business topic will be left untouched. :)

[YaSO]

I'm sure that you all heard/read about Amazon's new book search tool;

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/t...26-amazon_x.htm (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-10-26-amazon_x.htm)
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/story_Business....p?storyid=45712 (http://www.nwanews.com/adg/story_Business.php?storyid=45712)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/...7233149710.html (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/28/1067233149710.html)

This is really creating value for customers; there are many issues surrounding copy rights and I understand that, but to me, this is yet another good reason to invest in Amazon(in a long term) if I were to look to make some investment.

[philipwhiteold]

Yeah I read about that. I think you can seach for a book by any word in the book. That has to take some massive resources on their part but I'm sure it pays off and would definantly come in handy.

[YaSO]

Speaking of Amazon, Jeff Bezos recently gave a speech at Stanford and he stated "It's still Day One." He's saying that we have not seen anything yet; anything that the internet enables us to do. Pretty interesting speech and he makes pretty good argument referencing a historical fact. If anyone's interested, the link is here; http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/audiovideo.html.

[dpetersam]

I always liked their basic business model although the stock valuation model left a lot to be desired. I remember telling people some years ago that **if** Amazon was to immediately start making $1 billion a quarter, they would still be overvalued. (Mostly people with DCF arguments who hadn't thought it all the way through.)

I have purchased books through Amazon. It beats fighting traffic and taking time out of a busy schedule to go to a bricks and mortar store.