The value of eBay is that it’s making money and projecting rather steady earnings growth going forward.
I’ll probably be using eBay tomorrow AM to buy MORE coupons. I know of a coupon where if you buy it for just 75 cents, it is the same as putting 5 bucks in your pocket or a net of $4.25. And it is one of those MAGIC coupons you can use on anything.
Actually, most of Ebay’s growth is thanks to Paypal. That’s truly the main business plan of a Silicon Valley company: make a boatload of money off of one idea, then essentially become a private equity investor. To the extent that you recognize good ideas and invest in them (like Google did with YouTube), you’ll be successful; to the extent you can’t, your growth rate slows down until even your first good idea gets replaced by something better (a la Yahoo).