stubhub

In light of earnings, is eBay operating smarter?

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

eBay's first-quarter results were better than expected, and the company argued that it is operating with more discipline and smarter.

For the quarter ended March 31 (statement), the company reported net income of $357.1 million, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of $2.02 billion, down $171.6 million from a year ago due to poor performance in its marketplaces unit. On a non-GAAP basis, eBay reported first-quarter earnings of $499.9 million, or 39 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 33 cents a … Read more

eBay selling Madoff's Mets tickets ($2,900, anyone?)

It seems that Bernie Madoff, the Fonzi of the Ponzi, had little use for technology for much of his life. He may not have even bothered making any online trades, for example.

However, he (or rather the trustees of whatever there is left of his swindling) has resorted to eBay to sell a couple of rather fine tickets to the New York Mets' opening day game.

These tickets--conveniently situated near the Mets dugout--are not the actual tickets that might have been graced with Madoff's behind. His trustees exchanged his chosen tickets for these in a deal with the Mets. … Read more

Ticket sites blamed for insane NFL prices

Today in New York, my driver was not happy. He is a New York Giants fan. The new NFL season begins tomorrow, with the Giants hosting the Washington Redskins. Despite being on the waiting list for season tickets since 1984, Tony has given up hope of ever buying a ticket.

"The Giants are moving to a new stadium in 2010," he told me, only one eye on the Lincoln Tunnel crawl. "And they're charging people $20,000 for the privilege of buying season tickets at the new stadium."

The $20,000, Tony explained, doesn't … Read more

Finding cheap tickets with Oyaka

Forgoing the recently purchased StubHub, there are very few ways to find good Web deals on event tickets without doing some legwork or dealing with cluttered interfaces. Oyaka, which launched last year, draws from several ticket vendors to help you find the best deal on seats. In the same way that Kayak pulls plane tickets, Oyaka grabs all the data, then gives you various tools to sort through it without inundating you with text. You can narrow the results by price, seat location, and number of tickets to quickly find what you're looking for.

Unlike other ticket services such … Read more