| Net auctioneer's profit jumps
EBay Inc., the world's largest online auction company, says its first-quarter profit soared 52 per cent after the company raised fees on items for sale and held more auctions outside the United States. Net income climbed to $377.2 million (U.S.), or 27 cents a share, from $248.3 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier, eBay said yesterday. Excluding some expenses, eBay earned 33 cents, three cents more than analysts estimated. Revenue increased 27 per cent to $1.77 billion as a weaker U.S. dollar and demand in western Europe boosted results internationally. Last year, eBay chief executive officer Meg Whitman more than doubled fees for merchants selling goods at fixed prices. A higher percentage of listings are now leading to sales. "They're still the gorilla," said Rachel Wakefield, portfolio manager for Coldstream Capital Management in Portland, Ore.
Big bucks on the other side of the coin
MUMBAI: You may have sometimes put your hands at the back of an old almirah and found an envelope that felt surprisingly heavy, or perhaps a tin that rattles. Opening it, you found coins: maybe really old ones—lumpy copper coins, ragged edged silver coins—or perhaps coins from other countries, ring-shaped or bimetallic, or Indian coins no longer in common circulation. You might have also found metal tokens or badges or medals, but mostly there'll be coins, no longer of any real value as currency, but which your father or grandfather could never quite bring themselves to discard them. Perhaps you won't have the same compunctions—though in fact it can be surprisingly hard to throw coins away, thanks to our superstitious tendency to link them to luck and prosperity. But assuming you do, and have ever wondered what happens to them, the answer is that they probably end up at the coin fair and auction organised in Mumbai every year by Todywalla's Auctions, India's leading auction house for coins, medals, tokens and paper money.
Escala's Bowers and Merena Division Sets Records with $7.2 Million ...
NEW YORK-(Business Wire)-April 11, 2007 - Escala Group (Pink Sheets:ESCL), a global collectibles company in stamps, coins, and art and antiques, today announced the aggregate sales results for its most recent auction conducted by Bowers and Merena Auctions of Irvine, California, part of Escala's Spectrum Numismatics division. As the official auction of the Baltimore Coin and Currency convention, the Bowers and Merena auction generated a total of $7,231,480 in winning bids in two days, March 22 and 23, 2007. .
eBay beats expectations, raises outlook
SAN FRANCISCO - Online auction leader eBay today reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street expectations and said its outlook for the rest of the year would be at the high end of analysts' predictions. Shares of eBay jumped as much as 6 per cent after the company posted a 52 per cent jump in net profit on a 27 per cent revenue rise, led by growth in its core auctions business and the rising prominence of international sales. "I would say it was a very strong quarter across the board," Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in an interview. "We at the top end of analysts' predictions, which ranged from US$1.27 ($1.72) to US$1.34, based on Reuters Estimates data. "Overall it was a good report card," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital.
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