On March 19th 2007, I wrote an article concerning what looked like a widening, almost epidemic scam that was affecting me personally on eBay. In doing so, I pointed out that this could be a recipe for disaster that could financially problematic for eBay as their reputation and trust could be at stake. (Article). At that time, the stock was hovering around $32.

Fast forward to April 19th when the eBay earnings came out. The numbers looked solid and there was a good number of investors looking to ride an up swell, which never materialized. In fact, an article in Blogging Stocks was explaining how there was a great deal of potential that should be soon seen. The author stated: “We blogged earlier in the year that eBay was due to take-off again, which is proving correct. Stay with this stock and if you don’t own it, I’d consider getting into it.”

Looking at the chart above, we can see that while the report from eBay was rather positive, investors did not feel that it was good enough. A drop in listings in the US and Germany markets were to blame as was eBay’s focus on higher priced items was not panning out at the time.

Since then, there has been a precipitous drop in the share price of eBay, down over 10% since the earnings release. Even Rosa, who was the #3 commenter on the Blogging Stocks article should realize that even in the face of a bull market condition that eBay shares are having some trouble. (Rosa pointed out that laughing at other people’s ideas is a fun pastime, but she incorrectly timed the comment)

No harm, no foul. eBay is now approaching an important support level of $30. Since March 2006, it has seen that price as “hard support” four times and from a technical standpoint, if it breaches it, the stock could see $27.50 as its next support level. The biggest concern is that eBay has been sliding in a BULL market. If investor sentiment changes for the markets, eBay could move down quickly.