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Summary: Fine book documenting the first years of eBay
Review: In its few years of operation, eBay has revolutionized buying and selling. The consumer with the spare ticket to a ballgame or the unwanted vase used to have to sell it to a pro for pennies on the dollar, now he can have the full benefit of the resale. The story of how it came to be is Adam Cohen's book.From the early days as AuctionWatch, Cohen brings us inside the corporation, introducing to the players. To the road trip for the IPO, where the myth of the "Pez dispensers" got started. To the growing pains, to today. But it is more than the executives that we meet. We meet the members of the eBay community, buyers who add to their collections, sellers who use it as their way to reach the consumer, those who manage the message boards, or who liason with major sellers. We understand the revolution that eBay has caused. Items almost unobtainable are found with a simple search on eBay. Yet we also meet those whom eBay have harmed. Those who picked up items at flea markets and estate sales and turned them over to dealers to their mutual profit. We may not have all that much sympathy for them--since their living was in getting people to sell their stuff for less than it was worth--but their case is presented to us. One fault is that eBay's problems are softpeddled a bit. We never do find out who was responsible for such problems as the great outages, and the other problems eBay has experienced. Such soft soaping is the price you pay for insider access, I guess. It will add to your understanding of what eBay hath wrought.
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Summary: A G-R-E-A-T read for anybody starting a new business
Review: There are so many little motivational stories in this book about how eBAY almost WASN'T. The concept (as we all now know) was perfect - the fact that eBAY became the company it is today was based on 80% LUCK and 20% MANAGEMENT, which has now changed to a more respectable 50-50. If you sell on eBAY - BUY THIS BOOK! If you buy on eBAY - BUY THIS BOOK! If you're a VC - BUY THIS BOOK! If you're starting a net related business - BUT THIS BOOK!
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Summary: Well written, interesting, I liked it a lot!
Review: I really liked enjoyed this book. It's written in a style that is very easy to read, with lots of interesting little stories about ebay people and events sprinkled throughout the history of ebay, which is the main focus of the book. I sell on ebay, but was never part of the "community" that plays such an important part of ebay, and of this book, and was not aware of the personalities involved. It was a great way for me to come up to speed on the history of ebay. I was surprised to see some really bad reviews here, which is why I took the time to write this good one. I have no affiliation with the author or the publisher - I just thought it was a great book!
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Summary: written by Cohen the fan
Review: Cohen became such a fan of ebay that he glossed over his opportunity to provide real substance about subjects (including the big category of selling cars on ebay when you can't kick the tires of big ticket purchase). Nice character profiles and everyone looks good. Happy story, happy ending, fast read, and Cohen would probably love a position with the company. Photos of principles would have been nice since this is really a people profile as much as anything.
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Summary: Well written and informative.
Review: The first two thirds of Cohen's book are terrific. His telling the story of Ebay's founding and subsequent growth work very well. The urban myths are debunked ( i.e., the PEZ story) and the facts gain their own momentum while we see the company evolve. The writing style is concise and informative. Then -about the time of Ebay's IPO- he seems to lose his chronological compass. The information, while still interesting and well written, takes more of the form of a series of anecdotes than a history. This minor flaw is no big deal really. I still very much enjoyed the book. Thanks to Cohen for his research and a very unusual story (when you think about it in hindsight) : a dot com start up that actually worked.
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Summary: Who knew a "business book" could be a page turner?
Review: I'm not a business person, but I love this book. I picked it up after reading American Pharoah, Cohen's remarkable biography of Richard Daley. I'm so glad I did. This important story is chock-full of juicy details delivered in a nimble, funny and thoroughly readable style. It's really a terrific read.
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Summary: A great tale - well written
Review: This is a captivating book. A well written account of one of the only true internet successes, and a great antidote to the many stories of the internet's spectacular failures. The story that emerges, that so much of eBay's growth is due to Omidyar's world-view - less about greed and more about people and community - show that sometimes nice guys do finish first.
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Summary: More Than a Business Book
Review: A history of Ebay from the days when sellers, by way of payment, would send the home office envelopes with quarters in them to its current exalted status as a virtual marketplace with billions of dollars in transactions. But more than a corporate history, "The Perfect Store" introduces the reader to the online village that has grown up around this virtual trading center. Like every village, Ebay City has its clever capitalists and feuding neighbors, its lovable eccentrics and insufferable contrarians, its would-be pornographers and its guardians of purity. I think of the man who realized that by providing detailed descriptions of his old Playboys he would be able to charge a lot more for his copies, or the woman who makes an impressive living by selling the packaging materials Ebay vendors need, or the unreformed flea market enthusiast who bemoans what Ebay has done to her favorite activity, or the mother trying hard to keep memorabilia about her late son off the site. Each of them, and many more, has their say in "Perfect Store," which, to me, at times reads like a transcript of the off-beat NPR show "This American Life." A book about business -- Cohen details how Ebay unlike nearly every other online company at each turn made the exact right decision about how to make money on the Internet -- but also a book about Business, that is, about people and their things, how they get them and how they get rid of them.
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Summary: Not just an internet story, a great book about a great idea
Review: In the aftermath of the burst of the internet bubble, if you have been asking yourself what was it all about, Adam Cohen's book is a must read. The Perfect Store elucidates, in a delightful story, that before it was about revenue multiples and investment bankers getting rich, it was about iconoclasts who wanted to bring communication, trading, commerce and ideas to anyone across the globe who had a computer. The Perfect Store is a lively book which brings all the charisma of its characters to its pages. Cohen explains how EBAY, which stuck to its vision, did not forget its customer base and was not sidetracked by financial schemes and engineering, came out the winner.
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Summary: The Perfect Internet Story
Review: Just finished reading Adam Cohen's "The Perfect Store." What was most interesting to me -- and possibly to the author as well -- were the vignettes about the hard core collectors and assorted characters (and boy were they characters) who formed the early base of eBay's users. This is great Americana. (Often Americana kitsch.) Cohen writes vividly and with obvious affection of the users and colorful staff. It's a terrific narrative and is also a page-turning text for what to do and not to do in starting an Internet company and being successful at e-commerce. EBay is fascinating and Cohen makes it all the more so by chronicling not just the company, but the community(ies) that make eBay successful and unique. This book should appeal to a general readership, those interested in dot.com's, eBay afficionados and anyone who likes a good yarn about an American success story gone global without losing its quirks. It's really well-written as well.
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