[the 'stache]

No need to get defensive, Peter. Not all the companies I listed fell by the wayside because of unethical business practices, or technological advancements.

Ebay is biting many of the hands that have made it the largest online auction site in the world. And eventually, either that, or a competitor, is going to cause the relative monopoly they hold to slip. I don't know when it will happen, but it will. And it won't require some technology innovation. If Bill Gates paid somebody millions to develop a competing site offering the identical services that Ebay currently does, that could really hurt Ebay. If all users (not just sellers) were required to display an accurate feedback score, if they undercut Ebay's fee structures, and didn't virtually require payment be handled by Paypal, they could make a huge splash. Ebay would either have to make changes, or they'd go the way of the dodo bird. And invariably, at some point in the future, somebody with money, and a good deal of business acumen, is going to spot the opportunity, and create that alternative.

Am I going to short their stock to prove my point? No. I happen to think trading on margin is dumb, and I have no need to engage in riskier option trades. Therefore, I don't have margin approval on my account. And without margin approval, I can't short stocks. But even if I could, I wouldn't. Short selling goes against everything I believe in as a broker. It is making money off of a company's downturn, and I choose not to make money off of other people's suffering.