Comments on: Comments on 13080

Post number 13080

me3dia — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:20:50 -0800

eToys is back online. Wall Street Journal: "Before it shut down, eToys lost hundreds of millions of dollars. But much of that cash had been spent to build a brand that made eToys one of the best-known names in online retailing. KB Toys recognized the value of the brand, and this summer acquired the defunct company's assets for $14 million," and has since relaunched the site as a skin for their own store, but with the look and feel of the original etoys.com.

By: me3dia

me3dia — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:23:43 -0800

So I guess those hundreds of millions paid off -- just not for eToys. The first entry for UnFuckedCompany.com.

By: donkeyschlong

donkeyschlong — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:29:22 -0800

It's been back for a while now. They seem to have preserved the original site's functionality.

By: Carol Anne

Carol Anne — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:45:47 -0800

A Tale of Two eToys. What happens when an e-commerce giant takes on a group of Swiss cyber-artists in court? Internet chaos. Remember etoy.com?

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:57:49 -0800

all i know is i paid $7/share for ETYS not long before they were selling at twenty cents a share. if KB Toys is so happy with eToys, maybe they can send me an XBox for Hanukkah and we can call it even.

By: mattpfeff

mattpfeff — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 17:44:00 -0800

does this help answer mathowie's question?

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 18:11:22 -0800

i wonder if they sell this gag gift i got for my friend, recently: evibe. i still cannot for the life of me figuire out why that first E is there.

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 18:41:19 -0800

More proof that a large scale web business that actually works is just the electronic equivalent of ordering from a catalog from an already established business. So how long until Amazon runs out of money? I love the most wanted toys list. Maybe I'm out of touch but I can't imagine too many kids demanding their own personal ATM/bank for Christmas. Looks like the equation for making the most wanted list equals whatever crap we got too much of or whatever has a great mark-up.

By: jkilg

jkilg — Thu, 13 Dec 2001 11:16:40 -0800

The toy manufacturers probably pay for the inclusion of their toys in the most-wanted list. I know this is how the international videogame retailer I used to work for filled its catalogue and its top-picks list. That said, I have to give KB Toys credit for seeing a useful marketing tool sitting there waiting to be purchased for (relatively) little money and going for it. It's very good business.

By: gd779

gd779 — Thu, 13 Dec 2001 11:24:30 -0800

lotsofno: I know I should have realized what I was getting from the name "evibe", but please try and warn us before you link to shophustler.com; some of us are surfing from work.

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Thu, 13 Dec 2001 17:50:42 -0800

ah, my apologies gd779. i thought it was somewhat obvious, but i guess i should've taken precaution anyway.