As the New Economy never ceases to remind us, some folks believe anything they read. Ask Eric Schiffer, president of 99 cents Only Stores. On Mar. 20, Schiffer ran a joke ad in the Los Angeles Times offering nine Web stocks for 99 cents each. "Your choice!" the ad shouted. "No limit."
No limit, that is, to the credulity of Net investors. The ad drew hundreds of calls to the chain's Commerce (Calif.) headquarters. "People asked what stocks were available," Schiffer says. One requested that the sale include non-Internet stocks. "He wanted to buy Intel." There's one stock that wouldn't be included, even as a joke: that of 99 cents Only Stores. With investors flocking to companies catering to recession-wary consumers, 99 cents Only Stores' stock has climbed 64% in the past five months. It's the Old Economy's revenge. By Arlene Weintraub
Billionaires Go Begging
How bad is the high-tech job market? Worse than we dreamed, apparently. Not even Bill Gates and Larry Ellison would easily find work if they started out today. And we've got proof. Sort of.
Home Page created résumés based on the credentials Gates and Ellison had about a year after founding Microsoft Corp. (MSFT
) and Oracle Corp (ORCL
), respectively. Names and dates were changed. Gates became Gilliam Bates. Ellison became Ellis Lawrence. Both remained college dropouts. We posted our bogus résumés on job site Monster.com, mentioning Bates's interest in bridge and Lawrence's lust for Japanese culture. Then we waited. And then we waited some more.
In more than a month, neither doppelgänger got more than a nibble. Only one person looked at Bates's résumé, and just four checked out Lawrence's. Neither got an interview, though Bates's Hotmail account lured lots of smutty e-mail. Maybe it's the dot-com meltdown. Maybe people saw through the ruse. Or--just maybe--all those billionaire wannabes should make sure they get college degrees. By Jim Kerstetter
Not Your Daddy's Watch Chain
Pawnbrokers used to lose thousands because they had no idea what to charge for odd stuff. Now they have eBay to help price weird stuff--and to unload junk. Some examples:
Muskrat Skull
Pawnshop: Exchange West, Sioux Falls, S.D.
Sale price: $3
Who brought it in: A taxidermist
Armor Breastplate, circa 1700s
Pawnshop: Village Pawn & Jewelry, Elk Grove Village, Ill.
Sale price: $300
Who brought it in: A customer who took it from his dad's antique collection
Walk-In Steam Box
Pawnshop: US Pawn & Auto, Longwood, Fla.
Sale price: $750
Who brought it in: This offbeat sauna sat in the shop for 10 years after being pawned by a senior citizen who thought it was too antiquated
Mickey Mantle Bobbing Head Doll
Pawnshop: G&G Pawnbrokers, Hyattsville, Md.
Sale price: $400
Who brought it in: A fan who got it at a Yankees game years ago
Set of Dueling Pistols
Pawnshop: First National Pawn, Billings, Montana
Sale price: $1,500
Who brought them in: Nobody remembers, but the shop owner moved the guns around his chain of stores for six years before selling them on eBay
Dot-Com Memorial
If dot-coms were dead ducks, could you profit from their demise? Steve Baldwin and Bill Lessard thought they could by selling mouse pads bearing logos of defunct Net companies. Baldwin hatched the idea when Nasdaq's spring 2000 swoon convinced him dot-coms were goners. His $15 creation features logos of 50 sites, from boo.com to bbq.com. Alas, Baldwin and Lessard's NetSlaves.com has sold only 25 of the pads. Lessard takes a Zen view. "It captures the existential moment," he says. "People want a thing they can point to and say, `I did that."' A lucky few could point to a severance check. But a spongy tombstone may have to do for everyone else. By Jeanette Brown
Are Startups Non-Starters?
How many B-school grads are heading back to consulting and back to banking, and how many are still casting their lot with a startup despite the Internet meltdown? From the trends at three top schools, it looks as if many grads didn't chase the wave until it had almost crested. But this year's class learned a lesson from last year's. Maybe that tuition is worth something after all.
Bust Those Bozos
Lora Powell was watching Bill & Monica on TV when it hit her: Everyone gets cheated on. Why not bust these jerks before romance gets serious?
Powell founded RegisterYourMate.com, a month-old site that lets you check whether the person saying, "Baby, you're the only one," means you're the only one tonight. Enter your paramour's first name, city, job, and last school attended, then see if someone else has registered an L.A. lawyer named Linda or a Milwaukee mechanic named Mark. If so, you can get in touch to see if you're dating the same person. So, does Powell, 31 and single, think she'll see her own name in the registry? "I am so expecting it," she admits. As Roberta Flack said, where is the love? By Darnell Little
Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
