From owner-freebsd-doc Thu Jun 24 11:23:46 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mail.go2c.com (mail.go2c.com [204.236.24.71]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3402414C4E for ; Thu, 24 Jun 1999 11:23:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from clr45@youpy.com) Received: from 204.236.24.71 [207.201.65.64] by mail.go2c.com (SMTPD32-4.03) id A63B7F900D0; Thu, 24 Jun 1999 09:00:59 PDT Date: Sun, 06 Jan 80 13:56:55 EST From: clr45@youpy.com To: daryl@mindspring.com Subject: SNN Update Message-ID: <48835011521343818@quikak.verus.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org June 23, 1999 SNN #17 If you are not a subscriber and received this issue of SNN in error please see how to unsubscribe below. This will be the last SNN newsletter under the present format. In the near future SNN will begin to appear on a bi-weekly basis with an emphasis on the best of online investment advice that can be gathered from the Internet and other independent sources. The emphasis will be on small to medium cap Issues that trade on the NASDAQ and Bulletin Board markets. The research bias will be towards technology and Internet related companies. Please look for our new format in July and let us know what you think! In this edition we would like to follow up on a company that we first wrote about in February of 1999, WCollect.com - Symbol WCLT - OTC BB. WCollect.com is positioning itself to become the world's largest and most trusted art and collectibles Gallery and Auction Company. It turns out that we were too far "out in front" on this particular company and due to a number factors the stock has traded between $5.25 and $1.06 over the last 4 1/2 months. The primary problem the company has been working on is the upgrade of their site to a "carrier class" site which has all the capacity to handle 100's of thousands of items online at one time. The launch of this site is scheduled for July 18, 1999; a date confirmed to us by company management as recently as yesterday June 22, 1999. This site will put WCollect.com in the same league as Ebay and the other high profile auction sites, from a technical perspective. More important in our mind, has been the work WCollect.com has carried out in the area of securing content for their site. Many of the present sites are little more than glorified garage sales, with items from "beanie babies" to car engines being offered for sale. This turns these sites into classified advertising pages, with no real ability to differentiate themselves from each other. WCollect.com has signed up over 150 artists and the owners of over $50 million of sports and entertainment collectibles, to be exclusive providers of content to WCollect.com SNN feels that having higher quality products to offer will: 1.) Differentiate the WCollect.com site, and 2.) Give the company the opportunity to have much higher margins on the product that they sell. WCollect.com has also been very successful in developing joint venture and strategic relationships with high profile entertainment companies such as King World and their "Roseanne Show" and with the Grammy awards. SNN understands that there may soon be an announcement in regard to a foreign affiliation for WCollect.com whereby one of the largest software companies in Asia will initially provide the company with access to over 15 million Internet subscribers. This will eventually result in WCollect.com having a fully functioning, local language, auction site operating on a joint venture basis. This fully translated site will be adapted to local culture and tastes, in regard to the product offerings and will be a first for any US based company in the online auction business. In addition, SNN has learned that WCollect.com will be announcing a deal with the White House 200th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday, June 24, 1999. According to our sources, WCollect.com will become the exclusive web site and online marketer for a whole series of products and collectibles that will mark this event. The new site with its cross-links into WCollect's gallery and auction sites will be operational on July 2, 1999, at www.wh200th.org This pact, with an organization of this integrity, must reflect positively on WCollect.com and should greatly increase their credibility in the investment community. Additionally, the publicity this site will receive over the coming year will drive a huge number of "eyeballs" to the "White House site" and they will, in turn, be cross-linked to the www.Wcollect.com site. WCollect.com is now starting to become the type of company we originally envisaged when we saw their business plan 5 months ago. They have met all of their stated goals and objectives and the roll out of the carrier class site in July will be like a re- launch of the company. They have worked very hard at developing quality product/content for the site and that alone will differentiate this business from the many other companies trying to emulate Ebay. The interesting thing about WCollect's emphasis on content is we believe this makes them an attractive take-over target. SNN's understanding of the earlier unconsummated take-over offer was that the potential acquiring company did not have its "ducks-in-a-row" and had too many other issues to deal with to devote the time necessary to complete this deal in a timely fashion. What we were told though, was that it took them only a matter of 2 short meetings to decide they wanted to try and buy WCollect.com It would not surprise SNN if a high quality e commerce company, with a desire to get into the "auction" arena, wouldn't find acquiring WCollect.com a lot better entry point than trying to start such a company from scratch. The stock has bounced from $1.25 in the last 2 days to as high as $2.06 and is presently trading in the $1.80 range. We do see a lot of opportunity for upside here - from what we can tell most of the stock was bought between $3.50 and $4.50 earlier this year, and at present, is probably a safe buy up to the $3.00 range. With the launch of the new expanded and more robust carrier class site in mid-July anything could happen, who knows... maybe another Ebay, only time will tell. Good Luck and Smart Investing for the summer and keep an eye out for our new format next month. How to Unsubscribe from SNN If you wish to unsubscribe to SNN please send an e-mail with the word 'remove' in the subject line and again please make sure the address is the original address this letter was sent to and send it to: Triple222@n2mail.com Disclaimer - SNN or its owners may have a position in and/or be paid a fee by any of the companies it mentions. SNN is NOT a registered investment advisor. SNN advises its readers to always check companies themselves or with a registered advisor or stock broker before buying ANY stock. Most if not all of the companies SNN writes about are companies at the start-up stage and have little no operating history. This makes them a very high risk investment. Anyone who buys any of the stocks mentioned in the SNN letter could lose some or possibly all of their investment. Past performance of the stocks we have profiled does not reflect on future performance of featured stocks in SNN. SNN copyright SNN 1999 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message