LuxeYard (LUXR)

Some three weekends ago I got a glossy 8-page penny stock advertisement "newsletter" via snail-mail.  Before chucking it into the trash, I decided to give it a once-over, realizing that my slate of investing ideas had fallen somewhat lackluster of late.  Touted in the center of the infomercial newsletter was an article about up-and-coming ecommerce site Luxeyard (LUXR.PK).  On a whim, I decided to research the company a bit, and found this initial description on Yahoo! Finance:

Luxeyard, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a member-based online marketplace for luxury home and other consumer products at a discount to retail prices. It offers its products to the members of its Website via a "flash sale" or "daily deal".

Well, the following Monday (this must've been April 16th, as the price was still below $1.00) I decided to nibble abit, picking up several K shares.  Over the ensuing weeks, the stock in this no-as-yet-reported-revenues ecommerce "flash sale" site of "luxury" goods has zoomed up 100%.  Is this destined to last?  Will this company, building itself through acquisitions of similar sites (just bought LeatherGroups.com site earlier this week, and pumped up its authorized share count to 550M), really grow into an ecommerce powerhouse, or will this growth-by-website-gobbling land it in the pennystock trash heap with MobilePro, a failed wi-fi telecom company which I followed into the stratosphere and back to earth 5+ years ago?  What do you think?

..TS.

[Note: okay, I'm wrong about revs - in their 10-K they reported some $2,038 in revs for fiscal year ending 12/31/2011.  But that's close to none...]

[5/15/2012 - I followed my normal sell rule (sell only when you need funds for another venture), and got out of LUXR at about $2.00/sh. In hindsight, since it has sagged 25% in the intervening days, I may reconsider and move back in should the price approach $1.00 again. Otherwise, I'm watching my long-time fave penny, LSCG, which has been gapping higher due to exposure at an annual lighting convention, coupled with a 10-Q filing.  ..TS.]

Continually Review Your Personal Penny Stock History

It can be very instructional to look back at your previous picks to see what survived and what died the penny stock death.  Here're two views from my past creativity: a Chogger comic, and an e-newsletter I sent to a circle of friends in 2003.

TrashStock 1 - made 04/24/09 by landalex

---- the 8/27/2003 e-newsletter ----------------------
Friends,

check this blurb out about Sandisk in specific and tech positions
generally. I'm really ambivalent about the market at this
point...maybe it's my biorhythms. :-) I've trimmed my SNDK position
at the recent high, by 75%, but have moved those same funds into LEXR
and FLSH (to build existing positions). SNDK has the dominant
position in the Flash ram industry (for pure plays, versus non-pure
plays like Intel and AMD), but LEXR and FLSH are building market
share (and revenue) quickly.

Also at this point I really like and have built my positions in both
BRCD and OPSW. Fidelity recently let slip that they've built their
position in BRCD to 7.5% of outstanding shares...and I think that
since the slide of BRCD lagged the down market, it's rise will lag
the up market (and, of course, following any earnings news).
Opsware, formerly Loudcloud (of Marc Andreesson fame), has come back
up from a low of $.35 (if only I'd bought then!) and similar to
Freemarkets is now priced near to their initial offering price.
Opsware does software for datacenters....and in fact used to run
datacenters but sold the hardware part of their business to EDS,
which included a 5-year contract to manage those datacenters for EDS.

I also like and have built position in BCSI (formerly Cacheflow).
They've come back nicely from a low of 2.50; but since their market
is extremely narrow (internet security devices) I can't recommend
them as anything more than pure speculation. ;-)

There's an interesting article in today's WSJ about market timing.
Although I talk "buy and hold", in today's market you can't
successfully surf the waves and troughs without blending "buy and
hold", "market timing", "gut feeling" and consistent research.

ttyl,
Posted by Phyllostachys at 8/27/2003 08:40:00 AM
--------------------------
..TS.