I have owned Amazon stock on-and-off over the years, and it has really treated me right. The problem I always have is that it tends to be a very expensive stock and I have talked myself into selling a couple times.

Never again. Even with a P/E around 50, this stock is a bargain.

If it was just an online retailer - yeah, it would suck. But, this company is sooo much more. First off, if you have not used the market place - it's awesome. I did last year to sell text books, and it was smooth. They take away all the crappiness of eBay, Craigslist, etc. And... they skim like 15%.

That right there is one reason the stock is only going to go up. The more business they lose to competitors (me, you, etc), the more money they make. After all, pulling in a 10% margin or more when you have no inventory costs is better than actually shipping inventory. Plus, Amazon basically holds its sellers accountable so that if you buy off me through Amazon - you're pretty much guaranteed a solid transaction. The result is people trusting 3rd party marketers (which is something eBay failed at for the longest time). And, that's why eBay has stunk up the joint for the last several years and Amazon is chewing up its marketshare.

Ok... a lot of that is old news and the reason I bought a big chunk last year.

Today though, I realized just how far ahead of the game Amazon is in cloud competing and integrated sales. Long story short, I am developing a Music Organizing Wizard (well, I did like 3 years ago, but I'm enhancing it now). As I'm skimming the net for ways to automate album art, I slowly stumble on Amazon's Web Services. Holy shit. They're stocked. I knew Amazon was moving into cloud computing, but I really had no idea how robust their solutions are.

Anyhoo... Amazon owns. Of all the big 'net companies, it is the one that has continued to impress and develop. Well, it and Netflix

I would rather own Apple than Amazon right now. I work with people who are relatively educated investors and I hear them say things like they can't buy XYZ stock because it's too expensive. Sure, Apple is $260 a share, but just buy fewer shares...the days of needing to buy 100 blocks or paying a huge spread are over. You pay the same share price for 1 share as 1,000, so the number of shares you buy is irrelevant, all that matters is the total dollars invested regardless of share price. That isn't just for Apple of course, it's for every "expensive" stock. Unless you are buying or selling calls/puts, owning 100 share blocks doesn't really matter.

As to Amazon itself, they are facing increasing compitition and have had a hard time increasing thier margins to a more profitable model. They are a well run company and that makes me not completely dislike the stock, but I believe there are several better tech options. Missing an earnings estimate while other tech stocks are beating earnings is a warning too, especially with a company already trading at 50x earnings.

Umm... when someone says a stock is expensive, they are referring to its ratios, not its price per share. Berkshire Hathaway is around $120,000/share and I consider it cheap (of course, I'm relegated to B-shares). If your friends are "relatively educated", they should know that

Yep, but they mean the actual price. They do understand, but still say things like I can't afford a $200 stock. I guess it's a mental block. Glad you are talking about ratios, that is a valid stat (and yes, Amazon is expensive considering that

Berkshire is my largest holding so you have good taste there. I'm no genius but I know one when I see one. That's who I want investing my money!

Then they aren't the least bit educated

And I'm just playing. In reality, most people know very little, myself included. Buy a lot of well-managed companies, sell the occasional covered call or covered put and hang on tight.