Retail Expert Says eBay Has Masqueraded As PayPal For 'Some Time'

Ryan Craver was recently a guest on #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show hosted by Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick.

Retail Expert & Lamour Group Senior Vice President Ryan Craver said on Benzinga's #PreMarket Prep that eBay Inc EBAY has been "masquerading as Paypal Holdings Inc PYPLV value for quite some time." The PayPal unit is scheduled to be spun off Friday, July 17.

Craver said that he is "incredibly bullish" on PayPal, though he doesn't share the view for the eBay unit. Craver pointed to the fact that customers are "no longer interested in the auction format" as eBay's major challenge. To him, that's a high bar to cross, particularly since Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN is "stealing" eBay's sellers.

EBay has to "find a much better way in which they sell products," something that Craver said he is not sure they can do.

"EBay realizes this and over the course of time they've started to build more and more brands to try to have fixed auctions, but it's a way in which a lot of people don't like to shop," he said.

Following its earnings report, eBay shares gained 3.4 percent on Thursday, rising to a 52-week high ahead of the PayPal spinoff. Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos said that the firm expects that "shares of core eBay will sell-off post spin." Craver echoed those sentiments, saying that it is "not a rosy picture" for eBay.

Craver argued, "They're having struggles internationally and I can't see how they're going to get out of this mess unless they dramatically change the way they've built their product."

EBay hit a 52-week high, closing at $65.59 compared with the high of $66.71. The 52-week low is at $46.34.