Patrick Byrne And The Man From Omaha

Patrick Byrne's early life alternated between business and academia. But it wasn't until he turned 13 that things really began to change for the man who would grow up to become the president and CEO of Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK). “This funny guy showed up and started staying at our house and visiting us from time to time, some guy named Buffett from Omaha, and this was before any one had heard [of him],” Byrne told Benzinga during a recent interview.

“He wasn't this big, famous guy,” he said. “But he was just this fellow in the 1970s who used to stay with us and I took a liking to him. So, he gave me some great advice early in my life that saved me years.”

That advice, Byrne says, was something that Warren Buffett believed that people would either understand in five minutes or never understand it at all. “The advice is you buy a share of stock if and only if you would buy it even if the market were shutting down for 10 years tomorrow,” Byrne said. “So you don't think of yourself buying a little piece of paper on an uptick, you understand that you are buying a piece of that company and you want to own a piece of that company for the next 10 years.”

Byrne said that the best investment he ever made was investing in Overstock.com; the worst was a deal he made during the S&L crisis that occurred 20 years ago.

“I bought a lot of things out of bankruptcy,” he said. “One package of assets I bought turned out to be worthless.”

But as far as Overstock.com's future in the stock market, Byrne said that he prefers to stay away from investors. “I'm not interested in talking about my stock or any projections,” he said firmly. “I think we are really making some moves in terms as to what we are going to be able to offer people. We have built a really wonderful platform and not only is our value the best, but our customer service [has always been] number-one or number-two as the best customer service in retail online or off.”

More specifically, Byrne said that the industry has named Overstock.com number-one in customer service several times, and the consumer polls have rated the company number-two in customer service, only behind L.L. Bean.

To hear more from the Overstock.com CEO – including his opinion of Wall Street and the SEC – don't miss Benzinga's full interview with Patrick Byrne.