电子商务英语 第二版 unit9.docVIP

Unit 9 Online Auctions and Virtual Communities 学习指导： 本章将介绍： 拍卖与在线拍卖 英式拍卖 荷兰式拍卖 密封递价最高价拍卖 网上拍卖及相关业务 普通消费品拍卖 特殊消费品拍卖 企业间的拍卖 虚拟社区 9.1 Auction and Online Auction In an auction, a seller offers an item or items for sale, but does not establish a price. This is called putting an item up for bid or putting an item on the (auction) block. Potential buyers are given information about the item or some opportunity to examine it; they then offer bids, which are the prices they are willing to pay for the item. The potential buyers, or bidders, each have developed private valuations, or amounts they are willing to pay for the item. The whole auction process is managed by an auctioneer. In some auctions, people employed by the seller or the auctioneer can make bids on behalf of the seller. These people are called shill bidders. Shill bidders can artificially inflate the price of an item and may be prohibited from bidding by the rules of a particular auction. One of the Internets strengths is that it can bring together people who share narrow interests but are geographically dispersed. Online auctions can capitalize on that ability by either catering to a narrow interest or providing a general auction site that has sections devoted to specific interests. 9.1.1 English Auctions Many different kinds of auctions exist. Most people who have attended or seen an auction on television have experienced only one type of auction, the English auction. In the English auction, bidders publicly announce their successive higher bids until no higher bid is forthcoming. At that point, the auctioneer pronounces the item sold to the highest bidder at that bidders price. This type of auction is also called an ascending--price auction. An English auction is sometimes called an open auction (or open-outcry auction) because the bids are publicly announced; however, there are other types of auctions that use publicly announced bids that are also called open auctions. In some cases, an English auction