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 AuctionIn 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 AuctionsMany 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 has a minimum bid, or reserve price. English auctions that offer multiple units of an item for sale and allow bidders to specify the quantity they want to buy are called Yankee auctions. To understand Yankee auctions better, consider this example. A seller places nine items up for bid. When the bidders stop increasing their bids, the successful bidders include: the highest bidder, who bid $105, quantity three; the second-highest bidder who bid $98, quantity four; and the third-highest bidder, who bid $78, quantity five. All three of the successful bidders pay $78 per item, but the highest bidder receives three items, the second highest bidder receives four items, and the third-highest bidder receives the three remaining item, despite having bid for a quantity of five, because only three is left after satisfying the quantity bids of the higher bidders.English auctions have drawbacks for both sellers and bidders. Because the winning bidder is only required to bid a small amount more than the next-highest bidder, winning bidders tend not to bid their full private valuations, which prevents sellers from obtaining the maximum possible price. Bidders risk becoming caught up in the excitement of competitive bidding and then bidding more than their private valuations. This psychological phenomenon, called the winners curse, has been extensively documented by William Thaler and other behavioral economists.9.1.2 Dutch AuctionsThe Dutch auction is a form of open auction in which bidding starts at a high price and drops until a bidder accepts the price. Because the price drops until a bidder claims the item, Dutch auctions are also called descending-price auctions. Farmers cooperatives in the Netherlands use this type of auction to sell perishable goods such as produce and flowers, which is how it came to be known as a Dutch auction. Dutch auctions are particularly good for moving large numbers of commodity items quickly. A few online stores have offered Dutch auctions from time to time. For several years, Coldwater Creek used Dutch auctions to sell closeout items on its site.In 2004, Google used a Dutch auction to sell its stock to investors in its initial public offering. The financial community considered this use of a Dutch auction to be highly innovative and very successful.9.1.3 First-Price Sealed-Bid AuctionsIn sealed-bid auctions, bidders submit their bids independently and are usually prohibited from sharing information with each other. In a first-price sealed-bid auction, the highest bidder wins. If multiple items are auctioned, successive lower (next-highest) bidders are awarded the remaining items at the prices they bid.9.2 Online Auctions and Related Businesses Online auctions are one of the fastest growing segments of online business today. Millions of people buy and sell all types of goods on consumer auction sites each year. Although the online auction business is changing rapidly as