地道美语听力练习:在线拍卖竞标

Jermaine:Wait! You shouldn't bid on that auction right now.

Wait until the last minute.

Bethany:This auction has a buy-it-now price of 25 and free shipping.

Jermaine:Don't pay the buy-it-now price.

The minimum bid on this item is 10 and the current bid is only 12.50.

There's no reserve, so if you wait to bid, you may snag it for a much lower price than 25.

Bethany:Okay, I guess I can wait, but why can't I place a bid of 15 right now?

Jermaine:First of all, the bidding on this auction goes up by increments of 50-cents, so the next bid would be 13.00.

You could place a maximum bid of 15.00, but someone might outbid you at any time.

Bethany:But couldn't that happen anyway?

Even if I wait until the last minute someone could sneak in and bid a higher price.

Jermaine:You mean they could snipe you?

They could, but not if you snipe them back.

It's all in the timing.

Bethany:You seem to know a lot about online auctions.

Jermaine:That item you're bidding on, guess who listed it?