 There’s no shortage of web sites offering deals-everything from daily deals to members-only private sales. But when it comes to real jaw-dropping deals, there’s one company that seems to have figured out a way to really deliver. The company is called Quibids and they auction（拍卖）the hottest, in-demand electronics like Apple ipads and ipods, as well as other items like gift cards from the top retailers（零售商）. Unlike other sites, the prices people pay are nowhere near retail. How low are the prices? $ 33.84 for a new Apple ipad 32 GB（retail $ 600） $ 22.10 for a new Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera（retail $ 1070） Our first reaction on seeing these prices was disbelief. After all, how could Quibids possibly afford to sell these items for so little ---- surely they must be losing a lot of money. That’s where its unique business model comes into play. You see, for every bid a buyer places for an item on Quibids, the company collects a small fee from the bidder. The fee to bid is only about 60 cents, but based on the volume of sales and bids, the company is able to collect enough to make up for the ridiculous prices the items sell for. But best of all, participating in the Quibids auction is incredibly fun. Because each bid costs a little to place, shoppers can strategize when to place their bids. Each auction has a strict time limit. When you place your bid, the system adds a little time to the auction to see if any other bids come in. If you have the winning bid when the clock runs out ---- you win the item for that price. But the best part of Quibids may be the “Buy-It-Now” feature. This allows bidders who did not win an auction to still buy the product they want and apply the cost of the bids they placed as a discount on the regular product price. So you still get the item and the bids you placed previously in the auction don’t cost you anything! 小题1:According to the passage, the success of Quibids mainly lies in .
|