06-09-2009, 02:52 AM
Quote: Tazbar Closure Sadly I must inform you that Tazbar.com will cease to trade as an online auction venue on the 16th July 2009. This is purely a commercial decision and doesnt reflect on the wonderful people that we have met and had the pleasure of being involved with during the lifetime of the website.
I would like to thank you for your support and interest as a member. In particular I would like to thank those who gave their time freely to try to help promote the site from its early days. A special thank you must go to the voluntary moderators of the forum lead by Tony Bridger whose help has been outstanding.
Tazbar will cease to charge for any services at midnight on the 15th June 2009. The website will remain open and active for the following month to allow users to continue to trade and conclude any business. All outstanding amounts up to June 15th 2009 will be due as normal. No further charges will be made for any transactions or memberships after this date to ensure there all paid services have been rendered by Tazbar. All services will be free after June 15th.
Trading will stop on the 16th July at midnight and any active adverts will be ended. Please ensure that you have no bidding auctions active beyond this date. The website will then remain open for a further 14 days to allow members to extract any information, descriptions or images that they may need in the future.
All personal data will be deleted after this period with the exception of completed transactions and associated data. This will be archived for legal purposes. You do not need to close your account as this will be done for you automatically.
Thank you again for your support and interest in Tazbar.com.
All that remains if for me is to wish you a prosperous future for your online buying and selling activities.
Kindest regards
Lee Markham and the directors of Tazbar.com.
Quote:It seems only right to end it where it all began, in the chit chat area of the Tazbar forum. When this all started in August 2006 this forum was called the "Tazbar". What a rollercoaster of a ride we have had since.
I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people and by naming a few would be unfair to those not on the list because every one of you has been so important to the journey. I have been inundated with emails and good wishes and also one or two press requests trying to delve deeper into the reasoning behind the decision to close. I apologise if I dont answer them all. Once again I feel it a duty that if mention is made on this subject it should be here at the heart of Tazbar.
18 months ago the team at Tazbar took over the site from the original ownership and the old development company closed down. The intention was to move the company forward by reinvesting in marketing. In order to do this everyone who was involved worked on a voluntary basis. This has been case to this day. Sadly we hit complications from day one with merchant account providers due to the recent closure of the original development company; whilst this was overcome it caused a massive slow down of income that we never recovered from. Automatic account collections stopped and we were then dependant on voluntary payments. Revenue was then absorbed by hosting, licensing and legal costs.
Tazbar as a trading venue is a very small fish in a very large pond. In order to grow it needs investment in technology to strengthen against fraud. It needs investment in systems to bring it up to speed with the fast development of its main competitor. It needs investment in back room support staff and systems. Last but not least it needs investment in marketing and awareness. As you can see the common denominator here is "investment" and this would be a substantial amount to even start to make an impact in growth and competency. This business is all about critical mass and there is only one way to achieve this with a start up in an existing field. That comes from huge marketing budgets. The return on investment is too long term for our resources so the decision virtually made itself.
This was the lesson that we have learned along the way and one that could only be truly explored by actually having given it a go. This is what we did and I feel we made a little bit of history along the way. Yes we have had tears, laughter, arguments and lots of care and friendship. That is what made it so hard in the end to make the decision to close down.
Life moves on and if I said I didnt have a tear in my eye I would be lying.
Thank you all so very much. I only wish that we could have made your dreams come true.
Kindest regards.
Lee