Tazbar set to shut down in July

Online auction house Tazbar is set to shut its doors in July, citing commercial reasons for its closure.

The site emailed members this weekend to tell them: "Tazbar.com will cease to trade as an online auction venue on the 16 July 2009.

"This is purely a commercial decision and doesn’t reflect on the wonderful people that we have met and had the pleasure of being involved with during the lifetime of the website," the message continued.

The site will cease to charge for any services at midnight on 15 June 2009, the site's managing director Lee Markham said.

After that, the Tazbar website will remain open until 16 July so members can continue to trade and conclude any business.

Based in Market Drayton in Shropshire, Tazbar was set up in August 2006 and in early 2008 the ownership and running of the site was taken over by three of its development team.

Tazbar was critical of eBay's tiered approach to its selling community and prided itself on its "equal treatment and profile for all sellers irrespective of whether they were hobbyists or businesses".