It’s already after midnight when I checked my emails. I had received an email from Tatarah, in fact I had received 2 emails from Tatarah. I would just touch on the first email as Felix had blog about the other.
The first email was telling me that Tatarah would be opening doors once again on the 9th November. Auctions would be starting on the 12th November. Besides that, Tatarah would be making SOME changes to their auctions after getting some feedbacks and through consideration. I had quoted them based on their email on the changes.
1) A new Highest Single Bid model will replace the old Lowest Unique Bid model. All auctions will start from $0.01, and the successful bidder is the person who places the highest single bid for the auction.
2) Auction bid price limit. In order to make the auctions affordable and exciting, each auction item will have maximum bid price.
3) View an auction’s current bid price. To keep you updated, the current bids for each auction will be displayed as received.
4) T-points offset. T-points can still be used by the successful bidder to offset the bid offer. For example, your bid offer for a PSP is $50 and you are the highest single bidder. If you have 45 T points in the ‘my account’ section, you can use these 45 T points to offset the successful bid offer and pay the remaining $5 in cash. This means you can buy items at a very attractive price.
Right now instead of the Lowest Unique Bid Wins, it is the Highest Single Bid Wins. Moreover, Tatarah have changed from the closed door bidding to open door bidding. Current bids for each auction item will be displayed below the item as seen from above.
Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t this the current bidding model used by eBay and many other auction sites? As far as I can tell, the only difference is that Tatarah have a auction bid price limit which eBay does not have. So what set Tatarah aside from eBay or any other auctions site available?
I have no idea at this moment in time. I am not out to point an accusing finger at Tatarah. I am just curious. Tatarah launched with a Lowest Unique Bid Wins auction model which is really unique in my opinion. But after a few days, the site went down due to bandwidth issues. And right now, a week or maybe two weeks later Tatarah replaced the whole auction model to the Highest Single Bid Wins.
What does all this mean? Is it because the Lowest Unique Bid Wins model not bringing in enough profits to cover the cost for them?
It is all so strange to me. What causes Tatarah to replace it’s auction model barely weeks after it’s official launch? What are your views on this?
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Hmm. Total change of heart on their part? I thought the lowest unique bidder was working out?
Hi Motd, interesting post. I’ve never been bothered with these kind of things. TrustSg used to have a similar model concept of lowest bid win auction and I signed up for it. I tried bidding for the item when it was launched seconds ago but somehow the processing time and loading time took too long till other participants won my bids.
I feel that its fun to play this game but its silly. If you have the money, buy something good, first hand from the store. You never know if the goods on tatarah are refurbished just like Courts sold their stuffs, some refurbished at the same orginal price.
Cheers
Cris
The Young Businessman
haha i wanted to brog about it right after receiving the email but too busy never.
I am a avid supporter of Tatarah when it came out, but now i see their changes ar, i abit sian 1/2.
i’d probably just go back to ebay. haha
@WishBone
The unique bidding system was the one that got my attention in the first place. With the replacement of the new system, it is going to be just like any other bidding site around.
@Chris
You got a point there. The source of the product is not known to the bidders at all.
@passer-by
It is just going to be another eBay to me after the changes. But let us keep Tatarah.com.sg in the loop.
I think what they mean by “the current bids for each auction will be displayed as received” is really just the latest bid, so you can plan what will be a unique amount. You don’t see all the bids.
@passer-by#2
I guess you are right.
In that case I might as well place my bid at the Auction Bid Limit?
Wonder if i should give it a try and see if I can win any bid.
Hi there
Greetings! My name is Sandra Leong and I’m a journalist with The Straits Times Life! and LifeStyle section. I chanced upon your blog while doing some research on Tatarah and thought I’d drop you an e-mail.
I’m writing a feature on Tatarah and would like to get some input from users on the good and bad of the new site. I see that you’ve been quite vocal about Tatarah’s and was wondering if you’d be willing to share some of your opinions with me for the story? It would be useful to get some feedback from netizens and users.
Do let me know if you are open to this? If so, I’ll need to do a quick phone interview by end of Thursday if possible to meet my deadline.
Thank you very much!