The new version of auction Factory 1.4.1. launched on July 30, 2008 has a couple of new interesting features and also fixed issues. From the new features we gonna mention the new Search Mambot which will allow to perform search directly from Joomla, the new Meta Tags available in the auction details page in order to make the component even more SEO friendlier and also the ability to change the page title with the auction title. With this new feature we are introducing also the possibility of selling using a Reserve Price.

A reserve price is the lowest price at which you are willing to sell your item. If you don’t want to sell your item below a certain price, you can a set a reserve price. The amount of your reserve price is not disclosed to your bidders, but they will see that your auction has a reserve price and whether or not the reserve has been met. If a bidder does not meet that price, you're not obligated to sell your item. The Reserve price option is only visible for Online Auction format; it is not visible for Fixed Price. You may lower your reserve price after you receive bids on the item. If you don’t want to use a reserve price, leave the field blank.

Why have a reserve price? Many sellers have found that too high a starting price discourages interest in their item, while an attractively low starting price makes them vulnerable to selling at an unsatisfactorily low price. A reserve price helps with this.

Example: Imagine a seller wants to sell an item for at least $100, but he is worried that a starting bid price of $100 will discourage potential bidders from bidding. If the seller uses a reserve price, he can list his item with a starting price of $.99, $5, $10, or any amount below his required reserve amount. The seller can then enter a reserve amount of $100. By listing his item this way, bidding will start at the lower price, but the seller won’t be obligated to sell the item unless the bidding reaches at least $100—the reserve price.

Features involving images are also available in the 1.4.1 version. The administrator can set images as required and specify the number of MB he wans each image to be reduced (image resizing).