Heratio Help Center article. Category: Marketplace.

Marketplace — Bidding & Auctions

How auctions run on the Heratio Marketplace, from a seller starting one to a buyer winning and paying.

Anatomy of an auction listing

When a seller chooses Auction as the sale type, the listing carries:

Starting bid — the minimum first bid.
Reserve price (optional) — if the highest bid at close is below the reserve, the lot does not sell.
Bid increment — defaults to a sliding scale (e.g. R10 below R100, R50 below R1 000, etc.); operators can override per category in admin settings.
Start / end timestamps — the listing is biddable only between these.
Anti-snipe window (optional) — if a bid lands in the final N minutes, the close time extends by N more minutes, repeatedly.

The browse page exposes auction-only filters at /marketplace/auction-browse.

Buyer flow

Place a bid

Open the listing.
Click Place bid → opens /marketplace/bid-form.
Enter your max bid (or a single increment).
Submit — the system places the bid at the lowest amount needed to outbid the current leader, up to your max.

Track your bids

/marketplace/my-bids lists every bid you've made, grouped by listing, with state:

State	Meaning
Leading	You're currently the high bidder
Outbid	Someone has out-bid you — re-bid or walk away
Won	Auction has closed and you are the winner
Lost	Auction has closed and someone else won
Cancelled	Listing was withdrawn by the seller before close

You also receive an email each time you are outbid.

Win → checkout

When the auction closes and you're the winner, you have a configurable payment window (typically 48 hours) to complete checkout:

POST /marketplace/checkout/win/{auctionId}

This redirects you to PayFast. After confirmation the transaction moves to paid and the seller is notified to dispatch.

If you don't pay inside the window, the lot can be second-chance-offered to the next-highest bidder by the operator.

Seller flow

Start an auction

In /marketplace/seller/listing-create, set Sale type = Auction, then:

Set Start date/time and End date/time.
Set Starting bid.
Optionally set Reserve price — only the seller and operator see whether reserve was met.
Save → upload images → publish.

While the auction is live, the listing page shows a live countdown (_auction-timer.blade.php) and a public bid history (bidder usernames or anonymised handles, configurable).

Manage live auctions

From /marketplace/seller/listings, auction listings show:

Bids count + current high bid
Reserve met / not met indicator (seller-only)
Time remaining

Close behaviour

At end-time the auction enters one of three terminal states:

Sold — winner is set, transaction created in pending_payment. Buyer is emailed a "complete payment" link.
Reserve not met — no winner; you may relist or accept the highest bid manually as a Make an Offer outcome.
No bids — listing returns to draft for you to re-publish.

Anti-snipe and bid increments

These behaviours are operator-controlled in /admin/marketplace/settings:

Setting	Default	Purpose
`auction.anti_snipe_minutes`	5	Extends end-time when a bid lands in the final N minutes
`auction.anti_snipe_max_extensions`	6	Stops indefinite extension
`auction.bid_increment_table`	sliding scale	Increment per price band
`auction.payment_window_hours`	48	Time the winner has to pay before forfeiting

Sellers who need different rules for a single lot must request a per-listing override from the operator.

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