How do auctions here work?

We currently only offer the English Auction system. We are working on more auction types to be implemented in the future.

What is an English Auction?

An English Auction is a system in which a seller puts an asset up for auction and bidders can bid at set increments, but there can only be a single highest winning bid at any point in time. A bid will only be accepted by the system if there isn't already a bid, or if the bid wins the current highest bid. In this system there can never be ties.

What are the fees involved?

The total cost of running an auction in RagAlley is a flat fee of 7.5 ADA, regardless of the value of the final sale. 5 ADA is paid by the seller, and 2.5 ADA is paid by the winner of the auction.

I was charged more than 5 ADA when listing an NFT for auction. Why? Can you explain the fees in greater detail?

At the point of listing, the seller will be required to lock 7.5 ADA along with the asset for sale in our Auctioneer Smart Contract. Only 5 ADA will eventually be used as service fee paid to RaggieStore at the point of settlement. The 2.5 ADA in addition to that is to satisfy minUTxO requirements in the future settlement transaction whereby additional non-ADA UTxOs are generated in order to send the auctioned asset to the winner, and also to pay royalties to the owner of the collection's policy being auctioned.

I had to pay 3 ADA when submitting a bid. Why?

Every time a bidder places a bid, a 2.5 ADA fee is submitted to the smart contract along with the bid. There is always a blockchain fee with every transaction and depending on your wallet's UTxO makeup, this can range from between 0.2 ADA to 0.5 ADA. When a smart contract needs to be evaluated, the blockchain fee will be increased slightly, hence we anticipate that a transaction fee of around 0.3 ADA - 0.8 ADA is expected on top of the 2.5 ADA required to be locked as service fee. If a higher bid comes along, the previous bid, together with the 2.5 ADA service fee locked by the previous bidder, will be automatically refunded.