Auction League Questions

[shovelheadt 71]

Doing my first auction league this year. It's only 10 teams, so the commish makes up for that by requiring larger rosters (2 QBs, 3 RBs, etc). Haven't looked at the scoring rules yet, so I don't know what position is most valued. I can assume it's some standard ESPN scoring, as that's the site he uses. I think we're starting out with 100 virtual dollars for all the bidding. So does anyone have any general guidelines for me?

 

- Should I target specific players, or just go with the flow?

- When it's my turn to nominate a player, should I just pass or toss out someone I'm interested in? Or should I toss out someone I think is vastly overrated, hoping some peeps will overpay?

- What's the average cost per stud? I was assuming 30 bucks or so, but I saw where some idiot payed around 50 for LT last year

- I assume Kickers and Defense should be no more than a buck or two

 

Totally newbie at this format, so any general advice or strategy is welcome. Thanks.

[edjr 6,602]

same goes for me.

 

doing my 1st auction this year, nice to see it's catching on.

 

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

TIA

[GiantsFan11 0]

My recommendation is to have players ranked by position (just like a draft) and within that ranking have tiers and dollar ranges associated to the tiers. Be prepared for any of the 3 strategies below (know what each would look like) and adjust as it goes along

 

Strategy 1: Studs & Duds....spend all your money on 3-6 players and fill the rest of the team with $1 (most of your cash is spent on one QB, one RB & one WR)

 

Strategy #2: Balanced approach. You wont have the top player at any one position, but you likey have some good players at every position (this is like drafting in the 6th-8th spot in a ten team league and following not starting the position runs. You get the #6 & #12 RB from your board, the #8 & #14 WR and a good QB who is not Manning, Brees & Brady....you fill in some depth around them

 

Strategy #3....let the suckers go broke and swoop. Imagine giving up your 1st & 2nd round draft picks but then getting 2 picks in rounds 3-7....the top 15RBs are gone as are the top 10 WR and top 5 QBs...but you will have lots of 2nd tier guys that you are hoping pan out.

 

I go into the auction with tiers and price ranges on each tier....when the tier #1 guys are going I keep bidding until about 80-90% of the top of the range....if I think the top RB is worth $50 I bid up to about 45.....If I land these guys...I will have a studs & duds team...but I will have gotten studs cheap enough to have a few bucks left for back-ups. If my price ranges are right and guys are going for "fair" value then I have missed the first few studs and will likely fall into a balanced approach. If the top players are going for more than I see as fair value...then I likely will let the suckers go broke.

 

 

In my 10 team 18 deep rosters $200 per team auction three years ago I watched the top 10 RBs, top 4QBs and top 5WRs go off the board for a total of $1075. At this point I had one good QB and an otherwise empty roster and I thought max value for the 19 players was $900....lots of teams going studs & duds....I ended up with a roster full of players that would have gone in rounds 3-7 in most snake drafts...and had a good season losing the championship game. Next season same group of guys when we hit the 20 player mark in the draft we had spent only $860 of what I had as $920 in value. Lots of guys sitting back and no mid range bargains to be found...because I had price enforced I had a much more filled roster and had spent money on "studs".

 

How to nominate players: In my auction we bid one by one on a player once the player is nominated and once you pass on a player you cannot re-enter the bidding. In the early goings I like to throw out guys that I do not want too much, but that if I got them for 80% of my fair value I would not be upset...that way I can price enforce, and not get stuck...if you don't want the player at all don't throw out the name...it could hurt when someone else gets a screaming bargain.

 

As the draft moves on you will find yourself in the position of only having $1 to spend on each roster spot. If others can spend more and you call out your deep sleeper someone else may be thinking the same thing and bid $2...and you are screwed. I like to throw out the obvious next best player on the board...if I get him great...if he goes to someone else he was likely to not be mine anyway and my sleeper is still there waiting to be had when others go broke also.

[R8RMick 242]

How to nominate players: In my auction we bid one by one on a player once the player is nominated and once you pass on a player you cannot re-enter the bidding. In the early goings I like to throw out guys that I do not want too much, but that if I got them for 80% of my fair value I would not be upset...that way I can price enforce, and not get stuck...if you don't want the player at all don't throw out the name...it could hurt when someone else gets a screaming bargain.

 

As the draft moves on you will find yourself in the position of only having $1 to spend on each roster spot. If others can spend more and you call out your deep sleeper someone else may be thinking the same thing and bid $2...and you are screwed. I like to throw out the obvious next best player on the board...if I get him great...if he goes to someone else he was likely to not be mine anyway and my sleeper is still there waiting to be had when others go broke also.

 

 

This is some pretty good advice. I've been doing auction now for years. We've got a keeper/dynasty league with a great system (free agency, rookie rights), so you get to build your team year by year. The thing I love the most about auction drafting is it's a lot like poker.

[Quickolas1 80]

i did auction for the first time last year. was def a learning experience. i ended up going for surplus of mid-tier players. in a 10 team, $180 cap the highest players went for about $50. in a $100 league as yours there's no way someone should be spending that much on one player.

 

for bidding, i'd always nominate someone who you don't want until it gets late in the draft and its $1 time.

and nominate players after you've filled those positions to suck other teams' cap as much as possible.

 

the best bargains in our league were wide receiver about 75% into the draft. so this year after getting 2 starters, i'm going to go cheap or wait as long as possible for wr3/wr4.

 

don't take a player if you do not like him unless the value is WAY too good to pass up. you'll kick yourself later for spending $15 on some guy you hate, even if he does perform at the $15 level. why? because there'll be 2 guys who went for $7+$8 that you love but had already spent $15 on that guy you don't like.

 

QB's are going to be at a premium in your league. someone will end up with 2 while someone else will end up with 4 and bank on trading. have something prepared to write down mid-draft what tiers are going for what $ and which teams still need what starters and how much they have left to spend.

 

lastly, don't spend more than $1 on a kicker, backup TE, backup D, etc. in fact, don't draft a kicker at all if you don't have to.

[GiantsFan11 0]

One more fun thing to watch is the fact that the first and last players in each tier are usually overpriced. This year for example I and many others see Brady, Manning & Brees as the top 3 QB and then a good size step down until the next tier. At some point one of the three will get nominated. Some guys will want to pay for an elite QB others will not but all of you will have money to spend and the first of the three nominated will never go for a discount. Now the 2nd of the 3 is nominated. There is one less person willing to pay big bucks for a top QB and a price bar has mentally been set by the first name nominated....this is your chance to get some value (it does not always happen but it can). When the last of the 3 names is nominated everyone who wanted a top tier QB and was willing to pay will see this as their last chance and the 3rd player is likely to be the most expensive due to the panic of people having a set strategy that they now feel they have to stick with. I don't care which of the 3 names is nominated 2nd he is likely to be the cheapest.

 

This holds true whether the tier is 3 players deep or 8 players deep....the first nomination sets a mental bar and the last nomination sets a price panic.

 

At RB I see a 4RB tier followed by an 8RB tier (I am still debating if it is 5 then 7 or 4 than 8 Steven Jackson may be a one man tier unto himself on my sheet). The first and last players nominated in each tier I expect to go for 100% of fair value, but the middle players may be able to be had for a bargain.

 

If your stategy had you spending big bucks on a top RB and all but one are gone....start making plan B because that is better than overpaying just because you are short on options. The same holds true for QB and WR.

[jujuu 0]

Just 1 more note to add to the great advice above...

 

Do NOT get fixated on a sleeper. I have seen too many auctions where somebody paid way too much for the hot sleeper pick of that year. I can remember some moron (who may or may not be me ) pay 1/10 of his allocation for Lee Suggs.

 

I find that it is best to be the 3rd or 4th guy to run out of money (where you can only spend a buck or two on players). Any later than that, and you are likely overpaying for mediocre players.

[Ray_T 753]

my policy for auctions:

 

It is okay to Pay top dollar for at least one stud. (maybe 2) but do not pay top dollar for a depth player.

 

an example:

 

if you start 2 RB, 2 QB, 3 WR, and 1 TE, 1 K and 1 Def, If I already had 2 starting RB's and needed a RB3. you have $50 remaining and dont have a starting QB and need to fill two Starting WR positions. It would be foolish to pay $20 + for someone like Kevin Smith when you could use that money to spend on a WR1 or WR2.

 

Sure, a solid backup at RB is nice to have, but I'd rather have a solid starter at QB or WR than a solid backup at RB.

 

The general rule is... there are always deals to be had at the end so long as you have at least some cash at the end to spend.

 

I got Slaton at the end of last years auction for $1 and everyone in my league laughed and told me I had wasted my money.

 

I got to laugh later.

 

either way, at the price you pay at the end, if the player doesnt work out... it's not the end of the world. You find someone on waivers and make that work instead.

[edjr 6,602]

How do pickups work for an auction league?

 

Do you have to save some of your cap to pick up players?

[Ray_T 753]

How do pickups work for an auction league?

 

Do you have to save some of your cap to pick up players?

typically it is the same as any normal redraft league.

 

you spend your cash on your starting lineup, and once the lineups are entered into the computer, you have the right to add and drop any player you like. some leagues put limits on the number of transactions you can do, or will charge you a buck for each transaction you make, but most leagues allow you to pickup anyone off the waiver wire to fill in for injured or underperforming players.

[shovelheadt 71]

Thanks a ton for the advice. Think I'm going with the strategy of nominating guys I don't really want. These guys are relative newbies to the fantasy process and I'm here in Colts country. They'll waste no time in overbidding for Manning, Clark, Gonzo, Vinny, the defense and the two RBs

[kutulu 1,680]

How do pickups work for an auction league?

 

Do you have to save some of your cap to pick up players?

 

 

Ours does a blind bid. Everyone gets "100 bucks" to spend on free agents during the season via the blind bid...I think we set it to run Thursday morning. Then come Friday it's FCFS basis...so you can run out of blind bid money during the season, but still be able to pick up players...you just have to wait till after the blind bids go through. The 100 bucks for FAs is seperate from the salary cap we use at the draft. Cople of years ago I had run out of blind bis $$ but still was able to pick up R. Grant.

 

Our league is a hybrid auction/2 player keeper league.

 

You can keep up to 2 players at their cost at auction last year, but you can only keep them for one additional year. I got MJD for $21 and AJ for $20 last year at auction ($120 cap). I'm going to keep them this year, but they go back in the pool for the 2010 season. FA pick ups that end up keepers cost us 1 dollar toward the cap. Last year I was able to keep Grant for an extra year for a buck. We just added a new rule that allows us to trade our players during the off season, although I don't anticipate too many off season trades going down.

[Homerj24 0]

Strategy 1: Studs & Duds....spend all your money on 3-6 players and fill the rest of the team with $1 (most of your cash is spent on one QB, one RB & one WR)

 

I used to live by this strategy, but with the way that the NFL has changed, I have found it easier to go with a balanced approach and play best matchups.

 

One big rule of an auction to follow is to never nominate a player that you want. If you know that there is a player that you can nominate that someone will bid another dollar on, nominate him instead of someone you want. In the early going, your goal is to get the other owners to spend as much money as possible. This will make your guys come cheaper.

 

It's also wise to steer clear of the popular "sleeper" picks. These generally turn into bidding wars & in the end you'll overpay. You don't need to have a stud if you're able to load up on the 2-4 round players.

 

Finally, just know your scoring system. Use Excel to plug in projections and do the research. Every league has scoring flaws and it's up to you to find them. If you see that a majority of the QB's are ranked higher than the 2nd tier RB/WR options, wait on the QB and get a safer, cheap option later. Even though a player may score more total points over the course of a season, he is only as valuable as the player that you can replace him with.

[BunnysBastatrds 2,447]

All of the advice above is good. Be prepared for teams to overspend on the top three QB/RB/WR. The prices you see in cheats sheets (adjust them to your dollar amount and roster limits) aren't good to go by. If you plan to spend a lot of money on three or four players, you are in for a long night. I have seen teams spend $60+ on a $RB, $40+ on a WR, and 30+ on a QB($170.00 Salary Cap-12 Teams). That left them with $35.00 to fill 13 players left on their roster. They sit around waiting for the others to spend their money. I have seen some teams buy one high priced player, $50.00 RB, and sit back and be able to outbid others on third and fourth tier players, and end up with money left at the end. You have to choose your strategy and then be willing to change as every auction draft will be different.

 

Always know what all the others teams have spent and know who they selected. Keep tabs on their posistion count. It helps when you are bidding in the middle to late rounds. Don't drink during an auction draft. You need to be focused at all times. If this is your first auction draft, you don't know everyones tendecies yet. If you are playing with a past league and you are auction drafting for the first time, some of their tendecies will show. Keep a copy of this years draft board for next year and make notes. (Team 2 blew his wad on two players).

 

Only spend big money on one QB. Never two. Even if you start two. Once you get past the top twelve, they are cheap.

 

Look out for the homers. Auction drafts are the best at bringing them out. They can't help themselves. " I can pay to have my boy, and I'm gonna get him!" Don't be that homer. Stay within your budget.

 

I completely agree with never nominating a player you want. The player you want may slip a few rounds and others teams that wanted him, may not have enough money when his name comes up. Wait until the final rounds to nominate a player you like, and have enough money left to get him. This is where keeping a chart of who has what and how much comes in handy.

 

For the first four rounds, I nominate the top two defenses and top two kickers. Pick the #1 defense with your first round pick. Someone will pay big for them. They have a lot of cash in the first round and two teams will get into a bidding war over them. It's fun to watch. You can get a good defense for nothing at the end of the draft.

[huskerinct 1]

Do not nominate players you want, until the end of the auction. Instead....nominate players with the same value as the guys you want. Get owners to spend money on guys you don't want.

 

Don't paint yourself into a corner, either. Don't get set on a certain player, and pass up value, then end up overpaying for the player you wanted. Try to keep an open mind, and an evolvoing strategy. If WRs are going for a l ot more than expected...you better be prepared to change your budget around and spend more on WRs and a little less on a different position.

 

Don't get caught running up the price.

 

No matter what happens, your league will never want to do a snake draft again!

[Ray_T 753]

Do not nominate players you want, until the end of the auction. Instead....nominate players with the same value as the guys you want. Get owners to spend money on guys you don't want.

 

Don't paint yourself into a corner, either. Don't get set on a certain player, and pass up value, then end up overpaying for the player you wanted. Try to keep an open mind, and an evolvoing strategy. If WRs are going for a l ot more than expected...you better be prepared to change your budget around and spend more on WRs and a little less on a different position.

 

Don't get caught running up the price.

 

No matter what happens, your league will never want to do a snake draft again!

 

I agree that once people know you are after a certain player, they will bid him up to a point where you are ripping yourself off to buy.

 

I disagree on exclusively nominating & bidding on players you dont want. Sooner or later people will realize your strategy and leave you with some of these players you dont want.

 

You need to mix it up a bit.

 

sometimes nominate someone where you know someone else wants him. Sometimes nominate someone you want. But always make sure you are a moving target. Dont let anyone know what you are thinking.

 

but the key is to NEVER let anyone know who it is you are truly going after.

 

one of my tricks is to talk up a player I know someone else wants, and make like I want him bad, and get into a bidding war with that person (or persons) and bail when the price gets too stupid.

[Homerj24 0]

I disagree on exclusively nominating & bidding on players you dont want. Sooner or later people will realize your strategy and leave you with some of these players you dont want.

 

This is why you throw that player out and back away. Only nominate players you don't want AND that you're sure that will be bid up. I'm ok with other owners knowing the players that I don't want if they stay away from the ones that I do want. If I don't want Thomas Jones, but they're willing to give him to me at the discounted value in which I nominated him for, then awesome! Obviously a budget may have to be adjusted on the fly, but value is value.

[Homerj24 0]

...also, think of it like this. In a 10 team league ... I nominate Thomas Jones for $1. He's obviously going to get bid up. I get out of the bidding when it comes back to me. After Thomas Jones is over, there are nine more players to be nominated before I have to toss out the next guy. When it starts to get thin, throw out some kickers. If you lose one, who cares? Nominate someone else in a half hour and toss out of DST!

[9-Route 0]

for the OP, the beauty of the auction is that is it dynamic. you can be as prepared as u would like to be, yet all can go out the window due to the interaction and mix of human emotion and chess games.

 

in a snake draft, u know the talent of players flows in a reverse pyramid, with top/best talent at the top rounds and narrowing down as u progress. plus/minus a rd or two, u have a strong% certainty where top, medium ,and longshot players will go; there is no set flow in the auction. owners will nominate players in different fashions, each with a separate agendas [whether to bleed opposing $$, or set prices at positions for desired players, or to obtain fav players]. ie first name of the board might be best kicker/defense, just to take the edge off, confuse owners, and sneak them out on the cheap. another popular one is the initial toss out of the best/most important handcuff.

 

in the snake, u can get a good beat on what owners are trying to build after the first few rds, and anticipate the next few rds. ie when someone drafts hb-hb-hb, u can anticipate wrs/qbs being the next 3-4 picks; when someone at the swing goes wr-wr, u can highly anticipate at least 1 if not 2 non-wr picks the next time. here, there will be more difficulty deducing which idea owners are employing. after 2 rounds worth of players, u will not be able to say with certainty whether an owner is averse to high$$$ players yet, nor will u be comfortable assigning a value spender label to an owner who has already a high$$$ for a stud.

 

the effects of live interaction make the auction entertaining, as even the most calm, stern, prepared, and focused drafter can get caught into the mix of bidding and changing feelings towards a player based on the opposing bidding. most of all, the owners will be adjusting on the fly as ther auction unfolds because the true data of completed bids will invariably be somewhat different than the predraft projections, and this will make it the most intriguing factor. ie u enter the draft believing all studs will cost 45% of total cap, yet the first 4 studs fly off the board at only 33% total; thus, u change your 'get value players' idea to 'get 3 bombs'.

 

1. be certain and firm with what u r doing---do not second guess. if u enter the draft with a value player/silo plan, stick with it despite prices being higher or lower than u anticipated; if u entered with a triple-stud plan, stick with it and pay the $$ u had planned to pay, despite what u see happening. do not get flimsy and start mixing and matching---you'll end up in limbo and probably not with the team you will enjoy.

 

2. be prepared to be flexible and adjust---anything can happen...anything. few yrs ago in my auction, the commish opened bidding by announcing a nomination of manning for 50% cap [the yr after his 49TDs]. bam. shellshock across the room. no one bid, everyone frozen. it works. there might be 3 guys who call out 3 successive 50% cap bids on the top 3 hbs---what do u do now? everyone is overpaying for hbs, and even crappy starters or part-timers are going for 25% more than u anticipated. what do u do? u have to be ready to adjust to the weather, it changes. u might/will have to bite a bullet and pay what u were not wanting to pay; u may/will have to re-target players.

 

3. be very cognizant of everyone's $$$ and players. this is the biggest key. u can never fully gauge an owner's "bluff power", no matter how many games of poker you have experienced with them; however, u can always gauge their financial power. even knowing one of these two will go a long way in winning crucial bids, and making the difference in you walking away and getting a similar guy later and letting him eat it and sinking his cap into titanic depths. a few yrs ago i was in a very late bid war for a then backup/chance priest holmes [LJ was the man]---i balked and let my buddy win, relaizing he was my last competition to win my next nomination----the post ACL-surgery carson palmer who had slipped through the entire draft. [i won him for $5, pairing him with tomlinson AND LJ that season.]

 

 

i think u will have a very enjoyable experience, as the camaraderie and chess matches of bidding alone are worth the price of admission.

[Rynoman 0]

To put it simple. Be flexible...have tiers and be prepared

 

Goodbye snake drafts forever.

 

If you don't have a good team it is your fault not the fault of a coin flip or drawing

[R8RMick 242]

typically it is the same as any normal redraft league.

 

you spend your cash on your starting lineup, and once the lineups are entered into the computer, you have the right to add and drop any player you like. some leagues put limits on the number of transactions you can do, or will charge you a buck for each transaction you make, but most leagues allow you to pickup anyone off the waiver wire to fill in for injured or underperforming players.

 

 

We actually blind bid on waiver wire players come Tuesday AM. Waiver wire orders suck.

[shovelheadt 71]

Anyone know where I can find some value cheat sheets based on a $100.00 pool of money? Thanks.

[madd futher mucker 36]

I wrote this artical last year on auction strategy - here it is re-posted for your enjoyment:

 

Auction Strategy

 

Here's my basic strategy going into a bid: (my league has a $200 cap, 16 players, 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 flex, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 D/T).

 

I have a budget, but I don't necessarily stick right to it as you have to let the auction come to you.

 

If you can save money at one spot or spend a little too much somewhere, you just adjust as you go. I figure ADP will go for somewhere around $70-75 in my auction. Even though my RB1 is slotted for $40, if I can get him for $60, I'm in.

 

Example: I'm in an auction and get Lynch for $29. I've got an extra $1 to use at another spot. I get into a mini bidding war for Portis and end up spending $36, which is $6 above my RB2 wish list. I now am at -$5, so I have to save elsewhere. Well, next I got Ocho Cinco (think he'll be real good this year) for $27. If he's my WR1, that saves me $8 and puts me back at plus $3. Santonio Holmes ended up as my #2 for $15, so I have $8 more for the rest of my draft. And so on.

 

So, having a plan is great, but don't be so blinded by your plan that you fail to see bargains.

If you see studs at significant bargains, jump on them!

 

If you don't, the average players will end up costing you way too much later. Or worst of all, you might wind up at the end of the auction with money left unspent.

 

One idea is throw out mid level guys early and see what happens. If they go cheap because everyone else is saving $$ for Moss, Brady, LT, etc., I might be able to pull a Pierre Thomas for a 25% discount - I get a nice RB1-2 and have extra $$ to spend on a stud later.

 

And if everyone is overpaying for QBs, be happy to adjust your budget for the QB position, take a cheaper QB, and win the league by having better players at the other positions. Sticking to fixed percentages does nothing to help build a team with maximum value.

 

Sneak your best sleepers in when the bidding cools off very late in the auction. When I say "your best sleepers", I mean YOUR best sleepers. Players that EVERYBODY considers sleepers will seldom turn out to be bargains.

 

The bargains are to be found after the 1st wave of high priced big name players go. But waiting till late and hoarding your cash because players are going for slightly higher prices than you anticipated can be the kiss of death, particularly if too may other owners have also hoarded their money. You'll end up over-bidding on inferior players, spending close to what you should have paid for the better players.

 

Don't be afraid to get involved with bidding on players you don't want - but only at prices that you still be happy with if all of a sudden the bidding dies and you land him.

 

Don't sit back and let other people take all of the big name RBs. Let a couple of them get bought and see where the average price is. Take the next one that is reasonably close to it but DO NOT wait for the last first tier RB. Owners will often pay more for an end of the 1st tier player than a top of the 1st tier player simply because they were the last of the big name to go and people were desperate.

 

Most importantly - every auction is different, so pay close attention to the flow or the 'curve' of the auction. Often the 1st 5-10 players (before any REAL top names get put up for bid) go for cheap. Owners tend to hang back early before the auction heats up. This is often the time to snag some good values. Then you will likely notice that everybody starts to feel comfortable with the 'rythm' and they all begin to "jump in" - that's a good time for you to "jump out" and conserve your cash. Because that's when many, if not most, players are going off the board for more than they are worth. Pay attention to other owners 'banks' if you can, as well as how many roster spots they havve left to fill with their remaining money - when the total money pool is about 2/3 gone, there will still be a few good players left - especially mid-round picks still to be bid on, but many owners will have 'shot most of their wad' - time to again swoop in and pick up some very good players at bargain rates.

 

EDIT: I read all of the advice given so far. Most of it is very worthwhile - and some of it is repeated in this post. It just shows how complex and fun an auction can be. There is much to pay attention to and consider.

 

Regarding auction 'cheatsheets', many fantasy magazines or internet sites (google search?) have them. They are no subsititute for making a budget and a plan. Every league is different - some over-value RBs, some overvalue QBs. My final comment: if this is your 1st year in an auction league, keep track of what each player went out for especially relative to which round you would have taken them in a redraft league. Keep your auction record for next year. Then you will know the 'tendencies' of the other owners before your auction next year - a tool much more powerful than a 'cheatsheet".

 

Have fun and good luck!