This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
You need to avoid preset percentages, since value may be concentrated in a specific area based on league tendencies and scoring systems. If everyone undervalues WRs, you may end up spending more than 25% on WRs and less than 40% on RBs. The goal is to score more total points. Where those points come from can't be preset if you want to do well. Getting excellent WRs and lesser RBs may score more total points and cost less auction dollars than getting excellent RBs and lesser WRs.
No offense intended here but Auction drafts are not new, its just that people are starting to wake up to the incredible challenges it presents over a straight draft. I have been in an auction, dynasty league with contracted players for over 10 yrs. Auctions are far superior in terms of skill, emotionalism, decision making and excitement. Once you get the hang of auction drafts, it is incredibly hard to sit back and do a straight draft which becomes absolutely boring. I think that there is a definite need for sites like FBG to pick it up and get in front of this trend. Most sites proclaim that this is a small percentage of FF players but I would argue that it growth percentage is huge and is like that low priced stock that can't keep its product on the shelves. STRONG BUY now while it is still cheap! My .02Ro3384 said:
Always a good idea. The idea is to try to get owners to spend as much as possible early while setting yourself up with value. But the opposite can be true, as well. Sometimes you want to nominate someone you really like, before the market has been set (i.e. first QB). People might get gunshy and you might be able to steal someone cheaper than expected. There is no hard-and-fast rule. Don't be afraid to mix it up, so that other owners can't catch on to any patterns you might have.
I think you need to be wary of tiers of players, no matter when they happen. For example, if you've got 5 RBs of comparable value, you don't want to be the guy chasing the last of that group off the board. Chances are, his price might go higher than expected because "all the good ones are gone." On the flip side, sometimes you might get the first of the group a little cheaper.
The VBD spreadsheet and DD will convert to $$ figures for you. I've found in my league that the values don't always match the actual prices, but they will at least give you a good guideline. Being your first year, you have no way of knowing how spending might go, but if you can see that certain players/positions are going for more than expected, you can adjust on the fly.
Not sure if I like this idea. For example, I'm the kind of guy who can kick extra $$ into the pot, but I know friends with kids/mortgages etc. that might be hesitant to do so. Doesn't seem fair for me to take advantage of that.
Not sure I want to link to a potential rival site on here, but I did a quick Google search and found a site that has frequent auctions (mock or public league) with various formats. It certainly couldn't hurt to get a feel for the process.I've never tried to do an online auction ... not sure how the spontaneity of the bidding would work on the Internet. All of my auctions have always been live, with all owners required to be present.
Of course not. I didn't even think about that. Sorry.
There are several sites > fantasyauctioneer.com and xpertsports.com for starters where you can join or set up auction drafts. I think they are always helpful if the have the number of teams you will be dealing with and the same number of roster spots - BUT there is always the problem of whether you have serious drafters in the group.Probably the best thing would be to advertize here in the other thread and try and put together a serious group who all wanted to do for example = 12 teams, 20 roster spots, $200 cap
Not sure if I like this idea. For example, I'm the kind of guy who can kick extra $$ into the pot, but I know friends with kids/mortgages etc. that might be hesitant to do so. Doesn't seem fair for me to take advantage of that.
That's where I was headed. Just didn't want to step on any toes.
Just go into VBD and type the word "on" in the auction settings block of the input, then hit generate cheatsheet. Piece of cake.
I'm sorry, I must not be clear on what I'm asking. I know how to get DD to show me auction values, but I want to know how I can do it myself. In other words, pretend for a minute that I don't have DD, and I want to sit down the old-fashioned way, with a pen and paper, and convert VBD's to auction values. How would I go about doing that?
FBG is publishing my freelance article called, "Advanced Auction Tactics" this season. It is mostly about strategy more than budgetary stuff.
I have to agree on this one........HUUUUUGE MISTAKE to go that route. Curious if you have ever played poker with someone who is heads and shoulders richer than everyone else. It isn't much fun. Sooner or later that guy will get the money unless there is a limit. I don't think I'd attend an auction without a hard cap. Big mistake.
Another thought about this: Wouldn't this make it almost impossible to assign any kind of value to players beforehand? I'm assuming you have no way of knowing who/how many will spend to the $100 cap and how many will break the bank as high as $140.A player's value in a league with a total budget of $1,000 is completely different than his value in a league that will spend up to $1,400.
I agree. Far more strategy than a serpentine draft and almost no dull, long stretches that you'd get in a serpentine.
Yes, absolutely. That is why I'm going in with the strategy of expecting to spend $140, and I'll be happy if I happen to be bidding against someone who isn't using that strategy. If you try to spend only $100, or even $120, I think you'll get crushed.
I think a common misconception, especially in leagues contemplating the switch, is that it will take a lot longer than a regular draft. I've found that to be untrue.As you said, there are no lulls as someone takes 2-3 minutes trying to decide who to pick. The action keeps moving. My league's auctions have taken about the same amount of time as previous drafts.
Sounds like MLB. If you're the Yankees, I wouldn't want to be the Marlins or Royals.I would be interested to hear how it works out, if you/your league end up doing it.
Definitely. And even if it took an hour longer, I think the entire draft is so much more interesting, I'm willing to stick around longer. It's like films: I can watch a good film for three hours, but I don't want to see 10 minutes of a bad film.
I have been doing auctions for 6 or 7 years. I will tell you how I figure my values. After you have projections, hthen you have to set a "vbd" baseline for each position. You then have a VBD for each player. Figure how many players you think we be drafted. Total up (from all the players that should be drafted) the total "vbd" points that will be taken. Then take the total salary cap (salary cap x # of owners) and divide it by the total vbd. There are lots of tweaks to this system that you can do, but I think this is the basic analysis.Good Luck
If you have the VBDs, what you can do to get auction values is the following:1. Add together all of the VBD values at every position.
We are trying a blind n+1 bidding system this year to speed up the draft. There won't be the action of bidding people up but the mystery of how much everyone is going to bid.I can't remember where I stole this idea from.
What exactly do you mean by "blind n+1"?If two or more owners bid the same amount, who gets the player?We also use blind bidding for waiver wire, but I've never heard of it for the actual auction. What do you do, write down your bid and then everyone submits it or holds it up? I can see how that would make for a whole different set of strategy and intrigue, but I like the competitive spirit of the traditional auction.
The blind bidding sounds very cool. But I do think it eliminates auction tactics that I find to be crucial.
So if you really want a player you could bid say $100, but if the next highest bid is only 50 then you get that player for $51. If two people write down the exact same bid we'll go open bidding until one of them quits.I think it is going to make it much harder to bid up players that you aren't really interested in. If you submit a bid that is too high you get stuck, conversely if you submit a very low bid someone might get a steal. It will put a premium on how well you value players and shouldn't that be the main focus of the draft.I know it is going to be very different from a regular auction but some people have complained about the time and it was try this or go serpentine draft.
OK, that makes sense. Sounds interesting, definitely a different twist. Not sure I'd want to try it, though. As jdoggydogg said, it puts all the emphasis on the pre-auction prep of deciding values, and takes out the drama of the auction that I find to be the most interesting part. They go hand-and-hand for me.I'm surprised that your league has complained about the time commitment. As I said earlier, I've found that initial fears have proved to be unfounded, and we can comfortably finish our auction in one weeknight evening with a couple of breaks built in. We don't take it ultra-seriously, either, even though we're pretty competitive. What exactly is it that you believe causes your auction to drag to the point that it is turning off some owners?
Most of the complaints come from people with kids. Apparently the wives don't see fantasy football as a good excuse to drink beer for 6 hours or so. This league isn't ultra serious either. Basically just a couple of people complained and I tried to placate. It wouldn't completely surprise me if the group decided to switch at the last minute.champ9598 said:
You definitely have to know your league mates. For example, my league is a 2 player keeper, $200 cap. SA, LJ, S Jackson, L Jordan, Caddy, Ronnie B, all kept. Portis may be kept as well. That leaves the top shelf RBs thin. So really, Tiki and LT2 are the elite, then it falls off to a short list of Rudi, Edge, B West for a RB1 type back. I can now go down the list of owners and see who is going to be in on the bidding for Tiki & LT2 based on how they draft, $$ left, etc. In my league there is going to be 5 of us, possibly 6 all wanting Tiki/LT2. That means the guy who kept SA for $90 may look like a genius. Do I plan on ponying up for either one of these players, or wait for the next tier? Now the 3 or 4 of us that didn't win out, are now focused on the next tier of RB's, well guess what, that lower tier now brings in another 2-3 bidders.There are definite tiers, and you need to be aware of these tiers and how if effects prices. Don't look at it as beginning, middle, end of the draft, but rather, beg, middle, end of the tier. The fall off from Tiki is steep, so if LT2 goes first for $80, Tiki could very well go for $85, just becasue a guy may not want Rudi to be his RB1. I try not to get too stuck on a guy (since that is the sure way to get caught up and overpay), but rather a tier. I try to get an RB early in his tier. You got to keep it in the back of your head that at some point you need to pony up for the guy you want and even possibly overpay a little, otherwise you will just keep dropping down into lower tiers, and finally at some point overpaying for crap. Someone earlier posted that he won't get stuck on a price, and if it goes $3-4 over his budget, he will go for it. I agree, you will be glad you spent that extra $2 for a stud, then an extra $2 for K Barlow. I don't know about the rest of you, but I prefer to overpay for quality than crap. (Of course learning this the hard way!)There are bargains to be had later in the draft, so I am all about saving some $$, but we are talking about decent players bought at a bargain, not studs. The guy that should have had for $20, but you score him for $10. You can't win it all with just a bunch of $20 level players.
For some reason, I haven't been able to change the auction values on the DD to my liking. I don't want my QBs/TE valued so high, and I want to increase the value on my WR/RB. This seemed like a simple change, but somehow it always keeps their values too high. What I'd like to do is put in all the values manually so I know everything is correct.Any ideas??
BumpI left a message for Bruce in the Apps Forum, but no reply. Anyone have any tips
