Options for fast online auctions? (1 Viewer)

[GregR_2]

Received a mail last weekend from George del Prado at FantasyAuctioneer.com indicating that they have been acquired by RotoExperts and will be upgrading their system and won't be back online until the 2010 season. The letter can be viewed at http://www.fantasyauctioneer.com/announcement.html

FA was partnered with MFL and was MFL's solution for leagues that want to do fast online auctions. My contract dynasty league has been using them for our auctions for a couple of years now. I hope MFL will come up with a solution in the meantime. But I want to have an alternative in mind if MFL doesn't come up with something we can use. Anyone have suggestions of other sites that can do fast online auctions? The two main things I'd be needing are:

1. Need to be able to set a list of keepers to remove them from the auction pool and to have keeper salaries accounted for in each team's cap.

2. Ability to hold very large rosters (12 teams 55 players)

But really just having decent software is the big thing. FA's system was excellent, where each time a new bid increases the price on a player, the clock resets to X seconds left before the bidding expires on him. Their biggest problem seemed to be too much demand for their servers to handle close to the start of the season.

Any suggestions of other places to check out with good fast online auction software?

 

[Anonymous Internet User]

ESPN released their auction software last year. it was very serviceable. i don't know if it has the features you require, but you might be able to request them.

 

[Genester]

Same need here - if someone finds a suitable replacement, please let us know!

 

[GregR_2]

Got a reply back last week from MFL's support. To be fair, I assumed with my asking right on the heels of FA getting acquired that they wouldn't be able to say much, and that was the case. But I wanted to ask just to make sure it's a dot on their radar screen that replacing FA is important to their customers. Here's what they said:

Greg:Thanks for checking with us. Other than FantasyAuctioneer.com, the only other site that I'm aware of that offered live auctions in 2008 was ESPN.com.But, since FantasyAuctioneer.com won't be offering football auctions for this season, we're exploring some other options for our customers for the 2009 season. Hopefully a bit later in the off-season we'll have a better idea of what we will be recommending for customers on the live auction front for 2009.Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.Thanks,Kevin

I'm thinking when I get some time to put some thought into it I might send back in evaluation of FA's system and any suggestions I can come up with on improvements if they decide to code their own (which I hope they'll do).

 

[Organized Chaos]

Got a reply back last week from MFL's support. To be fair, I assumed with my asking right on the heels of FA getting acquired that they wouldn't be able to say much, and that was the case. But I wanted to ask just to make sure it's a dot on their radar screen that replacing FA is important to their customers. Here's what they said:

Greg:

Thanks for checking with us. Other than FantasyAuctioneer.com, the only other site that I'm aware of that offered live auctions in 2008 was ESPN.com.

But, since FantasyAuctioneer.com won't be offering football auctions for this season, we're exploring some other options for our customers for the 2009 season. Hopefully a bit later in the off-season we'll have a better idea of what we will be recommending for customers on the live auction front for 2009.

Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Thanks,

Kevin

I'm thinking when I get some time to put some thought into it I might send back in evaluation of FA's system and any suggestions I can come up with on improvements if they decide to code their own (which I hope they'll do).

Hey GregR, can you PM me that info also? It may be something I could add to http://thefantasystar.com for this season as I have some other auction and draft based items I have considered updating and releasing for next season.

 

[KellysHeroes]

been using FA for yrs and I got no email?????

 

[KellysHeroes]

ESPN released their auction software last year. it was very serviceable. i don't know if it has the features you require, but you might be able to request them.

hope ESPN adds IDP

 

[Balance]

FA has crashed on us last two years in a row.

Good riddance.

Ended up jumping in a free ESPN draftat the last second, and it worked suprisingly well.

 

[Genester]

FA has crashed on us last two years in a row.Good riddance.Ended up jumping in a free ESPN draftat the last second, and it worked suprisingly well.

For those who have tried ESPN, can you describe how similar or different it is from FA? (I mean, outside of FA crashing periodically ;-) ). Any screenshots or a place we could try ESPN out?

 

[GregR_2]

FA has crashed on us last two years in a row.Good riddance.Ended up jumping in a free ESPN draftat the last second, and it worked suprisingly well.

For those who have tried ESPN, can you describe how similar or different it is from FA? (I mean, outside of FA crashing periodically ;-) ). Any screenshots or a place we could try ESPN out?

Ditto for me. My first google for it awhile ago didn't work though I got interupted and need to try a few more searches. Anyone with perspective though, would love to hear it.

 

[Balance]

FA has crashed on us last two years in a row.Good riddance.Ended up jumping in a free ESPN draftat the last second, and it worked suprisingly well.

For those who have tried ESPN, can you describe how similar or different it is from FA? (I mean, outside of FA crashing periodically ;-) ). Any screenshots or a place we could try ESPN out?

Ditto for me. My first google for it awhile ago didn't work though I got interupted and need to try a few more searches. Anyone with perspective though, would love to hear it.

No screenshots, but basically a better looking version of what FA had to offer.We didn't subscribe (no time), we literally all joined one of the scheduled free "mock draft" rooms at the same time.Worked out better than FA ever did actually.

 

[Genester]

FA has crashed on us last two years in a row.Good riddance.Ended up jumping in a free ESPN draftat the last second, and it worked suprisingly well.

For those who have tried ESPN, can you describe how similar or different it is from FA? (I mean, outside of FA crashing periodically ;-) ). Any screenshots or a place we could try ESPN out?

Ditto for me. My first google for it awhile ago didn't work though I got interupted and need to try a few more searches. Anyone with perspective though, would love to hear it.

No screenshots, but basically a better looking version of what FA had to offer.We didn't subscribe (no time), we literally all joined one of the scheduled free "mock draft" rooms at the same time.Worked out better than FA ever did actually.

Good to know, thank you! I wonder if ESPN keeps offering this for free this year and when the sign ups start...

 

[stugnut]

Rent this ($35, I think), and you can have remote owners bid via the internet.

I can't say I have done this, but I am going to try this come draft day with 2 other owners who can't make the Vegas draft.

 

[roadkill1292]

Rent this ($35, I think), and you can have remote owners bid via the internet.

I can't say I have done this, but I am going to try this come draft day with 2 other owners who can't make the Vegas draft.

BTFS's system, to which you've linked, is an excellent tool for running a live auction, though it can accommodate up to 4 remote participants. I think GregR is doing a full online auction, please correct me if this is not accurate. Also, their listed rental price is $120 for a 12-unit system and $180 for one with 18-user capacity.

 

[GregR_2]

Rent this ($35, I think), and you can have remote owners bid via the internet.

I can't say I have done this, but I am going to try this come draft day with 2 other owners who can't make the Vegas draft.

BTFS's system, to which you've linked, is an excellent tool for running a live auction, though it can accommodate up to 4 remote participants. I think GregR is doing a full online auction, please correct me if this is not accurate. Also, their listed rental price is $120 for a 12-unit system and $180 for one with 18-user capacity.

Correct, I'm looking for a full online auction as we have owners spread out across the country and attempts to get everyone together for a weekend have always failed. Appreciate the info but hopefully there are some lower cost options. Tack on $120 to the normal cost of our league site and it would nearly triple the league cost.

 

[RJ13]

I was thinking about trying FA this year so now I guess I will look at ESPN unless MFL comes up with something. I have 2 players who will not be there for our auction draft so I don't want to use Yahoo Messanger and bid like we have in the past. Is the ESPN just a mock draft software? Please inform me.

Thanks,

RJ

 

[Balance]

I was thinking about trying FA this year so now I guess I will look at ESPN unless MFL comes up with something. I have 2 players who will not be there for our auction draft so I don't want to use Yahoo Messanger and bid like we have in the past. Is the ESPN just a mock draft software? Please inform me.Thanks,RJ

They have mock drafts you can practice on using their format. They then email the results. As FA crashed on us, we all joined a mock draft that started like 18 minutes later... we got all 10 spots so it worked out great. Actually worked better when it was noted there would be no breaks.... You can pay to acquire customized options (roster size/positions, starting $ amount, ability to pause, etc.).

 

[RJ13]

Thanks for the info. I guess depending on the cost my go with the pay.

Thanks,

RJ

 

[GregR_2]

I was thinking about trying FA this year so now I guess I will look at ESPN unless MFL comes up with something. I have 2 players who will not be there for our auction draft so I don't want to use Yahoo Messanger and bid like we have in the past. Is the ESPN just a mock draft software? Please inform me.Thanks,RJ

They have mock drafts you can practice on using their format. They then email the results. As FA crashed on us, we all joined a mock draft that started like 18 minutes later... we got all 10 spots so it worked out great. Actually worked better when it was noted there would be no breaks.... You can pay to acquire customized options (roster size/positions, starting $ amount, ability to pause, etc.).

Any idea (ballpark figure is fine) of what the cost to customize was?

 

[GregR_2]

Found the following 2008 ESPN write up on their auction software along with a screenshot.

 

[Genester]

Found the following 2008 ESPN write up on their auction software along with a screenshot.

Thanks, this is very helpful!

 

[GregR_2]

Just wanted to give this thread a bump for anyone who wasn't aware of it.

If everyone who uses MFL and wants fast online auctions goes to their league and submits a help ticket on it as a feature request, it couldn't hurt to let them know how much this is needed.

 

[Genester]

Just wanted to give this thread a bump for anyone who wasn't aware of it.If everyone who uses MFL and wants fast online auctions goes to their league and submits a help ticket on it as a feature request, it couldn't hurt to let them know how much this is needed.

Thanks for the reminder - just did it!

 

[KellysHeroes]

The problem w/ ESPN is that its a Fixed rate of $200, my league has a cap of $500

 

[GregR_2]

The problem w/ ESPN is that its a Fixed rate of $200, my league has a cap of $500

Ouch, that will be a problem for us as well. Does ESPN force the minimum bid to $1 to go with the $200 cap?

 

[Fred Lane]

For those who are interested, CBS Sports does incorporate an auction draft capability, where you can modify the number of players, dollar values, and wait times.

 

[GregR_2]

For those who are interested, CBS Sports does incorporate an auction draft capability, where you can modify the number of players, dollar values, and wait times.

Is it a fast online auction? i.e. bidding ends in 10-15 seconds after the last bid was made and everyone is logged into the session for it?

 

[KellysHeroes]

MFL wrote back to me, pretty much told me I'm out of luck.

I don't see why they just don't make a live auction room... it can't be that hard for them to do

 

[KellysHeroes]

Bump... anyone have any solutions? My understanding is MFL has washed their hands of the Live Auction option this yr and are not supporting it.

 

[scientist]

In addition to the fixed $200 salary cap, it appears ESPN only allows up to 16 man rosters in the draft. At least that is what is documented in the Auction Draft overview. Which doesn't make sense to me, because I registered a league and set the rosters to 22. ESPN is now letting you schedule your drafts with both the date and time.

Does anyone have any additional information on CBS? I tried signing up last month but it had not rolled out yet. Our draft is July 19.

EDIT: CBS Sportsline gives you options for salary cap, and start date/time. However, it's not free - it costs $149.99! That's a lot for something I can't fully preview.

 

[corpcow]

I've been working on an auction system for a new dynasty league I'm starting (plus for in-season auctions), which are full contract years + salary, tied into MFL. I was originally just building this as an internal tool, but if you guys can share your requirements maybe I can build something a bit more generic.

 

[Stealthycat]

and ESPN isn't flexible, they won't try and accomodate its their way or no way at all - you'd think it wouldn't be all that complicated to have a flexible/variable roster limit and salary cap as options instead of it being fixed and no flexibility

 

[scientist]

I've been working on an auction system for a new dynasty league I'm starting (plus for in-season auctions), which are full contract years + salary, tied into MFL. I was originally just building this as an internal tool, but if you guys can share your requirements maybe I can build something a bit more generic.

It seems like the things most people are missing are variable roster size and variable salary cap. I'd love an auction tool that takes into consideration contract years, if that is what you are referring to. Our MFL league calculates high bid as YEARS X AMOUNT = TOTAL BID. Another thing on my wish list is exclusion of rookies. Is your app web-based? I'd be interested in testing it out if you put something up for general use.

 

[Unlucky]

I used ESPN several times last year it worked very well. Better than FA ever worked. However, it wasn't quite as flexible, but I do recall changing the roster sizes.

I plan on using ESPN again this season, unless they've reduced the flexibility.

 

[corpcow]

I've been working on an auction system for a new dynasty league I'm starting (plus for in-season auctions), which are full contract years + salary, tied into MFL. I was originally just building this as an internal tool, but if you guys can share your requirements maybe I can build something a bit more generic.

It seems like the things most people are missing are variable roster size and variable salary cap. I'd love an auction tool that takes into consideration contract years, if that is what you are referring to. Our MFL league calculates high bid as YEARS X AMOUNT = TOTAL BID. Another thing on my wish list is exclusion of rookies. Is your app web-based? I'd be interested in testing it out if you put something up for general use.

That's exactly right - my league does total bid based on # of years * salary as well, and we require a 10% increase of each bid which the app enforces (that's a configurable thing though).And yes, it's web-based - but I haven't worked on it for awhile (just got out of the hospital for surgery) and it's definitely not ready for public consumption. AS I said, it was orignailly built against a single league - there's some stuff I need to do to make it a bit more generic.

 

[Genester]

For those of you who might find this useful, here's the low-down on the ESPN auction engine: http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/content?page=...ionoverview2009

Just about the only thing that doesn't work with the ESPN setup for my league is the $200 cap - our league uses $300. Any practical ideas on how to get around this, short of changing the rules?

P.S. You can only bid in increments of $1, so no playing with decimals...

 

[Novice2]

Heard that NFL.com is offering auction drafts this year so that might be worth checking out.

MFL aint never gonna have their own live auction option. Been trying for years and all i get is there is jus not enough interest in auctions.

 

[corpcow]

Just out of curiosity, is this something that FantasyAuctioneer charged for in the past? Is this something you guys would be willing to pay (something/anything) for?

Do any of you guys do in-season auctions in the same format? (I.e., in myleague, I'm building it for the initial auction draft, but this is also how we do all UFA).

 

[Art_VanDalay]

Heard that NFL.com is offering auction drafts this year so that might be worth checking out.MFL aint never gonna have their own live auction option. Been trying for years and all i get is there is jus not enough interest in auctions.

Amen! Same for me and I love MFL but their lack of attention in this area is eventually going to cost them business. Auctions are always growing and they don't seem to want to be bothered. The bigger problem I have with MFL is trying to get a Blind Bidding FA pickups solution. That is why I looked at this thread because I am trying to find a free site that I can customize for our league to use for auction bids on FA pickups throughout the year. Keep the good ideas coming guys.

 

[LTsharks]

Rent this ($35, I think), and you can have remote owners bid via the internet.

I can't say I have done this, but I am going to try this come draft day with 2 other owners who can't make the Vegas draft.

BTFS's system, to which you've linked, is an excellent tool for running a live auction, though it can accommodate up to 4 remote participants. I think GregR is doing a full online auction, please correct me if this is not accurate. Also, their listed rental price is $120 for a 12-unit system and $180 for one with 18-user capacity.

BTFS has upgraded their software and now claim they can have up to 18 remote users.I can't say how the system works for any number of remote users, but we used it last year for our live auction and the system rocked. I can't imagine an auction running any smoother then ours did, it is a great system.

 

[roadkill1292]

Rent this ($35, I think), and you can have remote owners bid via the internet.

I can't say I have done this, but I am going to try this come draft day with 2 other owners who can't make the Vegas draft.

BTFS's system, to which you've linked, is an excellent tool for running a live auction, though it can accommodate up to 4 remote participants. I think GregR is doing a full online auction, please correct me if this is not accurate. Also, their listed rental price is $120 for a 12-unit system and $180 for one with 18-user capacity.

BTFS has upgraded their software and now claim they can have up to 18 remote users.I can't say how the system works for any number of remote users, but we used it last year for our live auction and the system rocked. I can't imagine an auction running any smoother then ours did, it is a great system.

We've had two remote users for two years running and it's worked flawlessly.edit: this is astounding news about the upgrade enabling a 100% remote auction.

 

[scientist]

I previewed CBS Sportsline's auction system a couple of days ago. I signed up for a free trial probably one month ago, which is only supposed to last like 14 days. However, I still had full functionality in my league. The only thing was that any time I saved a setting, it would take me to the payment page. Hitting back would take me back to my league with the settings saved. I went to the draft settings and noticed that you can set the draft for any day between now to October, at 15 minute increments. It was 6:27 PM so I set the draft to begin at 6:30 PM. No problems. I went to the home page and there was the link to enter the auction room. I entered the auction and after about 5 seconds it loaded up. As commissioner, I could suspend the auction, bid for other players, etc. Logged in players had 30 seconds to nominate a player - this was based on my settings. Players not logged in only had 10 seconds. If a player was not nominated in the given time, the app would auto-nominate based on CBS' player rankings. Every owner also had the option of queuing up players in real time by dragging and dropping to the queue below the player list. Each player was nominated at CBS default value for that player. I set the bidding time at 30 seconds. Bidding does not reset the clock until it is down to 10 seconds. There is a "bid" button to increase the bidding by the minimum, or you can enter the value of the bid yourself. After a handful of players were off the board, I suspended the auction and went into the commissioner settings.

I set the nomination time to 1 minute and bidding to 45 seconds just to see if it would dynamically update the draft in progress. I also moved Black Eyed Joe All-Name Team member Cedric Steptoe to the top of my pre-draft rankings. I looked for an option to eliminate default values, and also tried to remove rookies from the draft. I couldn't find a way to remove or edit default values. And the only option for defining the auction universe was NFC/AFC, or by team. I went back in the draft, and the nomination/bid counters had updated based on my changes. When my turn came around, I auto-nominated Cedric Steptoe. That was impressive.

Pros: I could set a custom salary cap and roster. I also had the option of only auctioning starters. Apparently you can run a draft without paying, and then manually import your results to DraftDominator or MFL. I also noticed that if you pay the $149.99, they have a money-back guarantee through October XX, 2009. Either way you can use it for "free". I'm guessing it was a very low traffic draft time, but it ran very smoothly and I was able to change options on the fly.

Cons: Can't edit the draft pool beyond the given options of NFC/AFC/Team (I didn't want rookies in there). I couldn't figure out how to edit or remove default nomination values. This really sucks, and I can't tell if it is adjusted based on salary cap. If values are fixed, one work around would be to set the cap at $1000, then after you import to your league, divide all contracts by 4 (if your cap is $250, like ours).

Conclusion: I believe I will now try out BTFS described above - it looks like the software is all free. However, it does appear to be more complicated than clicking one link - there are multiple things to install and a hotfix for Vista from MS. If you're leaguemates are computer-stupid or Mac users, this could be a problem. If BTFS isn't any better, I will choose CBS over ESPN.

 

[newteech]

ESPN released their auction software last year. it was very serviceable. i don't know if it has the features you require, but you might be able to request them.

Does ESPN allow co-owners or guests to view the auction? It seems like its one guy to a team and no one else could watch the auction in action.

 

[Bob Wiley]

I took this from another thread, but it seems like it might be a nice option for Auctions: www.couchmanagers.com

 

[brutha]

In addition to the fixed $200 salary cap, it appears ESPN only allows up to 16 man rosters in the draft. EDIT: CBS Sportsline gives you options for salary cap, and start date/time. However, it's not free - it costs $149.99! That's a lot for something I can't fully preview.

so CBS is ridiculously overpriced and ESPN's is user-unfriendly and inflexible.I am so shocked!real shame about FA.com; they were the best.

 

[Bob Wiley]

I took this from another thread, but it seems like it might be a nice option for Auctions: www.couchmanagers.com

It looks like this is free as well.

 

[Baby]

I took this from another thread, but it seems like it might be a nice option for Auctions: www.couchmanagers.com

It looks like this is free as well.

(yeah that was my post) try: couchmanagers.com

 

[brutha]

I don't understand the "custom roster spot" stuff at the bottom-? also you can't mock vs computer players, have to have actual people. I bet if someone leaves early it doesn't default to a computer person either..........pass

 

[pizzatyme]

I participated in an ESPN draft a week ago and thought the site was terrific! When it goes live (may have) I think most will be impressed! And, it's FREE!!!

 

[Baby]

I don't understand the "custom roster spot" stuff at the bottom-? also you can't mock vs computer players, have to have actual people. I bet if someone leaves early it doesn't default to a computer person either..........pass

Have fun with Bot drafted league (your preference).

I participated in an ESPN draft a week ago and thought the site was terrific! When it goes live (may have) I think most will be impressed! And, it's FREE!!!

No ability to change $200 drafting cap.