Blind Bidding Setup Question (1 Viewer)

[tomarken]

We're trying blind bidding for free agents in my league for the first time this year, and I was wondering how I should set it up. As commish I can set up:

Max amount owners can spend for the whole season

Minimum bid amount (and what the increments should be)

What is a good number for these? Also, any other tips or caveats would be greatly appreciated.

I want it to be fair and competitive, so that the owners who are smart with their bankroll will have the advantage over the course of the season...but I really have no idea what to expect because we've never done this before.

Oh, also: What happens after blind bidding is over for the week? For example, let's say the deadline for bidding is Wednesday night at 10pm, all the bids are processed at that time...then what? Does it go to first-come, first-served for the remainder of the week? Are players "free" after that point?

 

[Capt Hook]

You don't say how many teams or how many roster spots, but both the WCOFF and NFFC use a total FAAB of $1000. Minimum bid is $1; bidding in dollar increments only; only ties on bids settled by inverse order of standings; there is no maximum as to what a team should be able to bid, but once they reach $0, they cannot acquire any more FA

BTW -

WCOFF = 12 team leagues; 20 roster spots

NFFC = 14 team leagues; 18 roster spots

Both of these are no trading leagues

 

[cscmtp]

$100. And teams should be able to trade BBIDs too.

 

[tomarken]

You don't say how many teams or how many roster spots, but both the WCOFF and NFFC use a total FAAB of $1000. Minimum bid is $1; bidding in dollar increments only; only ties on bids settled by inverse order of standings; there is no maximum as to what a team should be able to bid, but once they reach $0, they cannot acquire any more FABTW -WCOFF = 12 team leagues; 20 roster spotsNFFC = 14 team leagues; 18 roster spotsBoth of these are no trading leagues

Thanks for the help, I guess I should have been more specific. It's a 12 team league, with 16 roster spots, but we do allow trades. Also, our waivers run for 11 weeks, if that makes a difference. So if we did $1000, each owner could spend $90 a week...that seems like a lot, no? Or does the FA market adjust itself to supply and demand, regardless of how much we give them? Ideally I would like to see some owners run out of money at some point in the season, if that makes sense. I don't want it to be extremely cutthroat, but I do want to make sure that if someone decides to pay a lot for a few guys early that it will definitely cost them later on...

 

[tomarken]

$100. And teams should be able to trade BBIDs too.

By that do you mean allowing them to include the "money" for waivers in trades? I hadn't thought of that either, but that's a very interesting idea...

 

[The Jerk]

Any number between 100 and 1000 actually probably works. It's a relative amount that is equal to each owner.

 

[hook014]

Any # will work.

We use $200 to keep it simple.

Bid deadline weds at midnite.

FCFS thurs noon till fri midnite. Then closed for the week.

FCFS doesn't cost fantasy $.

So Commish (me) has 12 hrs to process waivers. Hey, sometimes I have a beer on the way home weds night.

If you use it all up halfway through the year, you can still claim players on FCFS.

ps. all players are locked after their game has started. ie thurs night games.

 

[None_More_Black]

To keep it fair becauses everyone has a different financial situation in our league we have a cap of $75. (real money) We just upped it from 50. Because of supply and demand, the competitive teams almost always use up most of their cap. (although some teams go through it faster then others). We can also trade for cap space which I have done several times when I have had injuries and had to pick up a lot of players off the waiver wire. (or just to help balance out a trade when the values are a little different)

 

[u999spf]

Here is what we do in our 12 team 17 roster size league over the past 3 years and it works pretty well. This system is supported on mfl.com leagues

100 points for the season.

minimum bid is 3 pts, with 1 pt increments (Mon-Wed)

Thursday-Sunday is first come first serve but each oickup still uses 3 pts from your 100 allotment.

You can make trades involving bid points.

Also - We award the 6 playoff teams 30 additional points for making the playoffs that are added to their totals in week 14, to cover playoffs in case they ran low during the season.

If an owner just makes minimum bids they can still make 33 pickups during the year. Usually the most pickups in a season is around 20-24 pickups so the 100 pts/3 pt min is a workable number.

If you run out of points, you need to trade existing players to someone for more points.

 

[The Jerk]

To keep it fair becauses everyone has a different financial situation in our league we have a cap of $75. (real money) We just upped it from 50. Because of supply and demand, the competitive teams almost always use up most of their cap. (although some teams go through it faster then others). We can also trade for cap space which I have done several times when I have had injuries and had to pick up a lot of players off the waiver wire. (or just to help balance out a trade when the values are a little different)

I'm sure you know that you don't need to use real money for this to work. You could limit the transaction to the literal amount or a certain cap, whichever is smaller.

 

[radballs]

I'm in a couple leagues that are $200 and a few that are a $1,000. It's play money anyway so the higher amounts make sense to me only because it makes the likelihood of a tie bid less often.

 

[The Jerk]

I'm in a couple leagues that are $200 and a few that are a $1,000. It's play money anyway so the higher amounts make sense to me only because it makes the likelihood of a tie bid less often.

Except for post 8, radballs, in which they are using real money.

 

[None_More_Black]

We like real money because it keeps the entrance fee a little lower while still having a nice size pot at the end for the winner. That way, if your team really sucks you don't have to waste as much money. Also when somebody makes a crazy bid on a guy, the fact that there is real money involved allows for great trash talking opportunities. Also note that you can't sell players for money just an increase in cap space.

 

[The Jerk]

We like real money because it keeps the entrance fee a little lower while still having a nice size pot at the end for the winner. That way, if your team really sucks you don't have to waste as much money. Also when somebody makes a crazy bid on a guy, the fact that there is real money involved allows for great trash talking opportunities.

So you're saying that a percentage of the blind bid money serves as a de facto entrance fee. More understandable. Basically, the teams that wish to be more active/aggressive in free agency pay more than the others.This also can be accomplished by charging an escalating fee per transaction. Something like first move $1, second move $2, third move $3, etc. with no limit. Or you can step up $1 after every pair of moves...You can combine the two methods by using fictitious blind bid allotments with the provision that the winner of the auction pays the "set" (escalating) transaction fee. The blind bid total is still capped as before.

 

[None_More_Black]

So you're saying that a percentage of the blind bid money serves as a de facto entrance fee. More understandable. Basically, the teams that wish to be more active/aggressive in free agency pay more than the others.

This also can be accomplished by charging an escalating fee per transaction. Something like first move $1, second move $2, third move $3, etc. with no limit. Or you can step up $1 after every pair of moves...

You can combine the two methods by using fictitious blind bid allotments with the provision that the winner of the auction pays the "set" (escalating) transaction fee. The blind bid total is still capped as before.

I don't know if I would call it a de facto entrance fee but I think you have the right idea. It's sort of like baseball where teams decide if they want to add players for the stretch runs or not. This is our 11th year and we have had all types of systems and we determined we like this the best. Your transaction fee escalation idea is interesting. (note that we still have transaction fees of $1 per ww pickup and 3 dollar trades. The league payout pool is about 50% entrance fees 50% fees fines and cap money spent.)

 

[The Jerk]

So you're saying that a percentage of the blind bid money serves as a de facto entrance fee. More understandable. Basically, the teams that wish to be more active/aggressive in free agency pay more than the others.This also can be accomplished by charging an escalating fee per transaction. Something like first move $1, second move $2, third move $3, etc. with no limit. Or you can step up $1 after every pair of moves...You can combine the two methods by using fictitious blind bid allotments with the provision that the winner of the auction pays the "set" (escalating) transaction fee. The blind bid total is still capped as before.I don't know if I would call it a de facto entrance fee but I think you have the right idea. It's sort of like apoker. There are antes, but you don't have to push your whole stack in if you have a crappy hand. This is our 11th year and we have had all types of systems and we determined we like this the best. Your transaction fee escalation idea is interesting. (note that we still have transaction fees of $1 per ww pickup and 3 dollar trades. The league payout pool is about 50% entrance fees 50% fees fines and cap money spent.)

If it works for your league, good for you. Always good to exchange ideas. I've tried to get my league into a blind bid system, but even as Commish I can't pull it off. They're a little too charitable toward "helping weaker owners" who started slow in a given season. Oh well. It just means that I need to think a week ahead of the pack since I plan to be very low on the WW list.

 

[Wally Cleaver]

We are doing blind bid for the first time this year, and are wondering how the commishes can be involved without knowing the bids ahead of time... Does CBS sportsline have this feature? How does everyone handle this?

 

[Capt Hook]

We are doing blind bid for the first time this year, and are wondering how the commishes can be involved without knowing the bids ahead of time... Does CBS sportsline have this feature? How does everyone handle this?

CBS and most of the other sites already have this feature working. Where is your league going to be?

 

[tomarken]

Here is what we do in our 12 team 17 roster size league over the past 3 years and it works pretty well. This system is supported on mfl.com leagues

100 points for the season.

minimum bid is 3 pts, with 1 pt increments (Mon-Wed)

Thursday-Sunday is first come first serve but each oickup still uses 3 pts from your 100 allotment.

You can make trades involving bid points.

Also - We award the 6 playoff teams 30 additional points for making the playoffs that are added to their totals in week 14, to cover playoffs in case they ran low during the season.

If an owner just makes minimum bids they can still make 33 pickups during the year. Usually the most pickups in a season is around 20-24 pickups so the 100 pts/3 pt min is a workable number.

If you run out of points, you need to trade existing players to someone for more points.

Does MFL support involving "bid points" in trades, or is that something that has to be manually adjusted by the commissioner if a trade takes place that involves "bid points"?

 

[mr blond]

Our blind bidding minimum is $0. So if a team blows their wad by week 3 they can still make moves, but it would require no one else bidding on that player.

 

[Wally Cleaver]

We are doing blind bid for the first time this year, and are wondering how the commishes can be involved without knowing the bids ahead of time... Does CBS sportsline have this feature? How does everyone handle this?

CBS and most of the other sites already have this feature working. Where is your league going to be?

CBS sportsline, thanks for the info...

 

[u999spf]

Here is what we do in our 12 team 17 roster size league over the past 3 years and it works pretty well. This system is supported on mfl.com leagues

100 points for the season.

minimum bid is 3 pts, with 1 pt increments (Mon-Wed)

Thursday-Sunday is first come first serve but each oickup still uses 3 pts from your 100 allotment.

You can make trades involving bid points.

Also - We award the 6 playoff teams 30 additional points for making the playoffs that are added to their totals in week 14, to cover playoffs in case they ran low during the season.

If an owner just makes minimum bids they can still make 33 pickups during the year. Usually the most pickups in a season is around 20-24 pickups so the 100 pts/3 pt min is a workable number.

If you run out of points, you need to trade existing players to someone for more points.

Does MFL support involving "bid points" in trades, or is that something that has to be manually adjusted by the commissioner if a trade takes place that involves "bid points"?

You have to track that part manually. No big deal, usually people send out a confirmation email with the details anyway to me so I can change it then.

 

[Wally Cleaver]

Is there a way to have a blind bid process with a deadline of Wednesday night and then open up free agency to everyone for free the rest of the week on CBS...

That is the system we have decided upon.

Thanks!!!