MFL new feature: Using blind bid money in trade offers (1 Viewer)

[the next level]

A recent off-season e-mail from MFL announced that they are adding the ability in 2011 for leagues to enable the option to include blind bid money in trade offers. I've always thought this would be a revolutionary change, good to see them implement it. I would like to think it will facilitate more trades. Now bickering owners can close a deal more easily by throwing in a few free agent bucks instead of going back and forth with only various player substitutions. Have any of you been using this already at other websites to confirm that it works well? Or is MFL the first to offer this?

Mentionably, in my own league a team's season opening blind bid starting balances are whatever was leftover from the auction portion of our draft. So now there's even more incentive to save on draft day, and thus we're that much more excited about this feature at MFL.

 

[coolnerd]

Many leagues have been allowing this for years (see zealots for example), but the transactions was completed manually by the commissioner. I have only seldom seen it used to make up value difference (although there is an example in the off-season trade thread now). Most of the trades I remember have been either lower priority guys and/or draft picks for cash or someone with a cash issue trading to get cash.

 

[matttyl]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years.

What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.

Thanks!

 

[Go deep]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

Proxy bidding, MFL has had it for years.

 

[Easy Money]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

We use to email our commish with our blind bid waivers. Last season we used the MFL option for this and it worked great saved the commish lots of time also since he ran multiple leagues with that system.

 

[Jersey35]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years.

What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.

Thanks!

Proxy bidding, MFL has had it for years.

Having used MFL for quite some time, I'm not convinced MFL offers this particular option. In the case above, MFL would award Jason Campbell to Team A for $10 - not $6. The eBay style bidding has been in high demand for some time, but to my knowledge has not yet been implemented.

 

[coolnerd]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years.

What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.

Thanks!

Proxy bidding, MFL has had it for years.

Having used MFL for quite some time, I'm not convinced MFL offers this particular option. In the case above, MFL would award Jason Campbell to Team A for $10 - not $6. The eBay style bidding has been in high demand for some time, but to my knowledge has not yet been implemented.

in the auction portion of MFL there is EBay style bidding. In the blind bidding waivers system, there is not to my knowledge.

 

[lynx4ben]

OK, a lot of comments about the how to of MFL. I'm curious to hear of people who are using the blind bidding dollars trading. How do you like it, etc. One of my leagues was considering allowing it but it got voted won. I'm guessing people were scared just because it was new (myself included). How has it impacted trading?

I guess I would be worried about haggling over BB dollars in every deal.

 

[Go deep]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years.

What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.

Thanks!

Proxy bidding, MFL has had it for years.

Having used MFL for quite some time, I'm not convinced MFL offers this particular option. In the case above, MFL would award Jason Campbell to Team A for $10 - not $6. The eBay style bidding has been in high demand for some time, but to my knowledge has not yet been implemented.

in the auction portion of MFL there is EBay style bidding. In the blind bidding waivers system, there is not to my knowledge.

This is correct, i misunderstood. It doesnt make any sense to have it for blind bids, thats why they are blind bids.

 

[squistion]

OK, a lot of comments about the how to of MFL. I'm curious to hear of people who are using the blind bidding dollars trading. How do you like it, etc. One of my leagues was considering allowing it but it got voted won. I'm guessing people were scared just because it was new (myself included). How has it impacted trading?I guess I would be worried about haggling over BB dollars in every deal.

I had it in two leagues (done manually by commish) however no one ever took advantage of it, and although there was a lot of trading, the concept never caught on in those leagues for some reason.

 

[stugnut]

This is correct, i misunderstood. It doesnt make any sense to have it for blind bids, thats why they are blind bids.

Why does the blind part of the bidding preclude that type of bidding? When I don't feel like flying across the country to attend a Sotheby's auction, I enter an "absentee" bid, which works exactly like the blind bid example above:

Absentee Bids (also known as Written/Commission/Order Bids)

When we execute an absentee bid on your behalf, the lot will always be bought for the lowest increment that exceeds all competing bids and which meets or exceeds the reserve price. In the event of identical bids, the earliest received will take precedence.

In other words, it works as if all bidders were present in the room attending the live auction, exactly like bidding on a player at an auction draft. So yeah, it makes sense. And MFL does not offer it even though a large number of MFL leagues have begged them to add it.

 

[KCitons]

stugnut, the best analogy I can use is to compare the blind bidding to the actual process of picking up a free agent in the NFL.

lets say DeAngelo Williams is an unrestricted free agent. The Denver Broncos offer him a 5 year deal for $20 million dollars. The Miami Dolphins offer Williams $23 million for the same five years. Based on your theory, the Dolphins would only have to pay him 20 million plus $1 more.

The idea is that you have a limited amount of blind bidding dollars, just as NFL teams have a salary cap to work with. This makes owners assign a hard value to a free agent. If they win that player, they pay that full amount.

 

[Captain Hook]

This is correct, i misunderstood. It doesnt make any sense to have it for blind bids, thats why they are blind bids.

Why does the blind part of the bidding preclude that type of bidding? When I don't feel like flying across the country to attend a Sotheby's auction, I enter an "absentee" bid, which works exactly like the blind bid example above:

Absentee Bids (also known as Written/Commission/Order Bids)

When we execute an absentee bid on your behalf, the lot will always be bought for the lowest increment that exceeds all competing bids and which meets or exceeds the reserve price. In the event of identical bids, the earliest received will take precedence.

In other words, it works as if all bidders were present in the room attending the live auction, exactly like bidding on a player at an auction draft. So yeah, it makes sense. And MFL does not offer it even though a large number of MFL leagues have begged them to add it.

The system of underbid+1 is called Vickerey - it is used in many baseball leagues, notably TOUT Wars, but I am not aware of any football leagues that use it. Onroto.com is the site where TOUT is played so they obviously have the program in place but I have no idea if they do FF leagues.

 

[the next level]

OK, a lot of comments about the how to of MFL. I'm curious to hear of people who are using the blind bidding dollars trading. How do you like it, etc. One of my leagues was considering allowing it but it got voted won. I'm guessing people were scared just because it was new (myself included). How has it impacted trading?I guess I would be worried about haggling over BB dollars in every deal.

It seems like a low to no risk proposition to activate this feature. The larger question is whether or not it will increase the number of completed trade deals. In my own experience, I'd venture to say that trade offers are rejected or countered far more often than accepted. Throwing in blind bid dollars might just be the clincher, although the 'back and forth' process would probably experience more cycles. But that's just a hunch, and I threw this subject to the masses seeking confirmation. I'm getting the early impression there is not much experience out there with this feature.

 

[massraider]

OK, a lot of comments about the how to of MFL. I'm curious to hear of people who are using the blind bidding dollars trading. How do you like it, etc. One of my leagues was considering allowing it but it got voted won. I'm guessing people were scared just because it was new (myself included). How has it impacted trading?I guess I would be worried about haggling over BB dollars in every deal.

It seems like a low to no risk proposition to activate this feature. The larger question is whether or not it will increase the number of completed trade deals. In my own experience, I'd venture to say that trade offers are rejected or countered far more often than accepted. Throwing in blind bid dollars might just be the clincher, although the 'back and forth' process would probably experience more cycles. But that's just a hunch, and I threw this subject to the masses seeking confirmation. I'm getting the early impression there is not much experience out there with this feature.

It's a great feature. Zealots leagues, as mentioned above, use it, and as someone suggested (you I think), it helps bridge the gap on close deals. It's even bigger, potentially, in Zealots because the bid dollars roll over year to year, meaning various team bid amounts can be drastically different. Plus, they do a RFA system in the offseason, where you can pick up some bid dollars from other teams bidding on your RFAs. Owners that have blown thru their bid dollars can recoup some money by trading players for bid dollars, and it can act as a sweetener in deals.

 

[shader]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

That takes all the strategy out of it.

 

[the next level]

OK, a lot of comments about the how to of MFL. I'm curious to hear of people who are using the blind bidding dollars trading. How do you like it, etc. One of my leagues was considering allowing it but it got voted won. I'm guessing people were scared just because it was new (myself included). How has it impacted trading?I guess I would be worried about haggling over BB dollars in every deal.

It seems like a low to no risk proposition to activate this feature. The larger question is whether or not it will increase the number of completed trade deals. In my own experience, I'd venture to say that trade offers are rejected or countered far more often than accepted. Throwing in blind bid dollars might just be the clincher, although the 'back and forth' process would probably experience more cycles. But that's just a hunch, and I threw this subject to the masses seeking confirmation. I'm getting the early impression there is not much experience out there with this feature.

It's a great feature. Zealots leagues, as mentioned above, use it, and as someone suggested (you I think), it helps bridge the gap on close deals. It's even bigger, potentially, in Zealots because the bid dollars roll over year to year, meaning various team bid amounts can be drastically different. Plus, they do a RFA system in the offseason, where you can pick up some bid dollars from other teams bidding on your RFAs. Owners that have blown thru their bid dollars can recoup some money by trading players for bid dollars, and it can act as a sweetener in deals.

Every year we have owners who blow through their entire allotment of blind bid money and get stuck unable to play in the free agent market (usually because they guess poorly at how much their peers will bid on a certain player and way overbid themselves. I'm glad we don't have 'ebay style' bidding, lest it rescue these knuckleheads from themselves). The ability to do a trade to regain some free agent dollars is another good reason to enact this provision. I had also been toying with the idea of letting remaining blind bid dollars roll over from one year to the next. We already have a minimal keeper system, how is it any different from that?

 

[coolnerd]

OK, a lot of comments about the how to of MFL. I'm curious to hear of people who are using the blind bidding dollars trading. How do you like it, etc. One of my leagues was considering allowing it but it got voted won. I'm guessing people were scared just because it was new (myself included). How has it impacted trading?I guess I would be worried about haggling over BB dollars in every deal.

It seems like a low to no risk proposition to activate this feature. The larger question is whether or not it will increase the number of completed trade deals. In my own experience, I'd venture to say that trade offers are rejected or countered far more often than accepted. Throwing in blind bid dollars might just be the clincher, although the 'back and forth' process would probably experience more cycles. But that's just a hunch, and I threw this subject to the masses seeking confirmation. I'm getting the early impression there is not much experience out there with this feature.

It's a great feature. Zealots leagues, as mentioned above, use it, and as someone suggested (you I think), it helps bridge the gap on close deals. It's even bigger, potentially, in Zealots because the bid dollars roll over year to year, meaning various team bid amounts can be drastically different. Plus, they do a RFA system in the offseason, where you can pick up some bid dollars from other teams bidding on your RFAs. Owners that have blown thru their bid dollars can recoup some money by trading players for bid dollars, and it can act as a sweetener in deals.

Every year we have owners who blow through their entire allotment of blind bid money and get stuck unable to play in the free agent market (usually because they guess poorly at how much their peers will bid on a certain player and way overbid themselves. I'm glad we don't have 'ebay style' bidding, lest it rescue these knuckleheads from themselves). The ability to do a trade to regain some free agent dollars is another good reason to enact this provision. I had also been toying with the idea of letting remaining blind bid dollars roll over from one year to the next. We already have a minimal keeper system, how is it any different from that?

Rolling over probably keeps bidding down (amounts more than numbers), but it is something for someone to manage versus use or lose it. in my oldest zealots league, there are guys with 30,000 plus and others who rarely have more than 4,000 to 5000. I prefer rolling over in any type of keeper/dynasty league.

 

[matttyl]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

That takes all the strategy out of it.

Takes some out and puts other strategy in. I just really like the e-bay system. I enter my max bid, and then only have to pay $1 more than the next highest bidder to win the player. It now throws other strategy into it, possibly more "real world" strategy as e-bay is about as capitalistic as you can be (only paying what you have to to get what you want).

 

[stugnut]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

That takes all the strategy out of it.

Takes some out and puts other strategy in. I just really like the e-bay system. I enter my max bid, and then only have to pay $1 more than the next highest bidder to win the player. It now throws other strategy into it, possibly more "real world" strategy as e-bay is about as capitalistic as you can be (only paying what you have to to get what you want).

It's exactly like doing an auction on free agents as if all of the owners were gathered in the room and were doing it live, just like you do for an auction draft. That obviously isn't doable week in and week out, so a +1 (or whatever you want to call it) system provides a way to accomplish the same thing.

 

[golfguy]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

That takes all the strategy out of it.

Takes some out and puts other strategy in. I just really like the e-bay system. I enter my max bid, and then only have to pay $1 more than the next highest bidder to win the player. It now throws other strategy into it, possibly more "real world" strategy as e-bay is about as capitalistic as you can be (only paying what you have to to get what you want).

but why wouldn't everyone just enter say like 99 out of 100 hundred dollars? they you get the guy for sure and only pay a dollar more. seems to me that everyone would just max bid on any decent player. then you would default to another option for getting the pick up players (if everyone bids the same amount), and thus void out the actually blind bid process. it's a nice concept, but i'm not sure it would actually work in ff waiver pickups

 

[golfguy]

what i would like MFL to really come up with is the ability to set different lineups for leagues that either: 1. have double headers every week or 2. have some double headers throughout the season. it doesn't seem to me that this would be that difficult to have as option. especially with some many leagues play flex positions. it would be nice to once in awhile hedge my position. (i.e. play shonn greene as my flex against one opponent and if i want to, use wes welker against someone else)

 

[Jersey35]

Will MFL have the ability for an "e-bay like" waiver bidding system? Our league has been hoping for something like that for years. What I mean is lets say Jason Campbell happens to be on waivers (imagine that). Team A and team B both makes bids for him. Team A bids $10 and team B bids $5. Team A would win Campbell, and would be charged $6 ($1 more than the next highest bid). In previous years it would have been done were team A still won, but it would have cost him the full $10.Thanks!

That takes all the strategy out of it.

Takes some out and puts other strategy in. I just really like the e-bay system. I enter my max bid, and then only have to pay $1 more than the next highest bidder to win the player. It now throws other strategy into it, possibly more "real world" strategy as e-bay is about as capitalistic as you can be (only paying what you have to to get what you want).

but why wouldn't everyone just enter say like 99 out of 100 hundred dollars? they you get the guy for sure and only pay a dollar more. seems to me that everyone would just max bid on any decent player. then you would default to another option for getting the pick up players (if everyone bids the same amount), and thus void out the actually blind bid process. it's a nice concept, but i'm not sure it would actually work in ff waiver pickups

Not that I'm for a +1 system in my league, but I can certainly understand why others might want it.Why wouldn't everyone just max bid every player? Really? Because like real life, nobody likely wants to get stuck with said player for $99. If everyone is bidding the max, someone is gonna get stuck severely overpaying for someone and people are going to run out of bidding dollars or salary cap pretty quickly.A +1 system works fine and there's absolutely no reason it wouldn't work in FF. A player would still go to the owner who was willing to spend the most on that player. You and I might prefer a blind bid arrangement, but that in no way makes someone else's desire for a +1 arrangement any less acceptable.

 

[Jello_Biafra]

Has anyone tried trading for BB money? In 2 leagues that we tried it so far, the transaction takes place, but the BB balance does not change and I have to do it manually (which is what I've been doing the last 3 yrs of the league). It's just not working right and support seems clueless.

 

[Cybergeek]

I run a league that bids real dollars for free agents. The way we have done it for the last 13 years is that all bids come through me and I send out email alerts to all owners that bid on the same player when a new high bid is placed. I have been one of the many that have put a +1 proxy or ebay style blind bidding at the top of my list of new features for MFL.

There is an app out there that I considered using last year MFLBid.com. I will revisit again this year.