Determining Auction Values (1 Viewer)

So I've been prepping for my first ever Auction in a 12Team league, and I've been really frustrated and somewhat confused by the range of values I've been finding in various websites. There's been amazing discrepencies between leagues--like half-price values! For instance, in a 12-team mock in ESPN, Foster's suggested value was $86 ($200 cap), whereas in a 12team mock in Yahoo, his value was only $42 (still $200 cap)! That kind of discrepency continued through the entire evaluation.

How do you suggest I find out appropriate valuations to bring to my draft?? It seems like valuations are all over the place, and I don't want to come in vastly over or undervaluing players and walk out really frustrated. I'm perpetually a good drafter and owner, but there doesn't seem to be the same basic standards when it comes to an auction. The 10th ranked player can have a wide variety of values, whereas in a snake draft, number 10 is number 10.

Suggestions/articles/websites??

I have played in a lot of auction leagues and have a few tidbits of information that could be useful.

1. Know the players in your league.

- Are owners more likely to wait on QBs or do most teams want an elite QB? Know your league's tendencies.

2. Create your own Tiers.

- Lump players together in ranked tiers to prevent overspending at a position. Use the first player nominated in a tier to get an idea of what the prices could be. Really helps come draft day.

3. Have a strategy going in regarding your values.

- Have a realistic budget on what you want to spend for a player in a certain tier. I tend to grab a elite QB early and then fill in my team with good values in the later parts of the draft.

4. Top RB's are going to be pricey.

- I have never been in an auction draft where the RBs are ever bought at a decent price. If you want a top 3 back, be prepared to spend at least 1/4 of your budget on a RB.

5. The best deals happen early and late in the draft.

- Make sure you save atleast $15 dollars for the last part of the draft. Every draft I have been in a player gets "hidden" in the draft and falls through the crack. Last year it was Hakeem Nicks and Greg Jennings for me. Both went for $16 dollars at the end of a 16 team draft with a $200 dollar budget.

Mock Auctions

You'll probably be the only human bidding and the top tier talent will go for a lot more then what they do in an actual auction but it will be a good baseline to work off of and you'll get to see what kind of talent is left at the end of the draft.

FFToolbox Values

These are still low but will give you an idea.

NFL.com Mocks

Might be you best bet for accurate values.

Everything in a auction is "it depends".

Thats why you have an absolute total lack of article and meaningful insights.

You can get some general tips which are quite helpful, but they become really apparent the more you play anyway

But when it comes to strategy and tactics, auctions are very lacking about player specificity. Its part of its novel approach.

'NeonDeion21 said:

5. The best deals happen early and late in the draft.

- Make sure you save atleast $15 dollars for the last part of the draft. Every draft I have been in a player gets "hidden" in the draft and falls through the crack. Last year it was Hakeem Nicks and Greg Jennings for me. Both went for $16 dollars at the end of a 16 team draft with a $200 dollar budget.

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The worst deals also happen early and late.

Know your league, do a few dozen mocks.

The practice mocks will help more than anything for you to get an overall feel for the demand on players. This along with knowing your opponents will help prevent you from overpaying and finding value at every tier.

Lastly, the one strategy I do use every year is to nominate a "top ranked" player I want nothing to do with first so I can guage where everyone's heads are at regarding values... Chris Johnson/Trent Richardson top that list at the moment.

If its an existing league that you're joining, ask for the results of the last couple auctions. That will give you a picture of how much different tiers of different positions go for each year. Of course how each person ranks a player in his position and the flow of the auction will change the prices a bit, it will give a good baseline to start.

Maybe you'll find that the top RB's always go for $60 but the top WR's only go for $40.

Or no one will spend more than $30 on a top QB even though you think they are "worth" $45.

Etc, etc, may at least help you formulate your strategy going in.

Good discussion on auction values.

Knowing average auction value (AAV)is very important but you need to compare that to your own eSAL or estimated salary value.

AAV can be obtained from some of the above sources and/or combined with your leagues history.

Adjusting AAV for your league's scoring rules is very important. i.e. ppr, enhanced ppr for te, etc.

If you can find mock or AAV for your particular league scoring then that's better.

I'm a stats guy so for every auction I calc my own eSAL's and compare to AAV or even Draft Dominator (DD) suggested values.

Calculating eSALS can be done many ways but most stats guys seem to think allocating vbd by pos and considering the min sal, # total, etc. is a good starting point.

Hope that helps.

Auctions are so much more fun than drafts IMO that I found myself in 8 or 9 of them last year.

(still looking to fill 1 spot in my auction keeper league if anyone is interested)

Anyone want to take a stab at the OP's actual question?

'Warrior said:

Anyone want to take a stab at the OP's actual question?

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How many teams, starters and positions, roster depth, how free agency works and of course scoring.Then rate the leagues owners on a 1-10 scale or something.

I appreciate the comments! This league has done snake drafts in the past and this year I'm making the switch to auction and everyone seems pretty excited. I think what I'vefound through the mocks I've done is that the top guys come out really expensive, it really really affects the lower tier guys. Guys who would go for $5-10 go for $1-5. Also, it seems that the lower tier WRs (15-25) tend to go for discounts too. Seems obvious, because all the money is gone by then.

Another question: do you guys prefer an open bidding system where someone nominates a person, then it's a "free for all" with the auctioneer sorting it all out, or do you prefer a more organized approach where a person nomInates and then you work your way around the room? I see pros and cons to both and the league has been debating it with people on both sides. My personal preference with a first time league is the more organized approach, but some league mates want the freedom to remain silent until the last minute rather than have to stay in the bidding by raising a dollar when it domes around to them. Thoughts?

'ridleyman said:

Another question: do you guys prefer an open bidding system where someone nominates a person, then it's a "free for all" with the auctioneer sorting it all out, or do you prefer a more organized approach where a person nomInates and then you work your way around the room? I see pros and cons to both and the league has been debating it with people on both sides. My personal preference with a first time league is the more organized approach, but some league mates want the freedom to remain silent until the last minute rather than have to stay in the bidding by raising a dollar when it domes around to them. Thoughts?

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We set up a nomination order which is really just the order in which guys are sitting around the room or table. The person nominates the player and is then the auctioneer for that player. Anyone can bid at any time. When the bidding slows down the auctioneer says "Going once, going twice, sold". That will either spur on the next bid or close the bidding. Pretty simple, effective, and best of all quick.

Have you ever had issues with Two people bidding at the same time?

I have a 16 team auction league that is been very consistant over the years. I'm driving so I am not going to be able to give complete breakdowns but I can give you a good idea of where things end up. It's $100 with. QB-WR-WR-WR-RB-RB-Flex (rb-wr-te)-TE-K-D. It's big play bonus where Qb's score from 250-400 usually, with Rodgers at 450 and all the other guys above QB 10 over 300. The top RB's get up to 325 while RB 10 is around 250. As for WR's Mega put up 275 points and wr 10 went 175. TE will slot itself price wise usually. Gronk and Graham could go anywhere from $15-35 with most of the other TE' s going for much less. Most go between $3-10. Top D goes $5 and top K $3. The top studs at QB/RB/WR will top out at $55 (three guys a year seem to go over $50)

I expect Rodgers will go $55. The rest of the QB's will go Brees-Brady-$45, Staff and Newton-$40, Vick's tier $25, Ryan Roth ect.-$20, quickly dropping off to $1-$5 backups. I ALWAYS nees a top tier QB for $40 in bigger leagues. As for the RB's the top guy is always right around $50. The next 2-8 will go from $35-$45 and one or two will have you shaking your head. Make sure you get one of these guys in the $35 range or you will be in trouble with more money than talent at the end. You are better off filling out your bench with $1 guys at the end and working the waiver wire. Get STUDS! WR is the spot where I try and get bargins towards the end for a few bucks to round things out. Mega will go for $40 but things will drop off quick with studs still going for $18-$22 a few turns later. I got Julio Jones for $8 last year and Torrey Smith for $1 and I dis well. TE and D are spots you wait on but have that extra dollar sitting aside to go $2 on a good one. Grab the unknown, forgotten, or rookie kickers for $1 at the end. Also toss out players you don't want during the draft for $1 and get out of the way. Local team guys and hyped rookies are perfect for this. The top five kickers also but don't throw out D. You will need one if them. I am sorry this is messy, it's from my phone. Hope it helps.

'ridleyman said:

Have you ever had issues with Two people bidding at the same time?

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Your auction draft will be so much easier if you have an auctioneer running the draft, and they have the final say on who bid first. We have had friends, wait staff, Hooter Girls, etc run the draft for us. It's important to have a consistent cadence of, "going once, going twice, sold" for every player. I will run the first 3 or 4 players so that whoever is auctioneer gets a feel for how fast the cadence should be. And we have a rule that if someone tries to bump the price while the auctioneer has even started to say "sold", they are too late. You will have owners who are always dragging out the sale, waiting until the last microsecond before bumping the price, but it only takes one of those moments when the "SSSSS" sound on "sold" has been started by the auctioneer before the owner got their bid in and they lose the player, and after that people stop dragging their feet when they realize you are serious about enforcing that (and make sure you stress that in the pre-auction rules reminder).

About 7 years ago we switched to auction drafts after many years of a standard serpentine draft. That first year no one knew what to expect and the prices were all over the place. We had one guy, for some unknown reason, nominate a kicker for $12 ($200 cap). Everyone just stared at him for a second and then the whole room burst out laughing. He still gets teased about it (we have a no "do over" rule, if you nominate someone, you can't take it back).

I bet if this is your first auction you will see crazy prices, I wouldn't worry too much about what players "should" go for. In our league last year ($200 cap, 12 teams, start 1RB/2WR/1TE with 2 flex, no ppr) the top 3 players went for:

QB - $44, 42, 42

RB - $65, 63, 61

WR - $43, 38, 37

TE - $25, 23, 15

Draft dominator has always been my favorite tool for finding valuations. Allows you to set your league's specific scoring design. And then you can even set it up to mimic what source your peers are using (magazines, CBSsports, etc) as you run mocks using DD.

Whatever auction strategy you come up with or decide to follow, it's equally important to convince yourself to drop it if needed during the draft. This is especially true for any dollar values you may come up with for players. Treat them as flexible or you're going to end up being one of those schmoes who doesn't have anyone on their roster until late in the auction.

'butcher boy said:

Whatever auction strategy you come up with or decide to follow, it's equally important to convince yourself to drop it if needed during the draft. This is especially true for any dollar values you may come up with for players. Treat them as flexible or you're going to end up being one of those schmoes who doesn't have anyone on their roster until late in the auction.

Click to expand...

What you've said here is profoundly true. I've been guilty of sitting through an auction for much too long thinking "these prices are ridiculous, I'm waiting on good value" only to miss out on way too many blue chip players and realizing too late I'm sitting on a pile of bid money with only 2nd-tier players remaining. Never again!

'ridleyman said:

So I've been prepping for my first ever Auction in a 12Team league, and I've been really frustrated and somewhat confused by the range of values I've been finding in various websites. There's been amazing discrepencies between leagues--like half-price values! For instance, in a 12-team mock in ESPN, Foster's suggested value was $86 ($200 cap), whereas in a 12team mock in Yahoo, his value was only $42 (still $200 cap)! That kind of discrepency continued through the entire evaluation. How do you suggest I find out appropriate valuations to bring to my draft?? It seems like valuations are all over the place, and I don't want to come in vastly over or undervaluing players and walk out really frustrated. I'm perpetually a good drafter and owner, but there doesn't seem to be the same basic standards when it comes to an auction. The 10th ranked player can have a wide variety of values, whereas in a snake draft, number 10 is number 10.Suggestions/articles/websites??

Click to expand...

Do all the reading you can - most helpful would be actual auction results for leagues that have exactly the same parameter as yours.While there are lots of good articles on many sites, NONE of them deal with your particular league (and no way they could).In general your starters (not including DST and K) should get about 90% of your budget (so $180/200). The remainder will be spent on a lot of $1 and $2 players including your K and DST and if necessary backup quarterback (not even worth having in 12 team leagues IMO unless your auction is so far ahead of Week 1 and there is no access to the FA before then). You might add one extra player especially if you have a Flex spot in your league's lineup but trust me there will be plenty of RB/WR/TE you can buy for a dollar late in the auction.

'Lehigh98 said:

'ridleyman said:

Another question: do you guys prefer an open bidding system where someone nominates a person, then it's a "free for all" with the auctioneer sorting it all out, or do you prefer a more organized approach where a person nomInates and then you work your way around the room? I see pros and cons to both and the league has been debating it with people on both sides. My personal preference with a first time league is the more organized approach, but some league mates want the freedom to remain silent until the last minute rather than have to stay in the bidding by raising a dollar when it domes around to them. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

We set up a nomination order which is really just the order in which guys are sitting around the room or table. The person nominates the player and is then the auctioneer for that player. Anyone can bid at any time. When the bidding slows down the auctioneer says "Going once, going twice, sold". That will either spur on the next bid or close the bidding. Pretty simple, effective, and best of all quick.

Click to expand...

Agree with Lehigh. Never did the 'round the table' bidding, but I'd have to think its slower. We nominate (with an opening price) in what would be the draft order and bidders shout out numbers. Its rare that a player will have more than 4 or 5 owners bidding. And dwindles down to only 2 or 3 serious bidders pretty quick. With the free for all style, you can sit back and see how the bidding goes before deciding to jump in or not. Sometimes you have interest but the price can quickly go higher than you're willing pay. Or you'll see a guy you have marginal interest in and price seems low, so you can jump in once the "going once" starts.

haven't started prepping for my leagues yet, but to piggyback on some concepts mentioned above:

1. Decide how you want to allocate your budget ($x to RB1, $y to QB1, $z to RB2, etc.) This will give you a high-level strategy going into the auction and will keep you disciplined when you spend. If you end up spending x+10 for your RB1, then you can simply subtract $10 from some other allocations to ensure that you don't end up with too little money (and likewise, too much money) later on.

2. For each position, divide the players in tiers and generate a min and max $ value for each tier. Your question was "Well, how do I determine those values?" ... I honestly don't remember how I did this last year and need to brush up. But again, use a range and not a sticky number. In my league the top players always go for ~$10-15 more than the "value" in the magazines and other sources. Don't let this mess with you - have a range that you're willing to spend.

3. It's ok to overspend for certain players --- this may seem contradictory to (2), but it will happen because you never know which other owner really wants the same guy as you. Just know which guys you are definitely willing to reach for. I reached for Chris Johnson last year and immediately regretted it. I was caught by surprise by all the RBs flying off the shelf at very high prices. Should've prepped better.

4. If you're going to use a spreadsheet, keep it simple. Don't have 6 tabs because you probably won't use them all. Participate in mocks to figure out what you really need on your excel.

5. Make sure you have enough $$ for the bargains that will inevitably be available in the mid-to-late rounds. Some owners may overspend early or draft a bunch of players at a particular position, enabling some players to go for under their projected value.

Ill try to update this once I actually start prepping...

'Amused to Death said:

'Lehigh98 said:

'ridleyman said:

Another question: do you guys prefer an open bidding system where someone nominates a person, then it's a "free for all" with the auctioneer sorting it all out, or do you prefer a more organized approach where a person nomInates and then you work your way around the room? I see pros and cons to both and the league has been debating it with people on both sides. My personal preference with a first time league is the more organized approach, but some league mates want the freedom to remain silent until the last minute rather than have to stay in the bidding by raising a dollar when it domes around to them. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

We set up a nomination order which is really just the order in which guys are sitting around the room or table. The person nominates the player and is then the auctioneer for that player. Anyone can bid at any time. When the bidding slows down the auctioneer says "Going once, going twice, sold". That will either spur on the next bid or close the bidding. Pretty simple, effective, and best of all quick.

Click to expand...

Agree with Lehigh. Never did the 'round the table' bidding, but I'd have to think its slower. We nominate (with an opening price) in what would be the draft order and bidders shout out numbers. Its rare that a player will have more than 4 or 5 owners bidding. And dwindles down to only 2 or 3 serious bidders pretty quick. With the free for all style, you can sit back and see how the bidding goes before deciding to jump in or not. Sometimes you have interest but the price can quickly go higher than you're willing pay. Or you'll see a guy you have marginal interest in and price seems low, so you can jump in once the "going once" starts.

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This I also agree with.

I'm doing a similar thing for my cheat sheet interface, and I found this article on FootballGuys which explains the process:

http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2006/06tremblay_auctionpricing.php

The whole alllocating/assigning a price to players has never been the least bit useful. I just keep my cheatsheet with my tiers and try to feel out value... has worked much better than the first few years where i tried to stick to any prices predicted/set on players.

It all goes out the window once the bidding dictates. The worst feeling in the world is not realizing you needed to spend more than planned on a position and having a bunch of money leftover for crap players.

'BigSteelThrill said:

'Warrior said:

Anyone want to take a stab at the OP's actual question?

Click to expand...

How many teams, starters and positions, roster depth, how free agency works and of course scoring.Then rate the leagues owners on a 1-10 scale or something.

Click to expand...

12 Team $200 Auction1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 1Flex, K, DStandard Scoring w/ 1/2 point PPR16 Roster SpotsFree Agency: $100 FAAB

'ridleyman said:

'BigSteelThrill said:

'Warrior said:

Anyone want to take a stab at the OP's actual question?

Click to expand...

How many teams, starters and positions, roster depth, how free agency works and of course scoring.Then rate the leagues owners on a 1-10 scale or something.

Click to expand...

12 Team $200 Auction1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 1Flex, K, DStandard Scoring w/ 1/2 point PPR16 Roster SpotsFree Agency: $100 FAAB

Click to expand...

Looking for Fantasy Auction info? like us on Facebook - facebook.com/fantasyfootballauctioneer

'butcher boy said:

Whatever auction strategy you come up with or decide to follow, it's equally important to convince yourself to drop it if needed during the draft. This is especially true for any dollar values you may come up with for players. Treat them as flexible or you're going to end up being one of those schmoes who doesn't have anyone on their roster until late in the auction.

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This in a nutshell.Auctions will almost always never go as planned. You need to be as flexible as you can and roll with the way it's going. The ones that do, will be the ones that are successful.You can have some baselines, but be prepared to go way over if need be. If you wait to spend your money, you might as well play for next year. Sure bargains can be had, but waiting and waiting for bargains won't give you a championship team.

'the next level said:

'butcher boy said:

Whatever auction strategy you come up with or decide to follow, it's equally important to convince yourself to drop it if needed during the draft. This is especially true for any dollar values you may come up with for players. Treat them as flexible or you're going to end up being one of those schmoes who doesn't have anyone on their roster until late in the auction.

Click to expand...

What you've said here is profoundly true. I've been guilty of sitting through an auction for much too long thinking "these prices are ridiculous, I'm waiting on good value" only to miss out on way too many blue chip players and realizing too late I'm sitting on a pile of bid money with only 2nd-tier players remaining. Never again!

Click to expand...