So my main league converted to auction format this offseason, and we just held our auction. This was my first auction draft (though I vaguely remember a survivor league I did with you guys that was auction, so maybe it was my second), as well as the first for most of my league. We had a $200 budget and some people went really high... Tomlinson for $120, Jackson for $101, and Manning for $74 stick out in my mind. Also some great values later on, like Portis for $26, Brees for $23, Palmer for $35 (we have the option of starting 2 QB, so the position has considerably more value). Its more or less standard scoring, 10 yards/pt rushing, receiving, 25 yards/pt passing, 6 pts/TD rushing, recieving, 4 passing. Here's how my team turned out:

T Owens - $38
S Smith - $31
TJ Houshmandzadeh - $20
W McGahee - $40
T Jones - $30
J Cutler - $17
R Grossman - $7
L Washington - $4
B Leonard - $2
M Bush - $1
J Porter - $2
B Marshall - $1
DJ Hackett - $1
S Graham - $3
R McMichael - $1
Eagles D - $1

We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex QB/RB/WR/TE, 1 K, 1 D, so my starters are going to be Cutler or Grossman, McGahee, Jones, Owens, Smith, Housh, Graham, McMichael, and the Eagles.

All in all, I think I did allright. There's no first round talent on my team, but I have 4 people who are top thirty players in McGahee, Jones, Smith, and Owens. My WR corps are the strongest in the league. I have no runningback depth, though, and if both Grossman and Cutler struggle, then my QBs are going to hurt me. I was happy to get two backs in McGahee and Jones who don't really have a job share risk. I was ecstatic to get Steve Smith for $31, though it made me question why I had to pay so much for Owens. I feel the only player I really overpaid for was Shayne Graham, and that was a joke bid... I jumped in at the last second as the league Bengals fan was about to purchase him for $2, pretty much solely for spite. I also didn't leave any money on the table, which ended up being a problem for a couple of teams.

We also can keep up to three players for next season, at the price of their auction value plus seven dollars. That amount is subtracted from your starting budget next season. In that regard, I feel like I could've done better, as I have few bona-fide keepers at that price. Perhaps McGahee and Jones, and one of my bench players if they end up emerging as a surprise.

So what do you guys think?

Edit: Oh yeah, 13 teams.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kabzilla,

If you aren't going to buy a superstud RB, I would prefer to have a little better depth but overall I like the look of your team. You have a very good starting lineup with a top notch WR crew and solid although not spectacular starting RBs.

I think you will find in future years the prices of a few of the top guys will come down. LT for 120 is a lot of cap room to spend on one player. If he performs like last year it can be more or less worth it but most years there isn't anyone worth 60% of your cap. Manning went way too high, especially considering that Palmer went for 1/2 the price - barring injury no way he has anywhere close to 1/2 the production.

As for your costs of your WRs, so much depends on when guys get into the auction and if a couple owners are really targetting a specific player. It just takes 2 owners really wanting a guy for his price to skyrocket above where it should be (or 1 owner that really wants him and another willing to bid him up). Also my guess is that Owens was offered up for auction well before Steve Smith was.

It's a little late now to give this info but you can probably use it in the future. If you look back over how the auction unfolded, most likely the guys thrown out in the auction early went over priced or at least sold for premium dollars. Everybody has money at the beginning of the auction and guys get bid up a little too far. In the middle of the auction when there are still quite a few quality players but a few teams short on cash (the ones that bought LT, SJ, Manning, etc), you can find some pretty good bargains. Then later in the auction prices start to go back up as top caliper talent gets thin and a few teams still have too much money to spend so prices end up back at the premium level again.

Having done auctions for about 15 years, I have found and followed these general rules:

1) A premier player will be about 40-50% of a budget. There are occassionally ones who are more (like LT this season).

2) ALWAYS invest in starters and if you can use only the cap minimum on your backups. Team who choose the spread-the-wealth strategy NEVER win. That does not mean you have to have a premier player but your starters should eat up over 80% of your cap.

3) Never place the player you want up for bid.

4) Never put the #1 player up for bid (i.e. you want to put a guy like Rudi Johnson or Joseph Addai up before LT). Owners who want LT will be nervous about spending a lot on guys like that and you will get them cheaper. This typically works well at the very start of the draft. Obviously nearing the end budgets are well spent and talent is still there.

My personal preference is to nominate kickers. I do it every round until I get one and I wont spend more than the league minimum on one.

I would have liked to see you spend more on your RBs and get someone who is a top 10. But your WR is clearly the best in the league so you could make up for your shortcomings.

quote:

Originally posted by Skip:
Having done auctions for about 15 years, I have found and followed these general rules:

I've played in auctions for about 10 years myself and here are my thoughts on your comments...

quote:

1) A premier player will be about 40-50% of a budget. There are occassionally ones who are more (like LT this season).

Very true and rarely will the ones that go over 50% end up being worth what you paid. I am willing to pay that 40-50% for a top RB more often than not.

quote:

2) ALWAYS invest in starters and if you can use only the cap minimum on your backups. Team who choose the spread-the-wealth strategy NEVER win. That does not mean you have to have a premier player but your starters should eat up over 80% of your cap.

There is always value in having depth on your team but for the most part this is spot on. You need to be willing to pay the price to acquire top RB talent and spend the rest to get good WRs, TEs and QBs. If you have good rankings you will be able to get good value later in the draft from your "sleeper" selections.

quote:

3) Never place the player you want up for bid.

Very true. The are 2 exceptions. 1) If you get to a point where nobody has enough money to bid much more than the minimum and then it almost becomes more of a draft than an auction. 2) See observation 4 - you don't want to get a guy "cheap" if he isn't a guy you really want.

quote:

4) Never put the #1 player up for bid (i.e. you want to put a guy like Rudi Johnson or Joseph Addai up before LT). Owners who want LT will be nervous about spending a lot on guys like that and you will get them cheaper. This typically works well at the very start of the draft. Obviously nearing the end budgets are well spent and talent is still there.

Unless you plan to save your money for the top player this is golden advice. If you toss out the #5 or 6 RB, WR, etc when all the other top players are still available, one of 2 things happens: either the guy you toss out goes for far too much money because everyone is bid happy or he goes for a relative bargain price because everyone else is saving their money for those other guys. Either way, you win.

quote:

My personal preference is to nominate kickers. I do it every round until I get one and I wont spend more than the league minimum on one.

This is what I typically do. It's always either a kicker or a QB. I really like to throw out QBs that I know will go for more than I will spend (Manning) and guys that are generally very highly rated that I don't really want (a couple years ago Vick was the perfect candidate). These guys will eat up cap space from a few teams so that you have a better shot at the top RBs and WRs.

Thanks for the input, guys. Definitely some stuff to keep in mind for next year.

Looking at your advice, I think I did pretty well. My starters ended up being 177/200, so nearly 90% of my cap. I rarely ended up purchasing those who I nominated, except when it got to the end of the draft and I got some $1 players. I would've liked a top flight RB, and am wishing I'd been able to make a play for Westbrook, who was the last top ten guy off the board, going for $51 very late. Still, I'd only have been able to afford him if I'd foregone Smith and Jones, and even at $51, wouldn't have been able to acquire a solid player for my flex (since Housh would've been my other WR starter alongside TO). So I guess things worked out ok. Hopefully the season plays out well.

Any thoughts on bidding up players you don't want simply to drive the price up? Several people told me they were doing it, but I didn't. I was too scared of ending up with a player I didn't want at a price that would've killed me. It seems like a dangerous game to play.

quote:

Originally posted by Kabzilla:
Any thoughts on bidding up players you don't want simply to drive the price up? Several people told me they were doing it, but I didn't. I was too scared of ending up with a player I didn't want at a price that would've killed me. It seems like a dangerous game to play.

Not something I generally do. I did once because I felt the player was worth more than where the max bids was. As it turned out, I ended up with him - which at the price I felt very comfortable with anyway.

My wife, on the other hand, employs this practice continually thru a auction. She targets certain players and just bids others up to get people to spend money. So far as I can recall, she has never paid for one of the players she has bid up. She has participated in auction leagues 4 times and drafted a fifth season and turned the team over to a new owner at the start of the season. She never trades and makes minimal to no waiver moves. She is 5 for 5 in reaching championship games with a 2-3 record in them. She must be doing something right, but it still isn't my preferred strategy at all.

I'm about as far from an expert in an auction as anyone can be but as I was reading Skip's post I realized what Skip was saying, maybe without realizing it.

As far as bidding guys up goes, it seems to be a comfort thing. His wife was very comfortable driving up the price on guys. Maybe Skip isn't quite as comfortable.

I think if it's easy for you without showing your nerves it can be a good strategy. If you're like me and would "show your hand" you may not want to try this.

Bidding guys up is much like bluffing in poker - it's a great move when it works and you look like a sucker when it doesn't. Like skip said, it works best when you are bidding up a guy that you don't necessarily want but are bidding him up because you honestly feel he should go for more money - if you end up with him it's no big deal. However, bidding guys up ONLY because you believe someone will go a couple dollars higher is a very dangerous practice. I've been bit by that on a few occassions over the years and it is really hard to recover if you overpay what you have budgeted on what a particular player is really worth.

My advice, which I don't always follow (usually to my own downfall), is don't do it. Let someone else bid up the price for the sake of bidding them up. Only get involved if you think a solid player is going for a bargain price.

I think your team looks pretty good overall for a 13 team league. My only question is how you'll use that flex spot. It looks like you intend to start Housh there. I would think it almost automatic that a QB would be the best flex player on a regular basis based on the scoring system. An average showing of 200 yards and 2 TD's would net your QB 16 points, wheras Housh would have to be putting up a top-level performance each week of 100 yards and a TD to match that.

quote:

Originally posted by Bullies:
I think your team looks pretty good overall for a 13 team league. My only question is how you'll use that flex spot. It looks like you intend to start Housh there. I would think it almost automatic that a QB would be the best flex player on a regular basis based on the scoring system. An average showing of 200 yards and 2 TD's would net your QB 16 points, wheras Housh would have to be putting up a top-level performance each week of 100 yards and a TD to match that.

Yeah, Maybe I'll try to package Housh and Rex for a better QB or something.

My advice for auction is to never bid on a player until you have to. In our league we use the "going once, going twice, sold" option. I never make a bid on a player until this phrase is started. Bidding early raises there price. Wait and you might get someone cheaper than getting into a bidding war.