How is Your Auction Run?

[hombre]

Our Commissioner acts as the auctioneer, with an assistant Commissioner taking over if the Commissioner is bidding. It works great.

How does this actually work, in practice? I'm the commish- does that mean whenever I bid on a player, the asst commish immediately takes over? What if we both want to bid on the same player?

Personally, as a commish I'm not too sure I'd like this setup; each league is different, but in mine, end-game management is paramount- that's where most auctions are won or lost. And I think to do my best job there, I need to be studying my opponents' remaining budgets, needs, and bidding trends, as well as my own. I'm not sure I could do as good a job, if I was also having to run the auction, write names on whiteboards, figure budgets etc etc.

[bryanbutler]

I need to get into some live auction action. Sucks being the only fantasy baseball owner in the entire state of New Mexico (apparently). Maybe next year I'll join a league with a live auction and fly somewhere just to give myself something to do.

hey now! you're not even the only fantasy baseball owner in albuquerque, much less the state! i'd be curious if there were enough of us to even make an AL- or NL-only league though...

EDIT: oh, and i mis-voted. i put in both auctioneer and online, but i didn't understand auctioneer meant live. we have an "auctioneer" of sorts in our online auctions - more of a moderator, and it's always the commish with me (as the one who understands the rules of our league the best) as backup.

[Tuna]

How does this actually work, in practice? I'm the commish- does that mean whenever I bid on a player, the asst commish immediately takes over? What if we both want to bid on the same player?

Personally, as a commish I'm not too sure I'd like this setup; each league is different, but in mine, end-game management is paramount- that's where most auctions are won or lost. And I think to do my best job there, I need to be studying my opponents' remaining budgets, needs, and bidding trends, as well as my own. I'm not sure I could do as good a job, if I was also having to run the auction, write names on whiteboards, figure budgets etc etc.

Fair point, Hombre. I'm league secretary (we have an executive committee, not a commish) and I handle auctioneer duties at out live draft. If I'm bidding, another owner will pick up the sale, but I suffer a bit in the endgame by not having much time to strategize. We do use Rotolab to keep track of budgets, & each owner is responsible for keeping rosters. We have a "money count" several times during the draft so everyone's on the same page with the finances, and gives me some time to get organized. But it does make the draft end game more difficult for me.

[Judge Jude]

"We have a "money count" several times during the draft so everyone's on the same page with the finances,"

yep

Ideally it's not every round so that a hard-working owner gets no advantage, but it's also not to where a struggling owner has no idea what's going on. And of course the recurrent check avoids a late-auction controversy.

We update about every 3 rounds, in a keeper league so there are about half as many players to grab...

[Lucky]

I do that all the time...or $11 going once, 'he's worth $20, let's go, going twice'.

I have to disagree here. If someone has the chance to slip someone by cheap, it shouldn't be the auctioneer who wakes everyone up to it. Inevitably, that sort of thing won't be applied uniformly, and should therefore be avoided. In our league we are very strict in that regard...the auctioneer is simply the "going, going, gone" guy. No offense intended. YMMV.

[willthethrill]

I have to disagree here. If someone has the chance to slip someone by cheap, it shouldn't be the auctioneer who wakes everyone up to it. Inevitably, that sort of thing won't be applied uniformly, and should therefore be avoided. In our league we are very strict in that regard...the auctioneer is simply the "going, going, gone" guy. No offense intended. YMMV.

Totally agree with Lucky. You wait for the right time to call out a player, you have him at a very nice bargain and hear crickets, only to hear the guy who can't fit him on his roster say "Come on, he's a $20 player". I HATE that guy.

[Hammer]

I have to disagree here. If someone has the chance to slip someone by cheap, it shouldn't be the auctioneer who wakes everyone up to it. Inevitably, that sort of thing won't be applied uniformly, and should therefore be avoided. In our league we are very strict in that regard...the auctioneer is simply the "going, going, gone" guy. No offense intended. YMMV.

absolutely right.

[B-Fly]

Totally agree with Lucky. You wait for the right time to call out a player, you have him at a very nice bargain and hear crickets, only to hear the guy who can't fit him on his roster say "Come on, he's a $20 player". I HATE that guy.

I don't know about the auctioneer, but trash talk and psychological gamesmanship is a fun part of the auction for me. If I've spent a lot of money early, I'll frequently, though often with tongue in cheek, talk about how valuable that guy is going to be this year. Then once he's bought for $40, I'll occasionally note that his own mother wouldn't have gone higher than $35. I've certainly seen that kind of stuff when I've observed expert drafts as well, so it's not a sign that we don't take the game seriously - it's part of the game, and a fun part at that.

[Hammer]

I don't know about the auctioneer, but trash talk and psychological gamesmanship is a fun part of the auction for me. If I've spent a lot of money early, I'll frequently, though often with tongue in cheek, talk about how valuable that guy is going to be this year. Then once he's bought for $40, I'll occasionally note that his own mother wouldn't have gone higher than $35. I've certainly seen that kind of stuff when I've observed expert drafts as well, so it's not a sign that we don't take the game seriously - it's part of the game, and a fun part at that.

I dont have a problem with others in the auction doing that, just not the auctioneer.

[BC...]

We go around the table to nominate players, but not to bid on them. Sheesh, that would drive me totally insane and add unnecessary hours to the draft. Just take turns nominating and then it's a free-for-all auction. Our Commissioner acts as the auctioneer, with an assistant Commissioner taking over if the Commissioner is bidding. It works great.

Hammer is absolutely correct that consistency in cadence is paramount.

We do ours this way too. The cadence comment is important...sometimes we seem to have some quick calls, but everyone chimes in regarding who bid first or if someone beat the Sold with their bid.

[Don Quixote]

PONY is my only current live auction. I forget who gets the first call, either the last-place guy or first-place, then we just go around the room. Random seating, often dependent on who has power strips and where the outlets are, FFA bidding, with various people functioning as auctioneer. Mostly RJ folks, so everyone knows their stuff (well, excepting perhaps yours truly). Catered lunch. Everyone is good at figuring out who bid first or if someone beat the "sold" call. Money checks every few rounds. Well worth the three-and-a-half hour drive for me.

My other three leagues are online auctions. I sit at home, slamming down Pepsi, eating munchies. Not nearly as much fun, but also no driving.

eld--If you want to fly into beautiful Cleveland in March, we can probably fix you up with an existing or expansion team in PONY.

[Mithrandir]

I have to disagree here. If someone has the chance to slip someone by cheap, it shouldn't be the auctioneer who wakes everyone up to it. Inevitably, that sort of thing won't be applied uniformly, and should therefore be avoided. In our league we are very strict in that regard...the auctioneer is simply the "going, going, gone" guy. No offense intended. YMMV.

Why can't the auctioneer wake everyone else up if the auctioneer is another league member?