Hiring an auctioneer for the league auction...

[Grinch]

We use the same guy every year, about 1/2 of the league worked together and it's a guy we all know and like. He gets a small fee, eats and drinks for free and know enough about the game to join in the ball-breaking.

[hombre]

My league owners just take turns running the auction every few rounds. Why pay money to have someone else do this?

I think Lucky and others have mentioned some good reasons.

I agree w/ Lucky in highly recommending that the auctioneer be a non-owner. If know that in my league, if we used your solution (i.e. rotating auctioneer among the owners), whoever was forced to be auctioneer during the end game would be at a material disadvantage relative to the rest of the league.

Most seasoned auction vets will tell you that the endgame is where many a roto league is won or lost. Our auctioneer has to auction the players, write the players on large whiteboards, and track $$ remaining- while ensuring the names keep coming at a fast pace. It is imperative in the endgame to know which teams need which positions, who can outbid you, etc- and to be ready to adjust nominating and/or bidding strategies at the drop of a hat. If I was having to auctioneer during this time, it would be a major distraction to my process.

[hombre]

My league owners just take turns running the auction every few rounds. Why pay money to have someone else do this?

And in terms of the $$- our leauge drafts in Vegas, we fly in the auctioneer in from LA (usually about $100) and pay his lunch (about $30). We have 10 teams and usually 15-16 people, so it is usually less than $10 a head- and we all agree it is absolutely money well spent.

[revo]

Would he be able to sneak in and pre-load the rosters with great deals?

[Steve]

We've hired an auctioneer several times. Also, it was sort of a thing where if you were you the auctioneer this year you were first in line for an open spot in the league. (Oh, and one year when an owner served as auctioneer, and was so mad by the end of the auction that he quit the league.)

I highly recommend getting a non-owner to auction for you. If you need to pay to get a good one, so be it. My son was the auctioneer for my league the last couple of years. The league auction chairman insisted on paying him. He was good, although I think he over-compensated a few times.

I'm not sure what you mean by tracking rosters, but our auctioneers only keep up with how much money each owner has and how many roster spots they have to fill. It seems like it would be hard to keep up with who was on every team, unless you had a computer or a really big white board.

That answers my question - would you expect the auctioneer to keep track of each individual roster. If not the auctioneer, then who does that?

My daughters help auctioneer for years, but they are both grown now and are seldom available these days.

[Steve]

For me, it is worth it for the consistency of having the same guy with the same cadence for each player.

I've done it the way your league does, and it works well, although I always felt weird bidding on a player when I was the auctioneer.

In our league, if you bid then someone else steps up to auctioneer on that player.

[Steve]

My league owners just take turns running the auction every few rounds. Why pay money to have someone else do this?

Hopefully, I'm the one getting hired. I'm been training to be an auctioneer and now would like to put it to good use.

Does anyone here hire a trained auctioneer?