Auction Newcomers?

[MonkeyOne]

I'm interested in trying an auction league, but don't want something as major as a dynasty start up to get a first feel for it. Is there any interest here for a redraft auction league for people interested in trying things? Or is there such a thing as auction mocks?

[GridIronFavre]

Yahoo has auction mock drafts but those are always kind of crappy considering a lot of the people tend to bail right away, which then leaves everything up to the computer. I would be in for a redraft auction league this year, as I too would like to try it.

[Wolfjack]

I realize you didn't ask for any friendly advice, but I participated two years in an auction redraft league but owner and commish issues shut it down. Things to consider:

1. He used Team DEF and not IDP. While I only ever play IDP, it turns out playing Team DEF was a good idea, because...

2. An auction draft can take a loooong time. Imagine each pick being made ten to twenty times each one. Every time a player is chosen, there are bids and more bids so be prepared to take a while doing it. All we had was a QB, 2 RB's, 3 WR's, TE and DEF plus a bench of 6 and the draft was generally 5 -6 hours long.

3. He had a keeper league so you could keep players (not sure now of it was 3, 4 or 5) and you subtracted from your total what you paid for them in the previous year. Nice reward if you nabbed a great player cheap.

4. The site is critical. There was an actual auction site that we held the draft on but it has since gone under. ESPN's works great from what I saw and its free.

It is a rush picking a team auction style so have fun!

[Phish Brigade]

FWIW, the last time I did an auction draft was about 2-3 years ago on ESPN. They had just launched their new auction software, and it worked really well. Haven't checked it out since, but unless it's regressed it should be fine.

I kind of agree with Lee. An IDP auction draft with anything more than 25 rosters spots could take awhile. But as long as you don't have a bunch of schmucks in it, it shouldn't be too bad. You get a bunch of guys who will wait until the clock winds down to 1 before upping the bid for the 10th time and you're in for a long night. We did a regular team D draft with 18-20 roster spots and it only took 1.5-2 hours. It was a pretty good group of people though.

I think I'll pass on the league, even though auction drafts are a ton of fun. Good luck!