How to Prepare for Auction Start Up

[zdhaugen]

It is really difficult to prepare for because of the wide spectrum of owner behavior. There will be 2-3 owners with the same conservative, strategy, and 2-3 owners who change their strategy after a few signings, and 2-3 owners who blow their budget with 3-4 signings. I like to create a spreadsheet based on my player values/rankings/tiers, and then assign a dollar range for them. I would anticipate 25-30% for some of the studs like Barkley/Beckham/Gurley. I would choose a strategy and try my best to execute it. There will be insane value throughout the entire auction, early, mid and late. If the first player nominated is Barkley he will go for an insane amount of money, and then 5 players later you might get Gurley/Zeke for 25% less. I find auctions are a great way to easily come out a contender but also a nice balanced roster, because there will be very productive veterans that you can nab at huge discounts, and then you can also get quality 2nd/3rd round rookies super late for minimum wage basically.

My favorite part of auctions of course is that you can essentially own any player you want.

This is really helpful and has me excited for the draft. Two questions: 1. Do you generally prefer to spend big on a true stud like odell, Hopkins, Saquon Zeke, or Get next tier like Mixon Juju etc...assuming prices are right around Average Auction Value. 2. Do you keep track of every other teams moves to see what they still need and their max bid or is that too much to handle during the draft? Thanks.

[zdhaugen]

With that in mind, I'm a believer in KISS (keep it simple, stupid). That gives three options.

If there are a couple or some players that you simply really, really want, then get them regardless of price. Then value purchase the rest of the way.

If you're looking for value, then, as others noted, put all your values for players on a spreadsheet and then bid on anyone and everyone up until they get to about 85% of your value. Then stop. At the end, you'll have a team worth about 20% more in value than any other team.

The third option is simply to go with the flow. Make your spreadsheet but then observe. Did the first four RBs go for much more than you expected? Punt RBs and start grabbing WRs. Are the RBs going for cheap? Then load up -- and keep getting them until the market corrects.

Of course, enjoy!!
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So when you go with the first option, what does that generally look like. Are we talking like 60% of budget on first 3 guys? Thanks for the advice.

[moishetreats]

With that in mind, I'm a believer in KISS (keep it simple, stupid). That gives three options.

If there are a couple or some players that you simply really, really want, then get them regardless of price. Then value purchase the rest of the way.

If you're looking for value, then, as others noted, put all your values for players on a spreadsheet and then bid on anyone and everyone up until they get to about 85% of your value. Then stop. At the end, you'll have a team worth about 20% more in value than any other team.

The third option is simply to go with the flow. Make your spreadsheet but then observe. Did the first four RBs go for much more than you expected? Punt RBs and start grabbing WRs. Are the RBs going for cheap? Then load up -- and keep getting them until the market corrects.

Of course, enjoy!!

So when you go with the first option, what does that generally look like. Are we talking like 60% of budget on first 3 guys? Thanks for the advice.

Could be. One guy in one league REALLY wanted both Zeke and Barkley. He spent about half his budget getting the two of them. Smart? Maybe. Best use of resources? Maybe not. But, it was his team; it's a dynasty league; and he wanted the two RBs that he thought were light-years ahead of everyone else.

Now he has them for his careers, and he's just trying to build around them.

[Dynasty DeLorean]

You have to remember that once these guys are on a roster their value instantly goes up/down. For instance let's say you spend $60 on Barkley. Seems like a lot. But you could spend $30 on 2 players and the Barkley owner would probably laugh at you if you tried to trade them both for Barkley. Just some food for thought. I've done the thing where I try to get a bunch of $15-$30 players instead of spending $50-$60 on the studs and it didn't work out so well, but that could have just been my inexperience at the time.