How does the auction differ from a live auction?
Live fantasy auctions involve both the submitting of players for bidding
and the actual bidding process. This is normally done on one player at
a time with teams taking turns submitting players. Even in a live local
draft, this process is extremely time-consuming. Most internet fantasy
leagues that have auctions use a chatroom for their auction. This process
is extremely tedious, but it can be done. The FFLeagues auction draft program
could also be used in a live setting, and the draft could be accomplished
in 5-6 hours with a pre-set interval of bidding allowed for each player.
However, due to the difficulty of scheduling live drafts and the overwhelming
majority of the players preferring running drafts, FFLeagues' auction draft
will be run as ebay-style draft over a period of several days. (If 100%
of the league members preferred a live setting and agreed to the date and
time, I would be happy to run the program as live auction.) When set up
as a running draft (running for several days), each player will be up for
bid for 24 hours. This will mean that there will be 12-24 players on which
bidding is open at any given time. For those who can be online for the
live sales session every evening of the auction, the process can be just
like a live auction. You will have a 3-5 minute window to bid on each player
between sales. For those who cannot attend the sales session, bids can
be entered on any of the players currently up for sale. The maximum amount
an owner is willing to spend can be bid on a player, yet the sale price
will be the amount required to be the high bidder.
What are my team's draft settings?
You can set draft limits for the number of players to be bought and
the amount you want to spend by position. These limits do not have to add
up to the totals, but are just precautionary to keep you from buying too
many players at a single position when you have active bids on several
players at a position.
How do I submit players?
Click on the link 'Submit new player for bidding' to submit players
for bidding.
Why do I have to submit player before my scheduled
time?
At the scheduled time of submittal, the program will run and look to
see if you have a player submitted to your team's list. If you do, it will
select your first player submitted and then submit that player for open
bidding. If you do not have any players on your list, the program will
look at players submitted by other teams.
How many players can I submit at once?
There is no limit to the number of players you can submit. Each one
has to be submitted individually as you must place a bid with the submittal.
But you can enter as many players as you wish. These bids will be processed
and applied to the player after he is submitted. You can, however, elect
to have the bid only count if it is made as your submittal.
Why would I ever not want the bid to count if it
is submitted by another team?
Say you submit Faulk and James both to your submittal list, but you
really want the opportunity to bid on Faulk first. If the team submitting
first submits James, your bid may be the winning bid, which would greatly
reduce your chances of buying Faulk. Now most people would think this would
be fine, but you may only want James if you can't get Faulk. Since you
can't control the order in which the players are submitted, you have to
play them as they come up. So, when James comes up, you would have to decide
whether to bid on James or take the chance that you could get Faulk. If
you had entered unconditional submittal bids on both, then your bid would
go in on James even though you had submitted Faulk to your list first.
Where can I see the list of players I have submitted?
Under the link 'Current submittal list-remove player from list prior
to opening of bidding on player', you will see all of the bids you have
entered on your submittal list. Players will be listed more than once if
you have entered them more than once. You can also remove players from
your list from this link.
Where do I see the list of players submitted by
other teams?
You cannot. Remember you are just submitting players to your private
list for subittals. The actual submittals take place at the scheduled times.
Then you can see which players have actually been submitted and are now
up for sale along with the time of their sale at 'Sales Schedule and Bids'.
What happens if I submit players who are submitted
by other teams prior to my scheduled turn?
Again, if you had players on your list and they are submitted by another
team, your bids will be applied to those players and removed from your
list. If you have no players on your list when your turn arrives, the program
will take the first player on the league list that is submitted at a price
above the minimum bid. A submittal at the minimum bid can only be submitted
by the scheduled team. Missing a scheduled turn early is no big deal, except
you do miss the opportunity to get certain players (whether they are wants
you want to buy or just get someone else to spend on) on the board. However,
later in the draft as everyone is running out of money, you will want to
be sure and have players you want on your list before your scheduled time.
What are the minimum balance/maximum quantities
fields on the bid entry form?
These fields are for setting limits on your bids to keep you from buying
more players or spending more money at a position than you had intended.
Minimum Account Balance before Purchase: if your balance drops below this amount prior to this player's being the next player up for sale, then your bid would be deleted from the system. This field can be used if you want to enter bids on players at different positions, but you do not want to spend more than a specified amount on them. If you buy one and your balance drops below this level, then the other bids are deleted. No entry required.
Minimum Account Balance after Purchase: an entry in this field would keep a bid from reducing your balance below this level. If a prior sale plus this bid would cause the balance to go below this level, this bid would be reduced in value. If your balance goes below this level, then this bid would be deleted. This field can be used if you want to enter bids on players at different positions, but you do not want to spend more than a specified amount on them. An entry in this field would allow you to buy one of the players and still have another bid be active as long as the total of the two would not reduce your balance below this level. For example, you bid $2M on a RB and $2M on a QB, but don't want to spend more than $3M on both. If you purchase the RB for $1.5M, the bid on the QB is still active but would be reduced to $1.5M. No entry required.
Maximum Spend at Position before Purchase: If your expenditures at this position exceed the level in this field prior to this player's being next up for sale, this bid would be deleted.Use this field if you want to bid on more than one RB at the same time, but don't want to buy a second if the first cost more than this amount. You could bid $3M on RB1 and $2M on RB2 and set thsifield to $2M for RB2. Then if you bought RB1 formore than $2M, the bid on RB2 would be deleted.
Maximum Spend at Position after Purchase: If your expenditures at this position plus the value of this bid exceed the level in this field prior to this player's being next up for sale, this bid would be reduced. If the expenditure exceeds the entered level, then the bid would be deleted. This field can be used if you want to enter bids on players at the same position, but you do not want to spend more than a specified amount on them. An entry in this field would allow you to buy one of the players and still have another bid be active as long as the total of the two would not exceed this level. For example, you bid $2M on a RB1 and $2M on a RB2, but don't want to spend more than $3M on both. If you purchase RB1 for $1.5M, the bid on the RB2 is still active but would be reduced to $1.5M.
Maximum Number of Roster Slots at Position Before Purchase: If you have already purchased more players at this position then the entered level prior to this player's being the next player to be sold, then this bid will be deleted. Use this field if you are bidding on multiple players at a position but you want to limit the number of them you buy to this quantity. For example, it may be late in thedraft and you have two slots left and only want one of them to be a RB. Set this field to be equal to your current number of RBs plus 1, and then if you buy a RB, all other RB bids would be deleted.
Where can I see the current bids?
The link 'Sales Schedule and Bids' will show you all of the players
that having been officially submitted for sale currently up for bid. This
link also shows the time of sale and current bid for each player. The high-bidding
team is also shown for the next player to be sold. You can see all of your
current bids on players currently up for bid under the link 'My bids'.
Why can't I see the bids of every other team?
Due to the conditions set on bids or the amount of money a team has
spent, bids can be eliminated when other players are sold. A sale could
totally eliminate or reduce the value of the top bid for the next player
to be sold. By not showing the other bids, it is more difficult to determine
which bids were eliminated and run the price up without worry of being
the top bidder.
Why is my maximum bid so much less than my current
balance?
You have to spend at least the minimum price on every roster position.
You must have at least .1 (min price) x the number of vacant roster positions
after your next purchase.
Why do the bids on some players decrease after sales
have started?
When you purchase a player, the system will look at every active bid
you have to make sure that the bid will still meet all of your team values,
bid conditions, and not exceed the maximum allowable bid for the next roster
position. Any of these could reduce the value of bids or delete them from
the system. In addition, teams have the right to delete bids before a player
is next up for sale as long as they do not have the top bid. Deleting the
2nd highest bid could reduce the current bid for a player.
Why can teams delete bids that have already been
made?
This is allowed as a safety net for those teams that failed to enter
bidding conditions when they should have. Until a player is the next player
up for bid, all bids are really pre-sale bids. Once a player is next for
sale, all bids are treated as in a live auction.
How do I delete a bid?
Click on the link 'Delete Bids' and then select the bid you wish to
delete and submit.
Why does the program allow my bid on player currently
on the board for next sale to exceed my team's pre-set maximum expenditure
by position?
Prior to a player's being the next up for sale, all bids are checked
against the bid condition settings and the team's pre-set draft settings.
However, once a player is the next player to be sold, these values are
no longer checked. This will allow you to change your strategy on the fly
without ahving to go back and change your draft values. The program will
not take responsibility for keeping your bidding in check at this point.
I keep bidding for a particular and I get the message
"There are currently other conditional bids higher than your bid. These
bids may be deleted based on other sales prior to this selection. The current
bid is $1.90." I take it that this message means that someone has put in
a larger bid than me. Does it also mean that the person who has the higher
bid may withdraw the bid if he purchases another player before this player.
And if he did, would I win the player with possibly a lower bid than my
top bid?
An owner cannot delete the high bid if he is the leading bidder. However,
it is possible that a bid could be reduced or even eliminated entirely
based on prior sale. So, your bid could then become the top bid at the
price required to beat the bid below yours.
If it is true that an owner may change or withdraw
his bid after he submits it for a player based on what happens in previous
sales, then is it better to wait until the player is next up for sale and
then begin the bidding war?
If possible, the owner is better off waiting to bid until a player
is on the board unless he knows what he is willing to spend. It is always
better to get your top price in as soon as possible in order to win tie.
Waiting until the player is up for sale will eliminate the confusion that
is created by bidding on multiple players at once. However, that is not
always possible for everyone.
Can I buy more than one player per round?
Each team can buy as many players per round as it can afford. The only
thing done scheduled in rounds is submitting players.