On the Clock: Live Auction Drafts

[stevelabny]

ive been auction drafting once a year for the last 7 years or so.

The league's core has been the same all along, and the other owners are friends/co-workers of someone...so we all get along ok.
It really just becomes another night (day) out with the guys. (although my league actually had a real live girl in it for many years) This even happened the one time I was in a football league with mostly strangers.

It basically consists of a lot of people making really obscure baseball/sports references...which devoles into a simple one-upsmanship contest of more obscure names "odibe mcdowell... garth iorg" some other sports anecdotes either heard/read or experienced (my league has a few guys who work for abc sports and one who works for the nba.) and trash-talk about the players being drafted and their owners (my specialty)

Most of us LOVE our drafts. I know its one of my favorite days of the year. The only people whe DON'T have a good time are those who sit and look at their watches and keep calling their wives/girlfriends.

But as long as everyone knows its going to take all day and has no illusions of getting home by 3pm, you should be fine.

[BigLebowski]

Our auction draft start's at 9am and is usually done by 5pm. However we have keepers so every team isn't starting from scratch so only 15-19 players need to be drafted per team.

We do take our time and BS alot. As long as you have owner who know at least a little, you can keep this thing moving. We actually have poster boards put up around the room with everyone's rosters how much they've spent and how much they have left to spend per player. We also have a "ring-girl/card-girl" who spends her whole day updating the rosters and tally's. Nice perk, but it distracts some guys.

Good luck with your auction. You'll start to sour on snake drafts after your first auction, they are much more interesting.

[SAFLA]

The auctions I am involved in (23 man rosters 10 keepers max) wrap up in 4 hours. Both groups have been around long enough that even if a bid of "Pujols $1" the next bid is "30". We used to go around the table for bids, but when you got to the end game ($1 players) the process became a serp draft. Since we have changed to an open auction not only have we sped up the process (by about 2hrs), but my fellow owners (myself included) enjoy the strats that only an open auction can provide. ie "The huge prohibitive bid" "Jumping into the bidding at going once,twice ". I think the more realistic the actual auction is the faster it will go. Hey, if people can auction off entire estates in 6 hours......you should be able to buy 400 plus ball players in the same time.

[stevelabny]

safla... how do you work the open auction? specifically the auctioneer?

the ONE league ive been in with an open draft was a nightmare. every clown kept trying to sneak a sudden bid in between "going three times" and "sold" which led to a few arguments

that led to nobody wanting the responsibility of being the auctioneer, because they have to be involved fully on every player with no time to check their sheets and because they dont want to be accused of changing the speed of their "going going gone" and be accused of foul play.

that league definately took longer per player and annoyed more owners than a round-the-table draft.

[SAFLA]

We pay (beers and lap dances) to an independant guy. He also does roto which is a huge plus. He has Carte Blanche re: simultaneous bids and sneak bids. There is always some joker in every league that doesn't understand it goes like this "18 going once 18 going twice.....we have a bid for 19". We even have a rule that if the auctioneer thinks he has uttered the "SSSSSSSSS" of SOLD the dude is sold.

In short, find some other roto freak to help you out. Bet it won't cost more than some beers and pizza.

Best of luck