Fantasy Football Auction Draft Question

[korme]

Is there a way to do a live in-person auction draft without all 12 people having a laptop in front of them?

Seems like a lot of work without a computer.

Or, has anyone done a Yahoo! auction draft on their phone? Because that could work.

[albionmoonlight]

I've never done it that way.

Seems that you could do it all off line. Have a big board and and auctioneer and everything. But there's a lot of stuff that the computers keep track of that would be hard to replicate on paper.

[TLK]

Rule 1 of a live auction- Do not have the auctioneer be part of the league.

[korme]

That would be tough to accomplish.

[digamma]

Pretty sure it is now impossible to draft without the use of a computer.

[digamma]

You used to be able to do it with those helmet phones, but I don't think they make them anymore.

[korme]

Originally Posted by digamma

Pretty sure it is now impossible to draft without the use of a computer.

Damn. I'm expecting probably 6 or 7 of our guys to bring laptops, of 12. Was hoping the others could do it through their smartphones.

[Logan]

The Yahoo apps have always worked very slowly on my phone, I wouldn't trust it for an auction even if it had that ability.

Or are you asking if people can auction through a normal Yahoo page in a browser, and not an app?

[korme]

I figure the app would be the best option. A browser window would be terrible.

[korme]

Just started a mock auction draft. Looks like it works pretty well.

[Vince, Pt. II]

If you have six or seven laptops, you can easily piggyback. Run different browsers and multiple people can share computers. It's annoying, but workable.

[JAG]

Live offline auction is how we do our work drafts, meet at a bar, there's an auctioneer who isn't playing and keeps track of money / players drafted. As long as the auctioneer is competent, it's pretty fun. Occasionally some guys forget who was drafted.

[panerd]

We have been doing fantasy baseball auction drafts in person for years. Why is a computer an absolute necessity?

[panerd]

And as far as the auctioneer. We just have the commish do it unless he is in on the bidding and then somebody who isn't interested in that player takes over.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by panerd

We have been doing fantasy baseball auction drafts in person for years. Why is a computer an absolute necessity?

If this is a question in relation to my post, it was completely tongue in cheek. I too have one league where we draft in person, drink beer and make fun of each other.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by digamma

If this is a question in relation to my post, it was completely tongue in cheek. I too have one league where we draft in person, drink beer and make fun of each other.

No it was about Korme's original post where it sounded like he couldn't hold the draft without everyone having a computer.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Some league sites don't have an 'offline draft' option.

[korme]

Originally Posted by panerd

We have been doing fantasy baseball auction drafts in person for years. Why is a computer an absolute necessity?

Well I am fairly new to auctions. And I've only ever done one auction, for basketball over the computer. As the commissioner, I don't know how comfortable I would be doing it for my most important league as a first time experience. Also, these days we have trouble wrangling 12 guys to commit to one place at the same time - I don't know who I could convince to be the 13th "auctioneer" that would be sober/competent enough to want to comply for free.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by korme

Well I am fairly new to auctions. And I've only ever done one auction, for basketball over the computer. As the commissioner, I don't know how comfortable I would be doing it for my most important league as a first time experience. Also, these days we have trouble wrangling 12 guys to commit to one place at the same time - I don't know who I could convince to be the 13th "auctioneer" that would be sober/competent enough to want to comply for free.

It's a lot of fun in person and definitely adds to the poker vibe when you can see people's expressions and bid people up that you don't get over a computer. You definitely don't need a 13th though. There will always be a couple of people not involved in the bid so just have them say "Going once, going twice" if you are involved in the bidding.

[chesapeake]

I conducted live auctions as commish in NFL and NBA leagues in the 90s when computers weren't even an option. It is easy. Four bits of advice:
1) Take good notes.
2) Have a second person also keeping track of the auction so you can catch any mistakes.
3) After each player is sold, repeat the player's name, the winning team and the winning bid. Most mistakes will be caught then, before the auction proceeds any further.
4) Do fairly frequent money checks -- particularly as the auction is getting into the later stages -- so everyone is clear how many players each team needs and how much money they have left to buy them.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Also, it should be fairly simple to set up a simplistic Excel spreadsheet that has each team's roster. With one laptop, you could easily keep track of everything by slotting each player to a team as they are picked along with their purchase price. You'd have a list of everyone drafted and simultaneously a live accounting of how much budget each team has left.