Fantasy football auctions give you more control over your team’s destiny. Auctions allow you to construct your roster the way you want to. In a snake draft, you aren’t getting Michael Thomas and Saquon Barkley on the same team. Even in 10-team snake drafts, it isn’t going to happen. Auctions give you that opportunity to get both Barkley and Thomas on your squad. It’s the “chess” of drafting because it isn’t only about constructing a strong and well-balanced roster, but it’s about getting others to spend money. A good amount of leagues have a $200 budget of fake money that you start out with (and very likely can’t carry over into the season adding to your FAAB for waivers). You have 20-30 seconds to nominate a player and every time a raised bid occurs, the clock will reset 10 seconds depending on how much time down from 20-30 seconds the clock is at. Yes, auctions take longer than snake drafts, but it’s worth the extra time to construct the team YOU want to.

A big part of fantasy football auctions is making sure you go after the players that you want. Write a list of 15-20 players that you want and keep that list in front of you. Make your own valuation for the player. For those players you would expect to draft in the first few rounds, add a +5 to your dollar amount valuation. If you want Christian McCaffrey , it could cost you $70 of your $200. On paper, it’s a lot of money to spend on one player, but, the biggest lesson you’ll learn about auctions is that a lot of players go for single-digit dollar amounts. You can pay $1-$3 for low-end Wide Receiver two-type players. Don’t be afraid to spend money, but, don’t put yourself in a bad position that prices you out of getting some of your favorite value players. The key to winning a fantasy sports championship is having a balanced roster.

While snake drafts have an actual draft order, auctions have a nomination order in which we go down the line team-by-team nominating players for the auction. There’s strategy to this too! If you nominate the players you want right at the start of the draft, you’re more likely to get priced out or bid up on that player because teams are anxious to spend when they have their full budget. Get money off the table to start. Put the top defense up for bid and get up to $7 dollars off the board right away. Are you actively targeting Travis Kelce ? If not, throw him in the fire right away and get $30 off the board. When you’re about halfway through the auction, start throwing out players you want. Money has been spent and the eagerness to spend starts to fade a little bit. Make sure you have enough money for a strong maximum bid at the end. When you’re in “dollar days” (when most people in the league are making single-digit buys), have a maximum bid of $4-$5 and get the value player you want late. SPEND ALL OF YOUR MONEY! I can’t stress this enough. I’ve seen players leave $16 on the table. It doesn’t make sense!

Bidding is something you need to be mindful of. When in a bidding war with a player that increases the value dollar-by-dollar, shake it up a bit and raise the bid $2 instead of $1. That will likely cause hesitation in your opponent-bidder’s brain and that could cool them off the player. Players like to often wait for the final second before the clock runs out to raise the bid. If you notice that pattern from your opponent you’re bidding against in a one-on-one, change the pace of your counter-bids. Sometimes counter right when they do so the bid is quickly back to them and then after doing that a few times, let the clock run to the final second and then counter. You need to keep your opponent moving mentally throughout the entire bidding war. Take them off their feet mentally and they could stall out and it could save you money on a player you were targeting.

Another way to get your opponent to hesitate in a bidding war is by taking advantage of the number nine mark of every decade. On paper, it looks more daunting bidding up a player to $40 rather than $39. If you can get the “nine-bid” on a player you’re targeting, your opponent may not want to continue through the next numerical decade in the bidding. If you’re going back and forth in a bidding war and you’re at $36 dollars and you really want the player, it may best suit you to raise the bid $3 to get to $39 and that could back off your opponent from wanting to break through the 40’s. New decades are daunting on paper and screens. If you’re just trying to be a Draft Enforcer and are constantly bidding up your opponents on non-active draft targets, don’t get caught up. Make sure you’re frequently cycling through everyone’s roster throughout the auction so you can figure out how desperately they need/want a certain position. This will help you not get caught playing the bid-up game.

There is this reputation that “having the hammer” (being the team with the most amount of money 30-40% through the auction, likely spending very little of their budget to that point) puts you in an advantageous position. In fantasy baseball, it’s more realistic because there are more positions being targeted. It’s more advantageous in fantasy baseball auctions than fantasy football auctions. If you wait too long to start actively bidding on players, teams with higher maximum bids will take advantage of you (and your desperation to start spending) and they’ll make you pay more for players. I used to hold my budget for the first hour constantly thinking I was psyching out the league, when really all I was doing was psyching myself out of getting active draft targets. Read the auction room. Don’t get caught up. You don’t get a reward for “having the hammer”.

FINAL CHECKLIST FOR AUCTION SUCCESS!

I-PRE-AUCTION

  1. Talk to leaguemates trying to get them to spill the beans and tell you players they like and take notes on paper or whatever piece of technology you have. Don’t be too obvious!
  2. Make tiers of active targets with values of your choosing to keep with you during the auction. Look at Fantasy Alarm’s ADP values and create your own tiers.
  3. Make sure everyone knows the starting time of the auction.

II-START OF AUCTION

  1. Show Up To The Auction on time
  2. (I repeat) SHOW UP TO THE AUCTION ON TIME! Auction is ruined if someone is auto-auctioning. Please show up on time or ideally 10 minutes before!
  3. Nominate players/defenses that you don’t want early.
  4. To speed up the auction a bit, instead of putting Christian McCaffrey up for $1, start the bidding at $30 or $40. You can do this for all top-level players.
  5. Target the players that you want (from your list) and put them in the queue. Getting to the draft early will help avoid rush jobs.

III-THROUGHOUT AUCTION

  1. Cycle through your opponents’ rosters during bidding of players you don’t want to buy and write down team needs if they are obvious. It will help you bid-up players without getting caught.
  2. Add a +$5 valuation to top-tier players on your draft target list.
  3. Keep message board chatter to a minimum, especially if consuming alcoholic beverages. Don’t give away your secrets and strategy. React to value purchases you like or dislike, but keep it short and sweet.
  4. Don’t hold your whole budget for too long. If you haven’t purchased a player an hour into your auction (in 12-team leagues), become more aggressive and ready to spend. Adjust values of active draft targets from a budget standpoint and be more open to spending.
  5. There will be starting Tight Ends, Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers that you can spend $1-$3 for in your auctions. Don’t be afraid to spend early.
  6. Keep a high maximum bid at all times. $30, $15, $10 and $5 are good maximum bids to have during the auction. Don’t nominate your mid-to-late draft sleepers until most teams have a similar budget to yours

IV-LATE DRAFT

  1. Prioritize RB depth when down to “dollar days”.
  2. If you’re only starting one QB and one TE, you don’t need to bid on another. You may only need to spend $1-$3 on your starting QB and TE.
  3. Spend $1 on your Kicker and Defense.
  4. If you have a maximum bid of $2 at the tail end of your auction and there’s a player you want and you are up to nominate, nominate the player for $2 instead of $1. Even if you’re at $3 and really want the player, just start the bidding at $3. If you start at $1, you can get the $3 bid once it hits $2, but you’ll have to be quick on your feet.
  5. SPEND ALL OF YOUR MONEY!! JUST DO IT! ZERO REASON NOT TO! (Sorry for yelling)