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Online auctioneer needed 3/31 - Yes, I will provide pizza and beer!

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  • Online auctioneer needed 3/31 - Yes, I will provide pizza and beer!

    My H2H league has its live draft on Saturday, March 31st. We are spread out throughout the world, so we have to do it online and we use a group AOL chat room. We have done this for years and it works. I'm the commissioner, but I'm also the owner. I've served as the auctioneer each year and it sort of works. If I'm bidding for a player some other owner who isn't bidding will jump in and take over for that player. But the problem is that after the bidding is done for every player, I'm also tracking that player and team in my notes so that I can later copy it to the league site.

    I would like to "hire" an auctioneer for the day. I'm asking a lot, I know. The auction will start at 10am ET, but we need you to be online at least 15 minutes before that. We do take a lunch break of about 30 minutes about three hours in, and occasional 5 minute breaks as needed, but when all is said and done we won't be finished until around 5pm ET. Actually, that's when I just cut things off cuz I'm too tired to keep going. But 9:45am to 5pm ET is when you would be needed to be on hand.

    What do you get for giving up your Saturday for a bunch of strangers with no benefit to yourself other than observing a "mock" auction, as it were? I mean, if you did this in a hall with a bunch of guys sitting around, at the very least you'd get pizza and beer, right? Well, I'll do this for you:

    1. I'll pay you $100 for your time that day. 7 hours, 100 bucks, it helps.
    2. I'll buy you a $20 Pizza Hut gift card (or add $20 to your cash if you hate Pizza Hut).
    3. I'll buy you the 1-month only membership in the Beer-of-the-Month club (or $34.95 in more cash if you don't drink, or I'll buy you a Pepsi or Coke gift certificate instead).

    $100, pizza and beer. It's my attempt to compensate you for your time. Interested? Well, here is what you need to agree to up front:

    1. You have to be available on March 31st from 9:45am to 5pm ET. That might not be so easy with so many of us drafting that day.

    2. You have to have (or get temporarily) an AOL IM handle.

    3. You must have a reliable Net connection. I'm going to have you be the one to track the owners and invite people back into the group chat room if they drop out. You are going to be running the show, so you have to be reliable.

    4. You have to be able to keep up a consistent "Going Once", "Going Twice", and "SOLD" timing (typing, of course). The whole point of this is that I'm hoping that by having a separate auctioneer doing nothing but running the bidding, we can move things along more quickly than otherwise. That means it's up to you to keep things moving along, and doing so in a fair and consistent manner. I would prefer someone who has served as a league auctioneer before.

    5. I need you to write down the bid results all day, to have a master list of the auction results. I'll be noting things too, but you will have the official list which you will email me when the auction is over.

    6. If there are disputes over bidding, I will try to sort things out, but as the auctioneer you will be the final arbiter of results. The impartial judge, so to speak. Can you handle that?

    Think about it. If you can guarantee that you will show up on March 31st, and you can commit to stay all day, and you want the fun of observing another league's auction action, and you want the cash, pizza, and beer, send me a Private Message here. If someone I know well volunteers, I'll just go with the person I know rather than the person I don't, but I will consider anyone who will be reliable. If for some reason I get lots of responses (I don't expect that), well I'll just choose the person who seems best for the situation. Thanks!
    MiLBAnalysis.com / @NickRichardsHQ

  • #2
    Nick, this sounds like a lot. Have you considered just using fantasyauctioneer.com? It automates #1, 3-5 and obviously obfuscates the need for number 2. The only "problem" is #6 but as commissioner, you could probably handle that yourself.

    Have you seen this service? I used it last year and it was pretty snappy.
    If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.
    -Bill Lyon

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    • #3
      Yes, in fact we are planning to use it for my other league the week before. However in this league it has non-standard rules. For one thing, if you want to draft 23 catchers at the auction, you are allowed to do it. Fantasyauctioneer cannot handle that.
      MiLBAnalysis.com / @NickRichardsHQ

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Nick View Post
        Yes, in fact we are planning to use it for my other league the week before. However in this league it has non-standard rules. For one thing, if you want to draft 23 catchers at the auction, you are allowed to do it. Fantasyauctioneer cannot handle that.
        If you've already done the legwork and know FA.com can't handle your rules then okay. But for the chance to save you $150 or so would you like some help looking at possible work-arounds?

        For example, I think you could set up all positions as "Reserves" and then position qualificaitons wouldn't matter. And if someone has to track that on AIM isn't it the same difference if they have to on FA.com? (I know that if you attach reserves to the normal auction it allows you to draft a reserve 1B after 1B, 3B, CI, and UT are full, no matter where you are in the draft.)

        Plus I've emailed in the past with the FA.com creator (...is it George? can't recall...) and he was very agreeable. I imagine he would reply to any issues you have or could possibly set up something for you if need be?
        "The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." Translation: Try to learn something new every day.
        Leagues: Auction - 15tm Mixed 6x6 ...... Snake - 15tm Mixed 5x5 live, 2x15tm Mixed 5x5 email, 15tm Mixed 5x5 email custom.

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        • #5
          Well, that's a good point. I don't know for sure, and perhaps the site is more flexible than I realized in past tests I've done.

          It's OK, though. I've posted the ad, I've had response, I'll go through with it. But in the future, I might just switch over to fantasyauctioneer for all auctions. We'll see how it goes with my other league the week before. That's the best kind of test.
          MiLBAnalysis.com / @NickRichardsHQ

          Comment


          • #6
            Hey guys,

            George from FA.com here. Sorry for the super-late response, but I've just started to monitor this forum for FA-type questions. I promise to respond much more quickly from here on out.

            Anyway, if the only reason you're not using our service is the flexibility issue, then what you can do is (as someone pointed out) set up the lineup requirements with 1 U, 1 P, and 21 Reserves. (You need the U and P there so that all the hitters and pitchers show up.) I realize our system isn't the most flexible, but you might be surprised at the creative workarounds we've come up with. We certainly plan on supporting more types of leagues in the (hopefully near) future, but we obviously have to prioritize our new features every season. If you have other questions about other issues, please respond here or email support@fantasyauctioneer.com.

            While I've never participated in an IM conference room auction, I've heard that it can be quite a nightmare. Save yourself $150 and about half the time and give our software a shot. It's even free with your HQ subscription. (Set it up on HQ, then direct all your non-HQ teams to FA.com.) Good luck.

            -George

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            • #7
              Hi George,

              Thank you for the instructions. Maybe I will switch over to this method. I haven't heard from my auctioneer recently so maybe I have to move to a different approach. Your idea would probably work for my league. Thanks.

              One question: I asked about getting results when the auction is done, and you actually emailed me to confirm I should get an email with the league results. I did two test auctions this past week, closed them out before it was done (it was only a test), and then after the auction was finished (by computer) the results were visible on your site but I never got any email with the results. Nor did anyone else in the league. What did we do wrong?
              MiLBAnalysis.com / @NickRichardsHQ

              Comment


              • #8
                We'll have to look into this. Sometimes our results emails get eaten up by spam blockers, but I find it strange that nobody got it. In the meantime, you can always get it via your My Auctions page. Thanks for reporting it.

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