Nothing says die-hard fantasy football owner like an auction league. It is the type of league that isn’t for the faint of heart. If you can’t budget your money in real life, chances are you will have trouble in an auction league. While a little (or a lot) of luck may be involved in standard Head-to-Head leagues, an auction league takes things to a whole new level. You can own any player that you want, as long as you are willing to pay the price.

There is no auto draft, no complaining about drafting position, and no douchebag in your draft room screaming, “SNIPED!” every other round. To say it’s a more pure form of drafting would be an understatement. You can’t go into it blind or without a strategy, so let’s dive in.

1. Pricing Guide

If there is one important key that needs to be followed more than any other, it is establishing value for each and every player that has the slightest chance of being drafted. This means that you need to come up with pricing. There are plenty of cheatsheets that you can find in various magazines, but that is just a basic outline.

What you need to do is spend the time researching, so that you can implement your game plan during your auction. It is easy to spot an owner that is extremely underprepared—do not be that guy.

Depending on how deep you want to dive in, you could budget down to the very decimal point. For example, instead of pricing Le’Veon Bell at $52, giving him an exact pricing of, say, $52.39 will allow you to stretch your budget even further. If you bought Bell for $52, you’d actually save yourself $.39 in your total budget. That doesn’t seem like much on paper, but add a buck or two here and there and you could turn Dwayne Bowe into Charles Johnson later on. Every penny counts. 

2. For the Love of God, Know Your Budget

In fantasy football, standard auction budgets are usually $200. With that said, your league might be different. If this is your inaugural year in a new league, be sure to triple check your starting budget. The last thing you want to do is get to your auction and realize you have an extra $100 to spend or even worse, that you have $50 fewer dollars than you thought you did.

On top of scrambling, if any of your fellow owners found out that you didn’t know your budget, you’d be the laughingstock of the league without question.

3. Driving Up the Price

We all have players that we love and want on our team under mostly any circumstance. There are also particular players we avoid like the plague. Whether it is injury risk, bad situations, or personal preference, we just don’t want them on our squad. There is an easy way to make sure that this doesn’t happen.

Absolutely, positively, do not attempt to drive up prices.

You see, all it takes is one flub and your entire auction could be circling the toilet bowl. If you have no intention whatsoever of owning Frank Gore, don’t bid him up to $25 with two seconds to go. Chances are you’ll be stuck with him and on top of that, you will have overpaid.

Most owners have learned this lesson the hard way, but if you are participating in your first auction this year, don’t make the mistake. Focus on the guys you like and want and build your team around a handful of them.

4. Injured Buffoons

“Well, I saved all of this money, but all of the true studs are off the board. No problem. I can grab as many mid-tier players as I want!”

“Oh, wait.”

“Well, Darren McFadden is available. He will be running behind the Cowboys nasty offensive line. Yep, I’ll just go ahead and spend $12 on him. You know, upside.”

Good luck with that, jackass. What do injury prone players do? Easy. THEY GET INJURED. Just like in a snake draft, you aren’t forced to take anyone that you don’t want to pay for. Players like McFadden, Jonathan Stewart, and Sam Bradford have talent. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be playing in the NFL. They also have a knack for getting injured and I’m not talking about a freak accident.

Make this easy on yourself and just avoid acute injury risks completely. Let them be someone else’s problem.

5. Stars and Scrubs

This is a popular strategy and one that has paid off in many instances. With a $200 dollar budget, using the stars and scrubs strategy will likely allow you to grab four top players while you fill out your roster with $1 and $2 players. 

The important positions to fill early with elite stars are running back and wide receiver. Be sure to mix and match the three spots. What that basically means is don’t spend 60 percent of your budget on three wideouts. Instead, grab two running backs and one receiver or two receivers and one running back. Remember, balance is key.

If you want a top quarterback, Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers would be your only elite priced options; both will cost north of $35. You could also settle for a quarterback in the second tier that includes Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Russell Wilson. Priced between $15-$25, one of these options would allow you to upgrade at wide receiver or running back.

Assuming you grab either Luck or Rodgers, this is how a 12-team PPR Stars and Scrubs auction should look.

QB- Aaron Rodgers ($37)

RB- Marshawn Lynch ($54)

RB- Doug Martin ($6)

WR- Dez Bryant ($48)

WR- Randall Cobb ($42)

TE- Jordan Reed ($2)

FLEX- Markus Wheaton ($2)

DEF- Arizona Cardinals ($1)

K- Matt Bryant ($1)

BE- Joe Flacco ($1)

BE- Roy Helu Jr. ($1)

BE- Fred Jackson ($1)

BE- Andrew Hawkins ($1)

BE- Marvin Jones ($1)

BE- Cody Latimer ($1)

BE- Owen Daniels ($1)

With this team, you are staring down the barrel at four top-20 players, two running backs on your bench that are made for the PPR format, and upside at tight end. If I walked away from an auction with this team, I’d be very excited for the start of the season.

6. 2-QB Leagues

Oh, baby! If you want to get into a bidding war, nominate Andrew Luck first in a 2-QB Auction. You’re going to be paying upwards of $65 for him and that is likely on the low-end. If you take either Luck or Rodgers, you will have to pair him with a mid-tier quarterback. It is virtually impossible to own the top two quarterbacks on the same team; you will be barren everywhere else.

This is a situation where you cannot be shy. Don’t wait around and tell yourself, “I’ll fill my QB positions later on.” Later will come and you’ll be stuck with Josh McCown and RG3. What that means if that you are guaranteed to finish at or near the bottom. Pay the price for at least one top QB and find value later on in your auction.

7. Don’t Wait Around 

My final word of wisdom is this: don’t get to your auction and wait around for value at every position. Know the guys that you want, target them, and pay your price. If you’ve been in the same league with many of the same players for several years, you know your fellow owners’ tendencies. Use that knowledge to your advantage. 

As the draft goes on, other owners will overpay for players and value will open up everywhere. That is your primetime to pounce and build around a strong core. Remember, you need to get a couple of elite players at running back and wide receiver. If you stray from that mindset, your chance to compete for a crown diminishes greatly.

Recently, I participated in a mock auction and watched an owner take the Seahawks Defense for $9. While Seattle is the consensus top ranked defense headed into the season, they are not worth that type of price tag. Much like it is sensible to wait until the final two rounds to draft a kicker and defense in snake drafts, it’s even shrewder to spend a combined $2 on them in auctions. Be smart and spend your budget wisely and you will have a realistic shot to dominate.

Next week we’ll tackle keeper and dynasty leagues!

Feel free to leave questions or comments below.