by gorshar » Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:01 pm
We've done closed and open.
Open auctions. In a nutshell, players are put on the block, usually five up at a time (three hitters/two pitchers). Managers bid in minimum of 100,000K increments until a high bid is reached (24 hrs without a higher bid). Opening bid is 10% or 500,000K, whichever is greater. First five sign-ups handle the first five nominations, after that, winning owner makes the next nomination. When a team is full, the nomination slides to the next owner, by order of sign-ups.
Upside - Everybody has a shot at every player.
Downside - Takes about six months to complete and can really drag in the end.
Closed auctions. In a seashell, the same as above except instead of open bidding each owner sends their bid by PM to the nominating owner, winner gets the player.
Upside - Takes about two months. Requires a little more skill in bidding strategies.
Downside - Requires a little more skill in bidding strategies. Some owners have complained about the unfairness of having minimal chance of getting a player you nominate (I don't agree, the solution is not to nominate players you want until late in the auction when you can feel confident nobody will want him) and we still haven't come up with a perfect solution for ties. We've tried re-bids, open auction run-offs, and all have had flaws. We've also tried a hybrid that took close finishes (not just ties) to an open auction with mixed results.
Due to the time factor we've done mostly closed auctions.
We've tossed around ideas of doing combo open/closed - first 100-150 players in open auction, then switch to closed. Might speed things (or slow things down - depending on your perspective) to about four months.
I'd kinda sorta like to try either an open or try the open/closed mix.