Auction tactics--what to do about a shadow?

[roche]

In all my years in roto, this is actually the first time that I've had a genuine shadow at an auction. My brother told his friend who finished last in his first year in the league to watch me and bid when I bid. So it went like this. I jump into the auction, he bids+1, I bid +1, he bids+1 again, I bid +1 and he bids +1 again... After the 3rd time that this happened, I pointed it out and made a joke of it. It was all good natured fun but he kept it up. Now, he did have prices and didn't exceed them. I figured that out when I outbid him for Miggy at $39. There is no way to tell for sure but I'm guessing that he cost me $10-$20 of profit by bidding me up every time. It finally stopped when he filled some of his slots and couldn't bid on those positions and when his budget dwindled.
It was frustrating as hell.

[Todd Zola]

In all my years in roto, this is actually the first time that I've had a genuine shadow at an auction. My brother told his friend who finished last in his first year in the league to watch me and bid when I bid. So it went like this. I jump into the auction, he bids+1, I bid +1, he bids+1 again, I bid +1 and he bids +1 again... After the 3rd time that this happened, I pointed it out and made a joke of it. It was all good natured fun but he kept it up. Now, he did have prices and didn't exceed them. I figured that out when I outbid him for Miggy at $39. There is no way to tell for sure but I'm guessing that he cost me $10-$20 of profit by bidding me up every time. It finally stopped when he filled some of his slots and couldn't bid on those positions and when his budget dwindled.
It was frustrating as hell.

Welcome to my world

1. you're gonna love this, but sometimes jump bidding works
2. but the better thing to do is force what you point out at the end and bid up a player at a position you DO want a guy and drop out so he gets the player

TRUE STORY

Back in the day, old friend Jason Grey and I were in a local private league and suffice it to say we were both shadowed pretty heavily. So to "get our revenge", we planned the following. One of us nominated a player no one had ever heard of -- and we would get in a bidding war, act like we were pissed at each other, knowing eventually someone else would jump in and get involved in the bidding. The plan worked, we bid the player up to 9 I think and 2 others jumped in.

The player was none other than Rob Leibowitz.

[cwk1963]

In all my years in roto, this is actually the first time that I've had a genuine shadow at an auction. My brother told his friend who finished last in his first year in the league to watch me and bid when I bid. So it went like this. I jump into the auction, he bids+1, I bid +1, he bids+1 again, I bid +1 and he bids +1 again... After the 3rd time that this happened, I pointed it out and made a joke of it. It was all good natured fun but he kept it up. Now, he did have prices and didn't exceed them. I figured that out when I outbid him for Miggy at $39. There is no way to tell for sure but I'm guessing that he cost me $10-$20 of profit by bidding me up every time. It finally stopped when he filled some of his slots and couldn't bid on those positions and when his budget dwindled.
It was frustrating as hell.

Welcome to my world

1. you're gonna love this, but sometimes jump bidding works
2. but the better thing to do is force what you point out at the end and bid up a player at a position you DO want a guy and drop out so he gets the player

TRUE STORY

Back in the day, old friend Jason Grey and I were in a local private league and suffice it to say we were both shadowed pretty heavily. So to "get our revenge", we planned the following. One of us nominated a player no one had ever heard of -- and we would get in a bidding war, act like we were pissed at each other, knowing eventually someone else would jump in and get involved in the bidding. The plan worked, we bid the player up to 9 I think and 2 others jumped in.

The player was none other than Rob Leibowitz.

Now THAT'S funny!!!

[rotodog]

I experienced this last week..In a local league i have won 3 times, I had my very own shadow....

I realized it early though because he joked about being very happy to own a player for one more dollar than I was willing to pay....

In addition to Todds comments, here is what I did. I decided to bid on everything..Everything early...He had no idea what i wanted and what I didnt want.

I also bid aggressively when there were many options left within a tier still..This way if he did in fact bid me up, I would stick him with the player and fill that roster spot so I could go get another player in the same tier hopefully for less... I was more than happy to toss out my number 2 option at a position and run the price up so I could then bid on my #1 option without him...

I also Jump Bid him and adjusting my bidding pattern...I did something i detest personally, but I even waited while two owners were the only ones bidding and when one owner thought he won a player at the very last second, I chirped in my bid and won a player 2-3 times that way.....

I also tossed out a couple mediocre Middle relievers that were decent on the surface for a buck, just so he would say 2...And he did without fail..

In the end, i guess I was flattered he decided to shadow me, but it was annoying a couple times when I could have had a guy for 3 bucks and had to pay 6....

[AllstonRockCity]

...I did something i detest personally, but I even waited while two owners were the only ones bidding and when one owner thought he won a player at the very last second, I chirped in my bid and won a player 2-3 times that way.....
....

Oh you're that guy? I hate you.

Good strategy

[roche]

The plan worked, we bid the player up to 9 I think and 2 others jumped in.

The player was none other than Rob Leibowitz.

totally cool.

I decided to bid on everything..Everything early...He had no idea what i wanted and what I didnt want.

This didn't help. My guy dropped out of the bidding when I did. When other people got involved and I stop bidding, so did he.

I even waited while two owners were the only ones bidding and when one owner thought he won a player at the very last second, I chirped in my bid and won a player 2-3 times that way.....

This happened a lot in my last auction and it was effective. There must be something psychological about the surprise element of a new 3rd bidder. Guys seem to freeze and let the new bid go by.

In the end, i guess I was flattered he decided to shadow me, but it was annoying a couple times when I could have had a guy for 3 bucks and had to pay 6....

Yep, as I said, I'm sure that it cost me some good profit.

Shadowing is probably the best strategy for a newbie owner to adopt. You are guaranteed of buying a solid roster at par or $1 over. The newbie is still on his own in the end game because that's when deception comes into play. I often nominates guys I don't want to fill people's slot and take money off the board.

Most of the time, our ego won't let us adopt this strategy. It's never easy to admit that other people are better than you. This is why this doesn't happen that often.

[rotodog]

You mention shadowing as a perfect Newbie tactic and I would agree 100%.

While is did not shadow a guy my first time ever drafting, I did prepare by emulating the most successful owner. In the preseason i decided to figure out what made him so successful and was able to unearth his secrets pretty quick.

Because of the positional requirements, its harder to shadow every offense bid. I would recommend if a new owner was shadowing as a tactic, he focus on OF and Pitching after the draft gets rolling.....In the end if you both need a MI, you can go that route and shadow him there if he tries to sneak in a guy.

One thing another owner said to me last saturday (not the shadow) was that anytime the heard me bidding on a pitcher, it automatically piqued his interest and he began bidding at certain stages......1/3 of the league is pretty hardcore, but the other 2/3 are more casual players......Some of these guys just didnt know much about deep players. I had three bucks left to spend for my bench and I tossed out a longshot Pitcher for Saves , Jose Ceda in Fla.....No one ever heard of him, but an owner said 2 bucks and made me pay 3...he told me if i was nominating him and no one ever heard of him, that he must be good for something.....