To many people, auctions are intimidating mysteries of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. To others, auctions represent the opportunity to craft the perfect team. In reality, auctions are a great way to break away from the mundane confines of your typical serpentine draft. You can have any player you want as long as you are willing to pay the price.
But before we focus on uncovering the dark secrets of auctions, let's talk about some of the reasons why traditional drafts are more popular than auctions.
1. It is tailor made for the industry.
Draft rankings are a fantastic product to market and sell that are easy for the consumer to understand. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with utilizing specialized algorithms and live draft day tools. I use them myself for the legacy draft league I am in.
On the other hand, it is much harder to provide a similar product for auctions. It is true there are sites that provide "Auction Values" for players but usually they just assign a dollar amount based on default rankings. Auctions are unique. Seriously, no two auctions will ever be exactly the same. Even during the same week in a season, different guillotine leagues will have each player at much different values.
2. Drafts are "easy" and don't require math.
One of the reason drafts are usually considered easier compared to auctions is the abundance of resources available to traditional drafts as outlined above. And the second big reason is the unescapable truth that auctions do require math. At least a little. Even though you aren't solving quadratic equations, many people find mixing alcohol and numbers to be more than they can or want to handle. Math is not required in standard drafts. It can be as simple as pick the highest ranked guy when it is your turn. Most of us can do that when we've had a few.
However, drafts have their downsides and limitations. Here are a few.
1. You are "stuck" with a limited group of players before you ever begin.
In a draft, you cannot expect one of the top running backs being available in the later half of the first round. And even if you are lucky enough to land an early pick, you generally have no option to get another player for a very long time. As a result, a limited group of players are available to you depending on your draft position.
You can show how this works by participating in drafts (mock and real). If you draft in the 10th spot a hundred times and plot the results, you will see a (relatively) small group of players available to your team. On the other hand, you will see a larger group of players that are not available in a hundred drafts.
2. There is limited strategy available in drafts.
Drafts tend to follow the "average draft position" rankings with only minor deviations. Occasionally an owner may try the zero running back strategy, but only an auction will allow you to really maximize the benefit of punting a position. Owners in auction leagues understand that sometimes you need to overspend on some positions and find value in other areas.
Another strategy is called price enforcing. Auctions also allow owners to up-bid an opponent and decrease the available funds for future bidding at the risk of winning the player.
3. You can have any player (or two) you want in an auction.
In an auction EVERY player is available and ANY player can be on your team. This is not the same in drafts where you are limited to the players available to your draft position. An auction gives everyone the opportunity to have their favorite player(s) on their team. And if an owner practices a few strategies, they could have several of their favorite players.