How To Use A Regular Old Cheatsheet (With No Dollar Values)
Probably the biggest reason people get intimidated by auction-drafting is the prospect of assigning dollar values to each player. Let me be the first to tell you that you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You can take your regular positional cheat sheet or “Top 200” list to your auction and still dominate. The key thing is to be patient and let your league dictate value.

If you’re going to use your positional cheat sheet, I recommend you wait until at least 3-4 players in a position are nominated and sold before buying into that position. Alternatively, if you’d rather use your “Top 200” list, then just wait until about 8-12 players have gone to buy any player. After each player is sold, instead of crossing his name out, simply write down his sale price next to his name on your cheatsheet. The idea is that you want to give yourself a decent sample of values with which to compare the rest of the player pool.

After you have a good idea of how your league is valuing players, all you need to do is pay attention and look for values. What exactly do I mean by this? Let’s say, for example, that in your Top 200 list, the 13th ranked player sold for $50 and the 15th sold for $48 (out of a $200 salary cap). You then see your 11th ranked player going once and going twice for $40. It’s a no-brainer, then, to jump in and enter a bid because he’s going for much cheaper than lower ranked players. You can keep bidding up to the $48 to $50 range and he’ll still be a bargain. It’s really that simple. If you stay disciplined and stick to this strategy of only buying players who are going for bargains, you will put together a squad ready to compete for a championship.

A word of caution: it’s usually difficult to get big bargains for the top players, especially running backs. While using this strategy, don’t forget that you’re still putting a fantasy squad together, which means you still need a decent backfield! Unless you’re comfortable going with an “air attack” (i.e. top QB and WRs, mediocre RBs), you will probably have to bite the bullet and pay fair market value for your RBs. By simply keeping track of players’ prices on your cheat sheet, however, you will make sure that you don’t overpay for them too much.

Another word of caution: If everyone in your league just happens to have read this article and are employing the same strategy, the first round or two will obviously be chock-full of bargains! It would then behoove you to have a general idea of what fair market value is. With the rapidly growing popularity of auction-drafts, you can easily find cheat sheets that do have dollar values attached to them, which can only help. You can see the average auction values for the top 200 players bought in four expert auctions FantasyAuctioneer hosted in May and June. It might be a little outdated, but it’s still a great starting point for you to adjust to your own research, player preferences, and league settings.

Save Some Cash For Later
An analogy I like to use to explain the virtues of frugality in an auction is the way chess masters go to great lengths to protect each pawn on the board. Pawns are the difference between winning and losing in the end-game in the same way that, at the end of an auction, a single dollar can be the difference between winning that coveted, high-upside sleeper (think Keary Colbert) and buying a "value pick" you could do without (think Amani Toomer). Auctions tend to follow human nature - people generally spend more money than they should in the first third to half of an auction when their salary caps are burning holes in their pockets. If you can go against the grain and wait until about halfway to two-thirds through the auction before spending aggressively, you'll be in control of the board, cherry picking values left and right.

That Being Said, Make Sure You Buy Some Quality Starters Along The Way!
The last thing you want is to finish the auction with no difference-makers on your roster and a bunch of unused money in your cap. As they say, you can't take it with you, so be sure to spend it all by picking up some star players you can build your fantasy team around.

Towards the last one-third of the auction, make sure you keep track of which players are still available. Highlight on your cheat sheet those you want on your squad, taking special note of which position is your weakness and is therefore the one in which you need more depth. Also, mark those you think you can get for the minimum bid and spend the rest of your money on those that should go higher than the minimum.

Don't Get Too Cute With The Shill-Bidding Game
Shill-bidding is when you enter bids for players you don't want, just to drive the price up. This can be a fun game to play; but it can also burn you very badly. While you can usually count on someone to bid a little more for players who carried their fantasy team the year before or who play for their favorite NFL team, it's not always the case; so be careful about throwing out overpriced bids. As a rule, only shill-bid a player if he is about to be sold for a price well below his value. Shill-bid him up to close to what his value dictates, but shy away from getting too greedy and trying to drive his price up higher than that. More often than not, doing so will get you stuck with someone you don't want – and there’s no faster way to throw a major wrench into the works of the most carefully laid auction plans.

Practice Makes Perfect
Excuse the shameless plug of our site, but practicing in our free mock auctions can only help to prepare you for the real thing. By going to www.FantasyAuctioneer.com and clicking on the “Try Our FREE Demo Now” button, you can immediately go up against 11 computer players using our default settings. You can also create a free account and log into the site to set up a customized public or private auction or join one of the auctions on our public auctions list. Try out different auction strategies to see what works best for you.

Run With Our Cheat Sheet Tool
If you have about 30-45 minutes to spare (or more if you like), you can use our free cheat sheet tool to help you put together values for each player (look for it in our Auction Strategy section). Starting with our cheat sheet (the "Suggested Retail Price" or “SRP” list), you can easily adjust it by moving players up and down with the tool's user interface. By the click of a button, the tool will generate a mock auction by using your values. Theoretically, if your cheat sheet is accurate, all the teams that are generated should be fairly even. The tool's side-by-side comparison allows you to see if any teams are noticeably stronger and/or weaker. You should then adjust players' values accordingly - weaker teams will have over-priced players and stronger teams will have under-priced players. After adjusting their prices, generate another mock auction, compare the teams, and adjust again. Doing this a few times should help you put together a decent auction value list in a relatively short amount of time.

Okay, so now you have a rock solid cheat sheet - now what? The name of the auction game is bargain hunting, so you should target players going once and going twice for a big discount. Remember that the list you have created is what players should go for – not necessarily what you want them for. Do you really want to pay full price for anything? The idea is that if you can buy $120 worth of players for $100 (or $240 for $200, whatever your salary cap is), you should be well on your way to fantasy stardom.

Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll agree that preparing for your first auction isn’t nearly as difficult as you may have once thought. For more auction strategy articles and tips, see FantasyAuctioneer’s auction strategy section. (Just create a free account and log in.) Happy auction-drafting!