Fantasy football trade fairness rules?

Question

Hey I'm curious but what rules do you guys use for allowing trades to happen in leagues. I use to be in a league where people would veto if a trade was deemed unfair which sounds great I thought. This was until I was involved with a trade where me and another person traded our good "but not needed on our starting line up" players. we had a fair trade set up where we were both gonna strengthen our team while not weakening it somewhere else, except in the case of an injury. the league vetoed it...I asked why and most answers were "why would I let you guys both have better teams?" Does anyone know of any good rules to make this based strictly on fairness of trade? Ive heard of using "experts" system but Ive never seen it or know how good it actually is. So if you got advice on the best system let me know

Answer 1

Great question.  I have been in leagues where good trades like this one were vetoed and I have been in leagues where one-sided trades have been approved.  

To solve this issue I formed my own league with friends and family members.  Depending on the sport we usually have between 8 and 10 managers.  We use the same method you listed (manager vetos) and if someone is a jerk about things I just "forget" to invite them back (and that only happened once).  It is cool playing aginast people you know and interesting to see how people play season after season.

One thing I do not recommend--vetoing all the other trades since they vetoed yours.  It takes you to their level and that never solves anything.

Good luck this season!

Answer 2

If you are in a league with random people, there is not much you can do. League Votes generally works best, although some good and reasonable trades get vetoed.

If you are in a league with people you know, have the commissioner review the trade and people in the league can make their cases against the trade. If the league feels that the commissioner is abusing the power, just change commissioners. You can also just use league vote in this league, but it is usually anonymous, so you might have people not telling the truth about vetoing, and they veto all trades.

Overall, there really is no way to regulate trading. Same goes for the professional leagues, you see unfair trades all the time but there is no way to stop it.

Answer 3

The single most difficult aspect of playing fantasy football is finding and/or developing a league of people you trust and enjoy playing with.

I echo the comments from "The Roger" about having friends and family in your league. It is hard enough to get a 10-person jury to agree on a decision, imagine trying to herd those same cats over a four-month football schedule.

Here's a couple tips that should help you:

1. Give the League Manager the ability to overrule the league.

2. Pick the fairest, most honest person to be League Manager.

3. Fill the league with people you know personally.

4. If trouble develops, talk it out with the other league managers either though a chat box or via email. Communication is the key to maintaining the peace.

Answer 4

Excellent question!

Our league has suffered near loss of friendships in trade disputes.

We tried the Yahoo Plus way of "protest", with third-party arbitration.  It didn't stop managers from voting against trades, and locking them up in arbitration.  The third-party ruling were often either wrong, or worthless.

Believe it or not, we finally simply allow all trades to pass unless there is direct evidence of off-line compensation for trades, a "fire sale" or other forms of collusion.

We chose to go the way of a gentleman's agreement, and not evaluating trades on "it making one team too good."

Even bad trades on paper often work out.

You can actually pay a service to resolve them for you, almost as if in a court of law.