Supply and demand.

As of this post, 19 teams have all 5 BRBs for this season already on the roster.  5 more teams have 4.  That accounts of 24 of the 30 teams, or 80% of the league.

Further, if you look around on rosters, there are at least another 15 age V players who could still be BRB material this off-season.  That's would leave just 3 or so teams not fully stocked.  With so little need, it is entirely a buyer's market for BRBs right now.  I've found myself with extra age V guys and in order to sell them I have to 'underbid' them to other managers who are getting similar offers from other teams with a glut of old guys on the bench.

So because of the high supply available, I think that leaves us with needing to either fight the price drop by limiting supply, or meet the demand where it's at and drop the price.

Dropping the price at auctions to 100 for an age II and 150 for age I, or 125/175, would probably bring about a lot more bidding on BRBs instead of buying them at that price from other teams.  Better to give the money to Olmec than another manager who will use it against me in the future!

In order to limit supply and force the demand and prices back up to the 250-300 range, we'd have to make it harder to make a BRB.  Options are increasing the SL needed to make one (age V, SL V minimum for example, which would cut the pool of available guys in half this preseason) or push the age back to age VI, which is truly a rare beast in this league as in order to get there you'd have to get a player to age V, SL 8, which means they were age VI, SL 13 (getting one SL while age IV if they were an age III, SL 16 max player).  Planning for and creating BRBs internally would get a lot harder, so the price to buy them would go back up in a hurry.

I would prefer to see price drops on the auctioned BRB's than change the SL and/or Age required to become a BRB.  I think trying to get these players up to age VI is a bit much to ask on a regular basis and we might see prices for auctioned BRB's jump beyond that 250-300k range quickly. 

As much as I like to use the BRB's and feel their contribution to the game is important, I doubt I would ever bid 300k+ per BRB.

ï»I think the price is about right for now, the only question is do we have too many BRBs available?

I was ok with spending 400 for 2 BRBs and I expect I'll be self-sufficient next season. Another team got the money to invest in the transfer market  - capitalism works!

so i'd suggest if you want to change it reduce the BRBs available to 1 per auction although that would severely limit the type of BRB available. personally i don't see anything wrong with having BRBs going excess on the Auctions - there are managers out there on the golf course without a club at the moment (Martin O'Neill is dusting off his 9 iron as we speak) just because they don't get picked up doesn't mean it's wrong to offer them.

Reducing to 1 BRB per auction with a slight price reduction (say to 200 or 250k) could work.  I see it only working if the BRB is age I every time though.  Right now, the age II costs 80% of the what the age I does.  By auction 5 though, you're only getting 33% of the use (5 sessions vs. 15 sessions before retirement).  80% of cost for 33% use? That's a "no bid" in my book, and apparently everyone else's too.  If the auction continues to allow for age II BRBs, then I still see many going without bids, such as for an age II Groundsman after the second session, where you are only guaranteed between 7-9 home matches from then on, so you're only getting an additional 14-18 SL spread over the rest of the season out of a 225k purchase.

However, if all BRB's (if one per auction) were age I, that would increase the interest.  It would also push the market prices back up as BRBs became less available.  Further, with a set price for all new BRBs, then the market will consistently stay at around 75-80% of that value as the buyers no longer have the option of waiting out for a cheaper buy later in the season.  If every BRB you get is going to cost you at least 200k, likely more if anyone else also bids on that BRB, then teams will be willing to pay 180 or 200 or even 225k straight up to guarantee getting the BRB they want, at the time they want (i.e. the pre-season).

I'm in favor of increasing the min SL req for creating a BRB. It is way too easy to make BRBs these days. I've got a system going where I should never need to look at the BRBs in the auctions because I'll always have 2/3 Age V players per season

The non league price of age II backroom boys is far too high. This should be ~ half of an age I price (you may not get even half the use from them depending upon when purchased). I can see no reason why you'd acquire an age II backroom boy at the moment.

Age I backroom boys are a little over priced in the auction (though not much). People would rather pay a little more to the bank than give the momeny to another player who can use it against them after all.

Instead of offering any BRBs in the auction, why not offer one A5 SL2 player each time, with a minimum bid of 100k?  This could then be turned into whichever BRB a team needed, but could also be used as a CP generator first.

No need to worry about which sort of BRB appears in the auction (which limits those able to buy) and no need to worry about how much an A2 BRB is worth versus an A1 BRB.  And with a minimum price as low as 100k, maybe there'd be a lot of competition for these old timers?

Of course, you could raise the SL of the player available, to make life even more interesting.  An A5 SL8 player could make an interesting back-up for a seasona and then become a BRB...

I approve Andy's message.

I really think the answer to this problem is to look at how easy it is to simply create BRBs outside of the auction. If we don't address that issue, then the thing that makes the most sense is to simply remove BRBs from the auctions all together.