BuzzerBeater Forums

Do you think buying an older player towards the end of the season may also have reduced prices because their salary is no longer an accurate representation of their skill set or value?

For Example,
A 35 yr old is 50k salary but with skill regression is probably playing at 35k salary skills. Does that lower the bid price, because new owners are paying empty salary each week they own that player?

I may have worded that poorly, let me know if anyone needs me to re-explain myself.

Buying and owning old players is an exploitable market. Maximizing profits and minimizing losses will mostly be driven by luck, though.

If you're going to own players age 33 or higher, a trainer with career extension specialty is a must. I had two 33 year old players for literally one update and they cumulatively had 3 skill drops. I assume I got burned because I didn't have the career extension specialty.

Nah....prices will be most likely higher than the offseason....................the best time to buy an older player is the offseason or playoff time(where they cannot play)but this will add them 1 year....

Thats a good point cause everyone is cheaper when they can be of use to a team making a playoff run. My other concern is I'm paying the salary that an old player used to be... rather than what skills the player has now? Is there any rule of thumb for how many skill drops a player is likely to get in his 32 yr old season, 33, 34, 35, and so on?

Buying and owning old players is an exploitable market. Maximizing profits and minimizing losses will mostly be driven by luck, though.

If you're going to own players age 33 or higher, a trainer with career extension specialty is a must. I had two 33 year old players for literally one update and they cumulatively had 3 skill drops. I assume I got burned because I didn't have the career extension specialty.

I agree that career extension is extremely profitable for a manager looking to maintain an older roster. So far ive kinda moneyball-ed my way in D.4. If I start buying older players do you think I kind of have turn over a leaf in management tactics? It seems to me that even though an older may be cheap and I may save money that way (via bid price), the empty salary cost on some players kind of kills me making a "deal" on any older players.

i don't really know.....i guess older tends to make the player even weaker(in a faster way i mean...)...but maybe i am wrong since i re-started buzzer after like 8 seasons

Here are my thoughts on older players.

Experience does matter. I've won a lot of close games with my older players leading the way. Lower experience players tend to make more mistakes and at bad times. With my old team and playing a team of equal skill, I am confident that most games I will come away with the win.

Having a trainer with career extension is important. No use having older 33+ year olds without that trainer.

In div 4/5 having 33+ players is important because cash is less available. The cash also needs spent on the arena so it just make sense to get older players to make more use out of cash. Also important is that when a player loses skill his salary drops. With lower salary players in div 4/5 this doesn't matter as much. Once you start purchasing players with more salary a player could lose up to $2500 in value just by a skill drop. However, with salaries below $20,000 this will not happen. The key is lower salaried players can absorb skill losses more economically than higher salaried players.

In Div 2/3 players need to be bought at lower ages somewhat. This is because of higher salary. Secondarily in those divisions you are less cash strapped as you spend less on your arena/draft and can devote more to player salaries. Also as you get to higher divisions you need to start pressing to get good trainees in place that can play starter minutes. This will require a bigger investment up front but will payoff when they playoffs come and your player has a more efficent salary as compared to non-trained players.

So for me, I used 6 players above 32 to win Div 4 with my only rotation players below 31 being my trainees. However in going to Div 3 I have now added two players below 32. I can afford to buy these players up front as I make more each week and do not need to spend money on my arena as much. So I now carry 4 players above age 32. As I look to win the title next season, I will probably add 2-3 players below age 33 with higher salaries and reduce my holding of players above 33 further.

So age of players is something I consider as important. It really drives the market. If you need a cheap roster and want to save cash for arena it makes sense to buy older players. As you progress up divisions though adding starting rotation youth is useful.

Thanks.