Questions and answers about the supplemental draft

I saw on DC.com fan questions and comments about the recent supplemental draft.  Several comments weren't correct so I thought to start a post clarifying some of the facts. 

I'll start things off with this.  Others, please join in with other details/questions.

The supplemental draft is a blind draft.  Teams privately enter their maximum bid for an illegible player.  The selling price for the player is established by first losing bid (this is called a 2nd price auction).  For example, the Deadskins selected Jeremy Jamon in the 3rd round because they bid 3rd round or higher (ie., 2nd or 1st) for the player and another team in the auction bid a lower 3rd round pick or a lower round pick (ie., 5th or 6th, etc.)  In this way, a team could bid a 1st round pick for a player and get his rights for free if no other team bid on the player. btw., order within a round is based on the team's draft order (pre-trades) in the preceding April draft.

When we acquired Steve Walsh in the Jimmy era, we (stupidly) bid our first round pick for him.  As we had the first pick of the preceding April draft (I think), we had the highest rated pick and were guaranteed to win the player.  The only unknown was what pick we'd have to forfeit.  Unfortunately, there was another team that also bid its first pick for Steve.  Had the next highest bid been a 2nd rounder, we would have forfeiting our 2nd round pick instead of the 1st in the following April draft.