I've never experienced this situation before which is why I'm posting.  I've got an offer out to a stud int'l free agent and I'm pretty sure I'm the ONLY team that sees him.  My budget is 20mm and the next closest is 16mm and he hasn't mentioned anything about another team's offer.  He has been sitting on my offer now for almost 3 full days (not HBD days) so I'm wondering if I should just be patient and wait for him to sign?  What is the longest any of you have waited for a guy to sign when he has you as his #1 offer?

Up to a week.

After a week, isn't the prospect "exposed" to the other teams? I have a 16mm offer to him now and he was asking 5mm. I'm wondering if I should potentially increase it.

Never mind, he just signed.  Go figure.

Posted by chrisjanning on 5/8/2012 7:43:00 PM (view original):
After a week, isn't the prospect "exposed" to the other teams? I have a 16mm offer to him now and he was asking 5mm. I'm wondering if I should potentially increase it.

I have never seen an INT only be open to one team. Just because you are at 20 does not mean you are the only one to see him. You were probably just top bid, and this particular free agent had a long wait time at #1.

I agree with usfbully.  And you may have just gotten lucky with the timing of his signing, too.  I wouldn't make a habit of posting your IFA bids in a public forum that anyone could read :)

Posted by chrisjanning on 5/8/2012 7:21:00 PM (view original):
I've never experienced this situation before which is why I'm posting.  I've got an offer out to a stud int'l free agent and I'm pretty sure I'm the ONLY team that sees him.  My budget is 20mm and the next closest is 16mm and he hasn't mentioned anything about another team's offer.  He has been sitting on my offer now for almost 3 full days (not HBD days) so I'm wondering if I should just be patient and wait for him to sign?  What is the longest any of you have waited for a guy to sign when he has you as his #1 offer?

You weren't the only that could see him, I'm fairly certain of that.  You may have been the only one bidding, but unless everyone else in your world has very low IS prices, several other coaches could see him.

I bid on a guy and was winning at 7.5 million.  I starting dropping about 1/2 million every cycle to see if anyone was still left.  I got him to drop all the way to 5 million before he signed.  Everyone had gone away and forgotten about him. 

risky though.  i lost a regular free agent that way...dropped the bid and someone was still sitting there, and signed on the spot before i could jump back in.