I am fairly new to HBD but I want to ween myself off of spending money on Advanced Scouting. What is the best way to do this? In other words, how can I accurately project how a player(s) will eventaully turn out based on current ratings?

Some like to use a spreadsheet to capture their current team and their ratings. Then lower their advanced scouting. And then if you draft college players, with a high budget -- add them to the spreadsheet since they're more accurate and go from there

I don't do this so there are others who could give better advice.

But I do go by the fact that 25-26 year olds will improve very little if at all. 23-24, some but not much. 18-21 improve at decent clips.

Take that for what it's worth.

Players have development patterns. You have to learn them. Unfortunately, I develop players differently than you do. So I don't think there's a set pattern from owner to owner. You have to figure out his pattern when you trade with him. It's not easy but, then again, if you're only off by a point or two, it's not that big of a deal. If a 68 is too low for you to consider, you should probably stay away from the guy you see as a 70.

i used to be a staunch believer in putting 20 in adv scouting...i never went lower...i just didnt want to deal with it...but even at 20 it's not perfect...now i would rather spend the money elsewhere...you can generally tell by where they were drafted for example...or where their attributes are at a certain age...if you're a noob...i would go higher...but once you learn the game...lower it...

Also, assuming the guy has been in the league 2+ years, you are going to notice how he has improved from season to season. Knowing that the greatest improvement occurs in the first 2 seasons, you should have a pretty good idea of where he is going. After 4 full seasons, you're not going to see much improvement regardless of age. Like Mike said, even if you are a tiny bit off, it shouldn't hurt anything. Keep in mind, even 20 advanced scouting is not exact, its still just an estimate