For Sale

For Sale is the fast (about 15 minutes), fun card game of bidding and bluffing. It plays well with 3 - 6 players - the more playing, generally the better. Play is very simple. There are two stages to the game - buying real estate, then selling your properties for the highest price you can get. But beware - if you aren't sharp, you might find you've paid way over the odds on that dream home, and then worse that it crashes in the sales...

In the buying rounds, there are 30 properties each with a value from 1 (for a cardboard box), to 30 (for an orbital space station of course - easily worth 30 times more than a cardboard box). Properties are shuffled, then a number equal to the number of players is dealt face up on the table. Play then goes round the table, the first player makes a bid (typically one coin), which the following player must raise, or drop out of the bidding.

This is where it gets interesting. Anyone who drops out can claw back half the money they bid AND claim the lowest value card on the table. You don't have to bid anything at all if you just want to take the lowest valued card straight off, for free.

Supposing there are 4 players and properties on the board are worth 2, 11, 27 and 30. Nobody really wants to take the 2 card, the 11 is OK, but the 27 and 30 are very tempting. Players bid 1, 5, 6 and ten 7 coins. It's now back to player 1. She might decide to take her coin back (returns are rounded up), and get the 2 for free, but instead decides to put the heat on by raising her bid to 8. Player 2 follows by raising to 9. Player 3 loses nerve and decides to cut his losses, claims back 3 coins and takes the lousy 2 card. His fingers have been burned, but at least he's saving money to bid in later rounds. Player 4 now jumps at the chance to get out of the mess, takes back 4 coins and so gets an 11 value card for 3, not a bad deal. It's back to player 1. She could keep bidding, but is smarter than that - she takes back 4 cards and so claims the 27 for 4. Player 2 wins the 30 - but has to pay full price, 9 cards.

Once all the properties have been auctioned, the second stage of the game begins. Players now each have a hand of the properties they've won. A second deck of cheque cards is dealt out. These are each valued from $2,000 to $15,000 (two of each) - with two 'void' cheques worth nothing at all. One cheque per player is dealt out face up onto the table. Players then chose one property from their hand and play it face up onto the table. Properties are simultaneously revealed - whoever played the highest valued property gets the highest valued cheque.

So say there are cheques on the table worth $0, $3,000, $11,000 and $15,000. Everybody would like the $15,000, but everyone also knows that player 2 still has that 30-value space station in hand - so if they all play their best property, two of them are going to wind up with a very poor return on their initial investment. And so maybe player 2 is also thinking that none of the others are going to risk blowing their best against a 30, and so could bluff and play their second or even third best card and still win the big cheque, saving the 30 for a sure win on a later round. Decisions, decisions...

This is one hell of an entertaining game, a great filler, and also a game with enough depth to tempt you into playing for best of four and making an evening of it. For a game consisting of 60 cards and a bunch of cardboard coins, the price is perhaps a bit on the high side - but there is no question about the value you'll get out of the game, as this one that is sure to hit the table again and again. Furthermore, the cards, coins and box are all of solid, durable quality - and in fact, in the current economic climate, this game might even last longer than your actual home...