[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'227277\' date=\'Sep 30 2009, 09:47 PM\']Is there something to trying to push your opponents too far, or force them into a bad bid that I'm not seeing?
-Jason[/quote]
Well, there's that, but I recall a GSN rerun where Bill pretty much summed up the whole idea of those gradual increasing bids: "Play the game like you're spending your own money." Instead of just estimating what seems like the right price range, you're zeroing in because you're thinking to yourself, "Yes, I'd pay $500 for that...Yes, that's worth $800...Ooh, $1150? I dunno if it's worth $1150." That way, you're actually seriously
thinking about what the item is worth for each bid that you place, and when you get to the point where you think, "I wouldn't pay THAT much" you stop bidding because you're close to the price now.
Which means, if I think a prize is $4,000, and I bid 3500, with the bids after me going 3700, 3900 and 4100, I can't bid $4,000 anymore.
So you freeze at $3500 when it comes back to you. And then your three greedy opponents continue their bids until they're at $6000, $7000, and $8000, and you win anyway. And what if, during the course of the bids, you took a closer look at that prize and decided, "Wait, that's not $4000." You have the freedom to change your mind. You don't have that if you go straight to "the best bid."
And who ever complained about the rules being convoluted or strange?
MAD Magazine, December 1959. Here's Bill Culon explaining the rules for "The Price is All Right":
"The rules of the game are simple. The guest whose bid comes closest to the actual retail price without going over it wins the item. Each guest bids until the buzzer sounds, and each bid must be higher than the preceding bid. Except for the first bid. Or for a one-bid item. When the buzzer sounds, each guest makes a final bid. Unless he decides to freeze. Should a guest freeze, he cannot go higher. And vice-versa. And he cannot pass Go. And he cannot collect $200. And he cannot understand these rules!"(Thanks, Matt!)
