What happens if you win a trip to the place where you live?

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'156000\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 03:07 PM\']

Just the prizes and GC. There was NO cash on Wheel (none, nada, zero) until they went to the all-cash format. (In the front game, anyhow; I don't remember if the $25K in the bonus round appeared before or after the all-cash change.) The money you won during the puzzle was immediately converted to prizes during the shopping. Simple.
[/quote]
The 25K wasn't there until the "Month Long Big Bonanza of Cash " made it's debut...leading to a permanent change to all-cash-all-the-time on the nighttime version.

However, on the daytime end, the "Jackpot" space was worth $1000/a day increasing until it was won, so there was a little cash on the side of the shopping.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'156009\' date=\'Jun 25 2007, 03:45 PM\']
However, on the daytime end, the "Jackpot" space was worth $1000/a day increasing until it was won[/quote]
To which Pat Sajak would occasionally remark, "...building toward a theoretically possible billion dollar cash jackpot".

[uncamark]

Don't forget that the shopping was never Merv's idea--it was Lin Bolen's.  I would suspect that "If It Ain't Broke..." was the only thing that kept him from switching to cash sooner (and they never switched on daytime until the move to CBS).