I would take roadgeek's idea and do it at the start of each HALF - call 4 people to come on down and bid on a prize. After the bids are "locked-in" the player closest without going over plays first, next closest second, etc. If more than one player has over-bid then the closest wins - giving priority to the players who underbid.
Example: prize value is $1200... player A bids $1100, player B bids $1400 (in 5.71 seconds), player C bids $1400 (in 6.49 seconds), player D bids $1300. First game is played by player A ... second by player D ... third by player B and player C (along with the remaining player from the other half) gets a consolation prize. By the way, any player who bids exactly right wins a $1,500 bonus (split if more than one player gets it exactly right and plays a pricing game).
Eric
quote from roadgeek:
Problem there is, how would you assign each player to his/her pricing game without the one-bids? While I'm in Fantasyland, I'll throw this out (my apologies for ripping off Greed): just consolidate all the one-bids at the beginning of the show.
1) Right now, nine contestants are in Contestants' Row each episode -- just call all nine of them up together at once during the intro.
2) Everyone secretly bids on the IUFB.