For Sale | BoardGameGeek

Reply: For Sale:: Variants:: Re: A homebrew version available

aquarian — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:09:36 +0000

RyanLeaf wrote:
Did you just use regular colored paper, or did you glue the paper to a card or thicker card stock?

I used regular colored paper and Ultra Pro sleeves. In addition, I cut pieces of thicker card stock to fit the sleeves. I didn't use glue.

RyanLeaf wrote:
I'm wondering if I could just print the images on the paper, cut it, and throw it in a sleeve... or will this be too flimsy?

It is quite flimsy, but a bigger problem IMO is that you can see through the paper, at least I did.

Reply: For Sale:: Variants:: Re: A homebrew version available

RyanLeaf — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:39:18 +0000

by RyanLeaf

Ari,

Did you just use regular colored paper, or did you glue the paper to a card or thicker card stock?

I'm wondering if I could just print the images on the paper, cut it, and throw it in a sleeve... or will this be too flimsy?

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

Barticus88 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:00:04 +0000

by Barticus88

thepackrat wrote:
When each pass occurs, the player passing takes back half their bid (rounded down) and then takes the lowest valued house left on the table.

Rounded down is the new Gryphon rule and the original Ravensburger rule. Überplay mistranslated this as rounded up.

thepackrat wrote:
One of the most common mistakes made in the game is not realising that the value of the best cheque available is less important than the spread from best to worst. Bid aggressively when you have a lot to lose, not when your worse house will net you 10,000!

This is so obvious to some of us and so hard for others. In a four player game we had $12, $13, $13, $15. Three players put out high houses.

But the game can be brutal, too. In a three player game we had Void, $12, $15. The 27 house took the Void.

curtc wrote:
For those who haven't tried it, we find the "pay half of your chips" (# of pieces of cardboard) to be superior to value of bid. Adds strategery to the timing of using $2 chips.

A common variant based on a common misreading of the first Überplay rules.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

curtc — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:15:54 +0000

by curtc

For those who haven't tried it, we find the "pay half of your chips" (# of pieces of cardboard) to be superior to value of bid. Adds strategery to the timing of using $2 chips.

Am I the only one who finds a larger box absurd, and even offensive? I applaud whoever did the Hong Kong version for making the whole thing fit in a box barely bigger than a deck of cards.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

thepackrat — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:10:52 +0000

by thepackrat

Well, it was supposed to make more sense in the context of my 'favourite lightweight auction games' geeklist that this slew of reviews has grown out of.

B>

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

tommynomad — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:44:03 +0000

by tommynomad

Good review, though I'm not sure the title is accurate: there a scores of games out there that require less decision-making than For Sale.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

thepackrat — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:03:45 +0000

by thepackrat

That's true. That fitted into my view of not much, but I also own the Uberplay version and prefer it. If I'm forced to play with the Gryphon version it isn't too painful, mostly because you don't actually have to continually look at the cheques.

B>

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

tofuji — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:00:49 +0000

by tofuji

thepackrat wrote:
For Sale has come in a couple of different versions. This is one of the games reprinted by FRED/Gryphon in their small games line, but it hasn't actually changed much from the Uberplay version. The box is a little larger, but that's about it.

actually, the checks are different.

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it was my primary reason for seeking out the uberplay version. (the uberplay version is on the left)

Review: For Sale:: Reviews:: The lightest of the light, but still great fun!

thepackrat — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:45:37 +0000

by thepackrat

For Sale is a game about making money in (highly abstract) real-estate market. If this hasn't already caused you to go white or purple with rage, then continue reading!

For Sale is a relatively lightweight auction game that is played in two phases. In the first phase, players bid money to build up a property portfolio, in the second they attempt to convert their property holdings back into cash, or at least cheques. Obviously in today's economy, they'd insist on cash.

Bits

For Sale has come in a couple of different versions. This is one of the games reprinted by FRED/Gryphon in their small games line, but it hasn't actually changed much from the Uberplay version. The box is a little larger, but that's about it.

The game comes with a bunch of cardboard coins in 1,000 and 2,000 values, cards for the various properties that will be going up for sale and cheques with two each having values 0-15,000 (with no 1,000).

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Gameplay

In the first round a series of auctions is held to arrange ownership of houses in a set. Each round, random houses are laid out in the center of the table, one for each of the players. Each house value appears just once, so there are no ties.

BIdding starts with a random player or the person who 'won' the last round and proceeds with each player bidding from their small stock of money onto the table in front of themselves. This continues around the table in order until all but one player has passed. When each pass occurs, the player passing takes back half their bid (rounded down) and then takes the lowest valued house left on the table.

The 'winner' pays their whole bid amount, takes the remaining most valuable house, draws a new set of cards and begins the next auction.

This phase of the game continues until all the building cards have been sold.

The second phase of the game uses simultaneous bidding. Cheques of value 0-15,000 (missing 1,000) are revealed from the shuffled stack, one for each player. Players select one of their properties and place it face down. All properties are revealed simultaneously and the player with the highest valued property takes the highest cheque and so on.

The second phase of the game ends when all the cheques have been distributed. The winner is the person with the most total money in cheques and leftover cash from the first round.

Notes and Thoughts

One of the most common mistakes made in the game is not realising that the value of the best cheque available is less important than the spread from best to worst. Bid aggressively when you have a lot to lose, not when your worse house will net you 10,000!

The rounding down of returned bids puts some interesting emphasis on whether to make odd or even bids depends on how many players after you would be willing to raise further. Letting anyone get away with a house for free is usually a bad idea.

Leftover money (coins) from the first round counts towards the winning total as well. It's a fairly small amount but can make a single bad bid pretty damaging. Also, running out of money entirely too early leaves you unable to bid on nice houses that might come up.

Conclusion

This is a really great little filler game. It takes very little space or time and it's really easy to explain to completely new players. It's got a few decisions, a little bluffing and you can even try making use of the memory element (although it won't necessarily help that much). It belongs in every game collection.

If you liked this review or like lightweight auction games, I have a geeklist of mini descriptions of many different lightweight auction games which I plan to expand into full reviews.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: Perfect Filler!

ackmondual — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:03:40 +0000

by ackmondual

BigD145 wrote:
clloyd09 wrote:
It may be fun, but unfortunately it's now FunAgain. Or, to be more specific, A Gryphon Game, which is owned by Funagain/FRED. I should have picked this one up before it was swallowed by the Borg. Oh well.

Uberplay or bust.

In this day in age, this is easier said then done. I'd wager Uberplay version is at least as expensive as FRED due to it's OOP status, but even then, that may be wishful thinking.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: Perfect Filler!

BigD145 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:23:41 +0000

by BigD145

clloyd09 wrote:
It may be fun, but unfortunately it's now FunAgain. Or, to be more specific, A Gryphon Game, which is owned by Funagain/FRED. I should have picked this one up before it was swallowed by the Borg. Oh well.

Uberplay or bust.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: Perfect Filler!

clloyd09 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:51:54 +0000

by clloyd09

It may be fun, but unfortunately it's now FunAgain. Or, to be more specific, A Gryphon Game, which is owned by Funagain/FRED. I should have picked this one up before it was swallowed by the Borg. Oh well.

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: Perfect Filler!

BigD145 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:08:34 +0000

by BigD145

It's fun and back to back plays will wind down differently.

Thread: For Sale:: General:: A fun (and simple) way to handle the endgame counting.

AstroLad — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:18:16 +0000

by AstroLad

I like this game, but my group absolutely loves it. My favorite part is probably just how fast it moves. I've always been a bit nagged at making the end more fun and tense though. Everyone counting at the same time, though obviously the most efficient, is super anti-climactic. Going one by one just seems to take too long. So yesterday we did something that for some reason didn't dawn on me before--at the end, pass all your chips and cards to your left and have that person count and then announce one at a time.

So simple but yet it was great at maintaining the excitement and speed from the rest of the game. Not to mention it resolves at least some doubts about tabulation (an opponent is less likely to make counting mistakes in your favor, at a minimum), which is meaningful for us since in most of our games the top spots are separated by only a few thousand at most.

Basic but it works!

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: Perfect Filler!

lengthtoavoid — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:25:08 +0000

by lengthtoavoid

great game...I gave you a thumb after seeing "Perfect Filler!", review unseen. good sentiment. What I enjoy about this game is the fact that it really is 20 minutes with fun interaction and some light strategy.

Review: For Sale:: Reviews:: Perfect Filler!

djgutierrez77 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:37:59 +0000

by djgutierrez77

I picked up For Sale on a whim last week, more to fill out my cart on Amazon and qualify for free shipping than anything else. I figured it would be a good quick filler on those rare occasions that our group has more than three people, and most of what I’ve read about it thus far is pretty positive. Lucky for me, I got to break it out almost right away. We had four players and 20 minutes to kill after a game of Arkham Horror with the new Innsmouth expansion, so we busted it out.

First off, the rules are great. One of my prerequisites for a filler is that it’s quick to teach as well as play—we’ve had too many game nights where what was supposed to be a thirty minute time killer waiting for the last person to show up turns into 90 minutes of trying to teach over-complicated rules to three new players all at once. The rules (for the Gryphon edition) are succinct and easily understood. You lay out a property card for each player from the pile. The players bid in turn order, and each player who passes in succession takes the lowest value property still available. That’s it for phase one. Phase two is the same kind of set up, except now you’re playing your property cards face down to bid for “currency” cards, essentially VPs. The player who plays the highest value property gets the highest value currency card, and so on down the line. Five minutes reading the rules and explaining the cards, and we were off and running!

Obviously the gameplay here is pretty simple. There’s definitely a strategic element based on how the cards come out, but it’s not so much as to induce any analysis-paralysis—another prerequisite for me in a filler game. No matter how hard you try, it’s really difficult to make your turn in this game take more than a few seconds. The decisions are meaningful, but quick. The whole game took us 20 minutes.

In summary, I really enjoyed this game. If anything, it plays out a little bit too fast! It’s fun, simple, and quick….perfect filler for any game night with more than three people!

Reply: For Sale:: Reviews:: Re: So you're wondering about the new Gryphon edition of For Sale: A Definitive Guide with Pictures

Topper Harley — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:50:20 +0000

by Topper Harley

Today my Gryphon edition arrived.
I am disappointed by the card quality. Right out of the box the cards stick together. They shuffle really bad because they haven't been cut well. The edge of the cards is rounded on the backside and on the front it is sharp. Because they are not flat at the edges they tend to stick together and don't separate.
They are also easily bend. Somehow i managed to bend one corner just after taking them out of the box. Never happened to me before.
Maybe i am spoiled by the quality of cards from games made in Europe.

The whole box is also much to big for 60 cards and some money. And even then the hole for the money is too small for the chips. It could have been deeper, especially considering that under the inset is mainly air.

New Image for For Sale

EndersGame — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:36:33 +0000

by EndersGame

The Death Stare - a tense game of For Sale

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