For Sale is an auction/hand management game.

Title: For Sale

Year Published: 1997

Designer: Stefan Dorra

Publisher: Gryphon Games

Players: 3-6

Game Time: ~20 Mins

Set-up Time: >1 Mins

Ages: 8+

Theme: Property Management

Mechanic: Auction, Hand Management

How to win: Have the most money.

Game Description

For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game’s two distinct phases, players first bid for several buildings then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible.

Set-Up

Each player gets an amount of money ($14-18,000) depending on the number of players.

Randomly remove a number of Property/Currency cards from the deck again depending on the number of players.

Game Play

The game is playing over 2 phases.

Buying Properties

Properties from the Property deck are turned face up so there is one per playing showing.

The first player bids an amount for the properties on the table. Then, in turn order, players either beat the previous bid or pass. If they pass, they pay half of their bid rounded up and take the LOWEST ranked property available. Then play continues with the next player.

The last player left pays ALL of their bid and takes the last card. This will be the highest value property of all those revealed for the round.

The player that bought the final building reveals cards again and this continues until all the properties have been purchased.

Selling Properties

Now players will sell Property cards for Currency cards.

A number of Currency cards are placed on the table equal to the player count. Then each player will choose a property from their hand and play it face down. Everyone reveals simultaneously and the player who played the highest value Property takes the highest value Currency card. The 2nd highest Property gets the 2nd highest Currency card etc until they are all taken.

Then more Currency cards are revealed and the Selling sequence begins again until all the Properties have been sold.

Game End

Once the last Property has been sold the game ends.

Players add up the Currency Cheques they have and add on any leftover coins. The player with the most money wins.

If it’s a tie, the player with the most value of coins left wins.

Round-Up

Having the game in two parts is great. Each part is different but the first has a direct effect on the second.

The first part, the bidding part, can drag a bit depending on the players.

The second, the selling part, is the part I enjoy with its bluffing and table talk.

For Sale Rating

A very good game, but I feel I’ve played it enough now.

I give it 5/10