For Sale
by Stefan Dorra
Published by Ravensburger 1997
Translated by Richard Ingram
Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins

For 3-5 players, aged 10-99

Contents
20 building cards
20 cheques
75 chips in five colours

Aim of the game

All players try, through raising the value of buildings, to sell them
for the best prices. Whoever has earned the most by game end has won.


Preparations

Separate the cards by type (cheques, buildings) and shuffle each pile.

Set aside the cheques.  They'll be used in the second half of the game.

Place the building cards face down as a deck.

Each player takes 15 chips of a chosen colour.

With 3 players, remove 2 building cards and 2 cheque cards without
looking at them.  These go out of the game.


The Game Begins

Phase 1: buying buildings

Turn face up a number of building cards equal to the number of players. 
Then all buildings will be auctioned at the same time, so that no player
goes empty handed.  Each player can now bid or pass.

Bidding: The player who lives in the smallest house begins and lays one
or more of his chips in the middle.  Others follow suit, but must bid at
least as much as the present highest bid.  Bidding continues for as many
rounds as necessary until all players have passed.

Passing: If a player passes, he no longer bids and takes the building
with the lowest value.  He also takes back half his bid (rounded up). 
The rest goes to the bank.  The last player left in takes the highest
value building but loses all his chips.  It is not necessary to bid
anything to gain the least valuable building.

Tip: Keep your chips secret.

Buildings gained are placed face down in front of each player.  The
player taking the most valuable building turns over the next set of
replacement cards for auction, and bids again, or passes.  This
continues until all buildings have been sold.  Then Phase 2 begins. 
Unused chips are kept.  They will be worth one million each.

Phase 2: selling buildings

Now the cheques are used.  As in Phase 1, the same number of cheques
will be turned face up.  Each player takes his buildings in his hand and
lays 1 card face down in front of him.  These are turned over
simultaneously.  The player who has played the most valuable building
card, takes the biggest cheque.  The player with the second most
valuable card takes the second biggest cheque etc.  Building cards are
discarded.


End of the game

The game ends when all players have sold their buildings.  Players add
up their cheques and chips (1 million each), and the richest player
wins.  Ties are resolved in favour of the player with the most chips.


Variant

With three players use 16 cards of each type.

With four 18 
With five 20

In Phase 1, turn over one card less than before.  The player who passes
first gets no building, but does get his chips back.  Other bidding,
passing and card taking rules stay the same.

In Phase 2, turn over as many cheques as there are players.  Players may
own different numbers of buildings though.  As players run out of
buildings, turn over appropriately fewer cheques.