Randy
United States
Virginia
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Having played a few different games now, I have found most fall within a certain set of parameters in terms of the play experience. Some may be dry, others more engaging, but rarely do I find myself surprised by a new game. One of the few surprises has been For Sale. It's not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination. It won't change your life. On the whole, I don't even find it that great of a game. But For Sale executes what it sets out to so smoothly that I have been forced to sit up and take notice.
For Sale is a very simple game. It comes with a couple of small decks of cards and some cardboard coins for money. One deck contains property cards numbered 1 to 30. The other deck has dollar amounts, two each of $0 to $15,000 in $1,000 increments, leaving out the $1,000 cards. The gist of the game is that you auction off the property cards, which are paid for with the cardboard money. A second round follows, where you bid on the money cards using the property cards that were just bought. It's an interesting abstraction of the buying and selling process. Once all of the money cards have been claimed, the players add up the totals on their money cards, plus any cardboard coins they didn't use in the first round. The player with the most money wins.
The process is very quick and very elegant. In both rounds, an interesting mechanism is used – cards are auctioned several at a time. The lowest bidder takes the worst card, the second lowest takes the next worst, and so on. It works so immaculately that it doesn't even take a full play to get the hang of it. And a game can be played in 10 minutes, so you could get in a dozen plays of For Sale in one game night if you had the intestinal fortitude.
I would not recommend that anyone attempt such a feat, however. The hapless gamer might die of the gaming equivalent of a sugar rush. For Sale is all sweet and no meat – and I say this as a fan of lighter games. Another reviewer compared the playing the game to eating marshmallows. For me, that analogy holds true. You can grow addicted to the sweet taste and eat it all day, but never find nourishment from it. I don't like the term “filler” in most cases, as I feel it belittles a lot of really good light games, but it fits in this case. For Sale is filler. It can be consumed like a fun size Snickers bar you sneak in when you're too hungry to wait for the full meal, or as a sweet confection you find room for as dessert. In my opinion, it can't really serve as anything else, because For Sale is a fundamentally unsatisfying game.
For Sale is a marvel of game design, and I do have a little bit of fun playing it. However, if I had it to do over, I doubt I would buy this game. I cannot recommend that you devote the meager amount of cash it costs or the minimal amount of closet space it would take to make it yours. If you want a simple, light, card-based game, there are better options. While For Sale gives you at least the illusion of meaningful decisions, as you attempt to decide whether to raise or fold in round 1, or guess what the other players will play from their hands in round 2, in the end, the game is heavily based on luck. In round 1, having to bid first is a significant disadvantage. This disadvantage is conferred to the player who made the highest bid on the previous round, so a player is unlikely to win several bids in a row. This dampens a strong player's chances of gaining a significant advantage. In addition, what choices you do have are generally pretty obvious. If the set of cards you are bidding on this time are close in value, bid low; if there is a significant disparity in the card values, bid higher. That may or may not be a problem for you. In my case, I prefer skillful play to have a greater influence in the outcome of games than I find in For Sale. The most telling aspect of my own experiences playing For Sale is that by the end of the game, when it comes time to count up my earnings, I don't care what the outcome will be. This is not because the journey is more important than the destination, but because once the last card has hit the table, my mind is already itching to get to something else. Something interesting. Something that requires a little intelligence. 10 minutes of mental autopilot is enough for one night.
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Andy Andersen
United States
Newark
Delaware
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I respectfully disagree with your conclusion. Not every game needs to be "heavy." You should leave this alone and play something else more in line with your tastes. For Sale is an excellent light game with the right group. You need to find the right group.
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Jeremiah Lee
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
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Wow. I'm in the seriously-disagree camp.
For Sale is, for me and my group, a fantastic example of a game that is both short and has the feeling of a full game. There are some great agonizing decisions in the bidding in both rounds, and the skill of remembering what cards are in which hands (a skill I don't really have) helps immensely in the second round.
I'd call For Sale a healthy granola bar.
That said, no game is for everyone, and I appreciate your review, as there are likely to be people that it resonates with.
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Judit Szepessy
Canada
London
Canada
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For Sale is junkfood? I do not agree with this either, although I do like certain junkfood, in strict moderation.
For Sale is a very healthy game choice: it is easy to teach, packs a lot of challenging decisions, and lots of laughter to be had over what kind of building you end up with.
For Sale always tastes different, never stale, and delicious! Also, not a lot of empty calories so to speak.  It stimulates your brain in a good way.
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Kenny VenOsdel
United States
Saint Paul
Minnesota
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Also disagree :) First off all, I like candy, so even if it's just marshmallows I'm glad to have it around. Second, its a very approachable game. Its one I've never been scared to recommend regardless of the group I'm in. It won't satisfy like Agricola would, at least for me, but if I want a snack its great.
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Randy
United States
Virginia
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For Sale certainly has its proponents. Like I said, it is well designed. It just doesn't do anything for me.
I should have mentioned that I got 10 good plays out of it. Since then, though, playing For Sale has just been a matter of going through the motions. Since 10 plays of this game is less than 2 hours, I don't feel like I got good value for my money.
In the end, of course, to each his own. I just wanted to put my perspective out there so that what prospective buyers read about the game isn't ALL positive.
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Curt Carpenter
United States
Washington
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Try the variant where you pay 1/2 bid based on number of chips, not value.
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Ben Pinchback
United States
Romeo
Michigan
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big_buddha wrote: While For Sale gives you at least the illusion of meaningful decisions, as you attempt to decide whether to raise or fold in round 1, or guess what the other players will play from their hands in round 2, in the end, the game is heavily based on luck. In round 1, having to bid first is a significant disadvantage. This disadvantage is conferred to the player who made the highest bid on the previous round, so a player is unlikely to win several bids in a row. This dampens a strong player's chances of gaining a significant advantage.
Something interesting. Something that requires a little intelligence. 10 minutes of mental autopilot is enough for one night.
Not to be rude, but it's your logic not the game design that's flawed here. I suspect stronger players in your group would win the majority of For Sale matches while you sat there thinking it was all luck. Here's why:
You state that the hinderance to "win several bids in a row" "dampens a strong player's chances of gaining a significant advantage"........... Well, let me help you out by letting you know that the way to win is to generally be the last one to pass, (getting the 2nd to last card shown)not to actually be the "winner" of the highest card. Paying half your bid rather than your entire bid is the key to continued cash flow and gets you way more of the good cards than winning the bids ever will because it is RARE that distribution is such that only 1 good card is up for sale. Therefore, jockeying to not pass first or second(the usual junk cards), but also to not win the bid outright (and waste all your money) is ridiculously fun and tactical. It's brilliant actually.
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Posted Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:26 am
